It took some time –– nearly 25 minutes –– for women’s hockey to get its feet under it.
It was 1-0 after the first period and 1-1 early in the second. A quick power play later, and Cornell had the lead.
From then on, it never relinquished. Cornell (25-7-1, 17-5-0 ECAC) pummeled Stonehill (21-16-2, 17-9-2 NEWHA) on Thursday night, downing the Skyhawks 7-1 and securing a date with Colgate in the NCAA quarterfinals.
“It feels good,” junior defenseman Rory Guilday said after the game. “Whenever you win a NCAA tournament game, that is something to be proud of.”
Cornell dominated the first period, with freshman goaltender and Ivy League rookie of the year Annelies Bergmann made just three saves during the first 20 minutes of play.
During the almost 12-minute gap between her first and second save, the Red tallied 10 shots on goal, the best of which was a sophomore defenseman Alyssa Regalado one-timer from the right circle which was gloved by Stonehill netminder Eve Stone.
Stone, the lone goaltender on the Skyhawks roster, was nearly impenetrable in the first period. Stone stopped many point-blank tries from the Red, playing aggressively after rebounds and keeping the game close for Stonehill.
“I have said this probably a million times but Eve Stone is absolutely nails,” said Stonehill head coach Lee-J Mirasolo after the game. “She was nails tonight, and she is a champion.”
While Stone might have stolen the show, Bergmann answered when called upon in the opening frame, making three saves on the three shots mustered by Stonehill.
The Cornell chances kept coming in the first, including a nifty wraparound attempt just after the eight-minute mark and a rocket from Guilday that ricocheted off the iron.
It wasn’t until just over a minute left that Cornell broke though.
Junior forward Gabbie Rud threaded the Skyhawk defenders before driving into the low slot, firing a wrist shot that flew over the glove of Stone for the late lead. Rud’s tally marked her fourth goal of the season and the first goal of the 2024 NCAA tournament.
Even though the Red entered the locker room with a slight edge, the team was not pleased.
“I wasn’t overly happy with our first-period performance,” said head coach Doug Derraugh ’91. “I thought we were pretty sloppy.”
“We didn’t really play a complete game,” Guilday added.
The second period was more to the team’s liking.
Cornell established an offensive onslaught in the middle frame –– the Red fired 17 shots on goal, just as it did in the first. But unlike it did in the first, five shots found the back of the net.
However, it was the Skyhawks who struck first. A series of Stonehill chances culminated when with 14:20 to go, the Skyhawks broke through the defense of Bergmann to net its sole goal of the night.
Immediately responding, the Red gained the first skater advantage of the game and just 28 seconds into the power play of the game a rebound found its way to sophomore defenseman Grace Dwyer who fired the puck bar down and into the back of the net for her eighth goal of the season.
“I thought we came back in the second and played much better. [We were] much more concise in our execution,” Derraugh said. “We were working harder, I thought, in the second period.”
The Red’s onslaught continued when halfway through the period, Regalado received a well-placed pass from junior forward Kaitlin Jockims just in front of the crease and rifled it by Stone to bring Cornell’s lead to 3-1.
Goal four came with 6:46 to go when, after an extended period of puck control in the attacking zone for Cornell, a Guilday shot from the point snuck by a thoroughly screened Stone.
Just thirty seconds later, senior forward and Patty Katz Award top-three finalist Izzy Daniel got in on the fun to put the Red up 5-1. The ECAC Player of the Year would end the night with a goal and three assists, adding four points to her third in the nation point-per-game total.
The Red fittingly finished off the period with its fifth goal of the frame, when Guilday notched her second of the afternoon with only 19.7 seconds remaining on the clock.
Just 41 seconds into the final period the Red picked up right where it left off when sophomore forward Mckenna Van Gelder netted the Red’s seventh and final goal of the day.
With 10:17 to go in the game a shot seemingly trickled through the legs of Bergmann but was ruled no goal. After a review confirmed the call, the rest of the game ended without note save for multiple solid chances for senior forward Abby Ruggiero.
The Red will now face Colgate — who is undefeated against Cornell in three games this year — on Saturday afternoon with a chance to advance to the Frozen Four on the line.
“We just got to follow the plan and go hard,” Guilday said when asked about the gameplan for Saturday. “It doesn’t change the plan who we played or how many times we played them or how many times we lost to them.”
Cornell will again travel to Class of 1965 Arena for Saturday’s NCAA tournament quarterfinal against Colgate, with puck drop slated for 2 p.m. The game will be streamed live on ESPN+.