The women’s hockey team (9-16-1, 7-8-1 ECAC North) continued its late-season run and finished strongly this weekend, sweeping Colgate (11-18-2, 2-12-2) in a home and home series.
The victories give Cornell some very important momentum going into the ECAC North playoffs next weekend against second place St. Lawrence.
On Friday the team drove north to Hamilton, NY. to face the Raiders at Colgate. The Red took advantage of the opposition’s mistakes on its way to a 4-1 victory. The team’s extra work on the power play paid off, as Cornell scored three special-teams goals.
The Red started the trend early, nailing its first big chance late in the first period when sophomore Briana Jentner netted the puck off assists from senior captain Erinn Perushek and freshman Pearle Nerenberg.
Slowly but surely, the Red continued its pressure in the next period, putting itself up 2-0 at 13:19 on its third power play of the game. Colgate goaltender Rebecca Lahar managed to stop a shot from senior captain Jenel Bode, but Perushek got the rebound and sent it home for the score.
Not wanting to be totally left out, the Raiders picked up their only goal of the weekend in the last three minutes of the period with a power play tally of their own.
Cornell, however, didn’t let the opposition slow it down. Jentner started off the third with the only even strength goal of the game off passes from sophomore Anita Khar and Nerenberg.
A little more than two minutes later, perennial offensive threat, junior Lindsay Murao, picked up the Red’s third power play goal of the evening and the final score of the contest. Senior captain Sarah Olivier and freshman Jamie Ramenofsky assisted on the play.
The next day in Ithaca, Cornell’s results were even more impressive.
After being narrowly outshot 24-23 the preceding day, the Red’s defense clamped down hard on the Raiders. The unit set the tone in the first period, allowing Colgate only four shots on goal.
Cornell’s offense responded too, shredding Colgate with 20 shots in the first alone. Junior defensive standout Brooke Bestwick put one in at 6:48 in the period. Jentner and Khar both earned assists on the play.
For the remainder of the first and the second period, Lahar, in goal again for the Raiders, held strong, keeping the Red scoreless. Junior goaltender Sanya Sandahl and the Cornell defense did the same for the home team, stopping all of Colgate’s chances.
In the third, the Red finally converted. Nerenberg, the team’s leading freshman scorer, got the puck from Jentner and Bestwick and netted it at a little less than five minutes into the period.
With another 2-0 lead, Cornell never looked back. Murao picked up the final goal with an empty net score in the last minute of regulation to put the score at 3-0 and give Sandahl her first shutout of the season. The Red outshot Colgate 41-17 in the game.
The team now gets set to play the Saints in the opening round of the playoffs this Friday when the teams begin the best-of-three series. St. Lawrence finished second in the conference with a 12-3-1 record and a 20-9-4 record overall.
While the Red doesn’t get to face its preferred opponent, Princeton, according to head coach Carol Mullins, it goes into the game with confidence.
During its February upswing Cornell has a record of 6-2-1. The Red has been able to defeat the teams ranked below it and some of the teams ranked above it, like Harvard and Brown. The team hopes to take the momentum from its victories into the postseason, and with a little hard work, surprise some teams.
Archived article by