With 10 minutes to go in the third period trailing 3-1, then-No. 8 women’s hockey seemed destined for a tough road loss against then-No. 7 Quinnipiac. Instead, Cornell rallied from a two-goal deficit to earn a 3-3 tie, the team’s first multi-goal third-period comeback since at least before the pandemic.
The next day in New Jersey, Cornell found itself down three goals in the second period against (RV) Princeton. Undeterred, the Red notched four goals in eight minutes and downed the Tigers 4-3, keeping Cornell’s perfect Ivy League record intact and moving the team up a spot in the USCHO rankings on Monday.
Friday night’s game started off well for Cornell (8-3-2, 6-1-1 ECAC). Seven minutes in, junior defender Alyssa Regalado fired a shot from the point that found its way by a heavily screened Kaley Doyle for Regalado’s first goal of the season.
However, Cornell’s lead would not last long. Three minutes later, the Bobcats seemingly recreated Regalado’s goal when a shot from the blue line got by sophomore goaltender Annelies Bergmann who could not track the puck due to traffic in front of her net.
The teams proceeded to trade chances, until junior defender Grace Dwyer was called for tripping with two and a half minutes to go in the period. Quinnipiac’s 10th-in-the-nation power play offense had its work cut out against Cornell’s sixth-ranked penalty kill, and for the first minute and a half of the power play, Cornell’s special team’s unit was cruising.
However, junior forward Mckenna Van Gelder was whistled for tripping while attempting to pressure the puck in the offensive zone, and Cornell’s penalty kill was now tasked with another minute and a half of work. While the red successfully killed off the Dwyer penalty, Cornell could not escape the second penalty and the Bobcats took the lead, 2-1, with just eight seconds to go in the period.
“It seems like once we get behind, the lights switch goes off, and all of a sudden we are playing our game,” said Cornell head coach Doug Derraugh ’91. “So we got to find a way to do that at the beginning of the game and not wait to get down.”
While Cornell controlled much of the second period, it would be Quinnipiac who tacked on an insurance goal late in the period.
While the Red trailed 3-1 entering the second intermission, it outshot the Bobcats through the first two periods and forced 21 saves from Doyle.
In the third, Cornell’s offense re-awakened. The Bobcats and the Red traded chances through the first 11 minutes of the period, before a centering pass found senior defender Rory Guilday in the slot. Guilday — who missed a previous weekend of ECAC play after being called up to Team USA’s Rivalry Series roster — rifled the puck by Doyle for her first goal of the season. The goal broke a nine-game streak during which the Bobcats had allowed just one goal or shut out opponents in regulation.
Just two minutes after Guilday made the score 3-2, it was junior forward Avi Adam’s turn to join the scoresheet.
“It was just kind of a 50-50 puck that bounced in the middle of the ice, I just stepped in and shot it up,” Adam said. “We were just trying to get pucks on net, get rebounds, create anything we could and it ended up hitting a stick and beat her just left side over the glove. So that was awesome.”
In an exciting extra period, neither team could find the back of the net despite both teams having chances on the power play. Cornell won the ensuing shootout thanks to goals from sophomore defender Piper Grober and sophomore forward Karel Prefontaine and a save from Bergmann. Unlike in men’s ECAC hockey where the shootout-winning team is awarded an extra point, the shootout in women’s ECAC hockey counts solely for end-of-season standings tiebreakers and is therefore mostly honorary.
The next day, Cornell dug itself into an even deeper hole before using the same comeback recipe to defeat Princeton. The Red fell behind 3-0 early in the second after Princeton scored on a two-on-one, a one-on-none breakaway, and a deflected shot from the center point.
After the third goal, a lengthy delay ensued after Cornell challenged the goal for goaltender interference. During the challenge, Bergmann crossed over the redline in the center of the ice to talk to her bench, which is against the rules, so the Red were awarded a bench minor for delay of game. After the game, Derraugh noted that the referees were usually in place to prevent the penalty from happening.
“So they [the referees] were kinda looking at me like they didn’t want to call her. They’re like ‘Well we feel bad calling this, but you know your goalkeeper did go across the redline at a timeout to come to your bench and they’re not supposed to do that. … We usually tell her not to cross the redline but we failed as well.’ But that’s the letter of the law, you get a penalty,” Derraugh said. “Anyway, guess we better inform our goaltenders, so that’s on us as coaches.”
Despite the 3-0 deficit, the Red did not relent.
“I think after being down three nothing, we knew it wasn’t our best hockey in the first period. They outworked us. They played faster than us. They honestly beat our system,” Adam said. “I think when we came back to the locker room we were like we still have 40 minutes to play in this game. … I think it was really crucial to just stick with one another and come together as a group.”
After giving up the third goal just two minutes into the second, the Red flipped the switch. Cornell’s first goal of the afternoon came nine minutes into the period off a rebounded shot that was ripped bar down into the back of the net by senior forward and All-ECAC preseason team selection Lily Delianedis. The next Cornell goal, a Prefontaine shot that was assisted by a screening sophomore forward Beatrice Perron-Roy, came just a minute later.
Five minutes after cutting the deficit down to a goal, the Red tied the game thanks to senior forward Claudia Yu’s first goal of the season.
Then, with just under three minutes to go in the period and two minutes after Yu’s game-tying goal, Princeton was called for roughing. Nine seconds into the power play, it was time for Adam to be a hero for the second straight night.
“It was just a shot that was put in front and it bounced off a few people’s skates and then I was just kind of off on the 40 or 45 [degree angle] on the back door and it bounced out and around and I popped it in,” Adam said. “It wasn’t a huge skating goal or anything, but I think it was really crucial that we had people in the right positions so that I could be open on the backside there.”
Adam’s goal would be the final score of the night, despite plenty of chances for both teams in the third including a six-on four-skater advantage for the Tigers thanks to a late Cornell penalty. The win was Cornell’s sixth in its last seven games and kept the Red at second in the ECAC standings.
“I think it was a big character win tonight, and it will definitely bring us even closer together as a group which is huge,” Adam said.
Cornell returned to Lynah Rink to take on Rochester Institute of Technology on Tuesday, defeating the Tigers 5-2. The Red will travel to Rochester on December 31 for a rematch at 2 p.m. The road game will be streamed on FloSports.