Cornell women’s hockey concluded its 2019 regular season schedule by picking up two big wins on the road against Princeton on Friday and Quinnipiac on Saturday.
The last time No. 4 Cornell took on No. 6 Princeton, the Tigers put up a tough fight in Cornell’s 3-1 victory. This time around, the Red earned a far more comfortable 5-1 victory.
The game was deadlocked until Princeton’s (9-3, 7-3 ECAC) Shannon Griffin was called for a charging penalty. Like it has done all year, Cornell’s (11-1-1, 7-0-1 ECAC) power-play unit jumped on the opportunity. The team waited for its chance and worked the puck around the Tigers’ zone until sophomore Gillis Frechette opened the scoring. Her wrist shot from the faceoff mark whizzed over the goalie’s pad for the goal. Senior Paige Lewis and junior Willow Slobodzian notched assists off the goal as well.
After a quiet end to the period, Lewis once again was involved in Cornell’s second goal of the night. Taking over the puck in the corner of Princeton’s zone, she drove towards the crease and her skills were unmatched as she gave the Red a 2-0 lead heading into the third.
The final period of play saw the Red tack on three more goals to Princeton’s one. Cornell’s goals came in a span of just six minutes and it put the game completely out of reach for the Tigers. Lewis notched her second assist of the night off a goal from senior Grace Graham. The Red then added another power play goal on a 5-on-3 from the stick of senior Micah Zandee-Hart. Only thirty seconds later, Graham scored her second of the night as she received the puck in the slot from Slobodzian and beat the goalie as she lifted it up for the goal.
In the win, junior Lindsay Browning once again played outstanding for the Red, stopping 23 out of 24 shots in the 5-1 win.
After stomping its Ivy League foe, Cornell left New Jersey for Hamden, Connecticut, to take on Quinnipiac (9-7-3, 3-6-2 ECAC). The result was similar as the Red defeated the Bobcats, 4-1. In the first, Lewis continued her impressive weekend for the Red, scoring the opening goal. Coming off an assist from Slobodzian, Lewis took the puck and charged towards the goalie deeking her out and sliding the puck passed for the goal.
Halfway through the second, Cornell once again got on the scoresheet. This time, senior Jaime Bourbonnais led the charge as she took control of the puck in Quinnipiac’s zone. She fired the puck towards the net and it found the stick of junior Finley Frechette for the redirect goal.
With three minutes left in the period, Quinnipiac’s Coutu-Godbout was able to cut the deficit in half for the Bobcats. Off a slapshot, the team’s leading goal scorer was able to tip it in past Browning making the game 2-1 entering the third.
The last period of play saw a defensive lockdown from the Red as it refused to let its opponent back into the game. Along with the solid defensive play, senior Kristin O’Neil and Gillis Frechette added goals in the period in the 4-1 win. By the end of the contest, eleven players tailed a point for the Red.
Cornell will now enter the long winter break having won 11 of its first 13 games. The Red will have a few weeks off before taking on Mercyhurst in a two-game series on Jan. 4 and Jan. 5.