Jason Ben Nathan / Sun Senior Photographer

After becoming complacent with its lead against Harvard, the Red offensively dominated Dartmouth the following day, taking 31 shots to the Green's 19.

February 4, 2018

No. 5 Women’s Hockey Goes Undefeated on Short Road Trip Against Harvard, Dartmouth

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Despite being back on the road for the first time in almost a month, the Cornell women’s hockey team was able to remain unfazed by the lack of home ice advantage to end the weekend undefeated.

The Red (14-7-3, 11-5-2 ECAC) battled Harvard (9-11-2, 7-8-2) to a 2-2 draw on Friday before skating past Dartmouth (5-17-1, 3-14-1) the following Saturday for the 3-1 victory.

Cornell got off to a thunderous start against the Crimson, with freshman forward Kendra Nealey and senior forward Brianna Veerman both lighting the lamp in the first period to give Cornell an early 2-0 lead.

However, despite being outshot 43 to 25 by the Red, Harvard continued to claw its way back. The Crimson’s Keeley Moy kept hopes alive with a late second period goal, before Harvard’s Kat Hughes scored the equalizer in the third period to force overtime.

“We learned a few lessons from the Harvard game after they scored that late equalizer in the third period,” said junior forward Lenka Serdar. “It is so important to bury teams early on in the game and … learn to close out games when we have the lead heading into the third period.”

Junior goalkeeper Marlene Boissonnault came up huge for the Red in the crease with a split-save one minute into overtime to keep the period scoreless and force the draw.

Boissonnault also recorded 23 saves on the night and was an integral part of the penalty kill unit that kept Harvard 0-4 on the man advantage.

Unsatisfied with the draw, Cornell looked to fix its errors from the night as it turned its attention to the Green.

“We created more chances to score but we have to convert more on those opportunities,” said head coach Doug Derraugh ’91. “It was a solid effort on the road but execution both defensively and offensively will have to be better.”

And the Red was certainly better the following night, handily defeating the Green 3 -1. Cornell dominated offensively throughout the night, taking 31 shots to Dartmouth’s 19. Sophomore forward Paige Lewis and freshmen forwards Joie Phelps and Willow Slobodzian highlighted the night with one goal each.

Defensively, Boissonnault was brilliant once again, recording 18 saves on the day.

“We did a good job of getting pucks to net and accumulating shots on goal each period,” Serdar said. “We can continue to work on bearing down on our chances and capitalizing on them.”

Cornell will next take a brief respite from conference play to welcome Syracuse (9-17-2, 8-5-1 CHA) to Lynah this week. The Red handed the Orange a 6-3 loss the last time the two squads faced off, and will look to do the same once again.

“At this time of year you want to become the best version of yourself, so we will be focused on improving our habits so we continue to improve,” Derraugh said.

The puck drops against the Orange on Tuesday at 7 p.m.