For roughly a day, there was a new No. 1 in the ECAC. On Friday night, then-No. 7 women’s hockey stormed into Potsdam, New York, shut out one of the nation’s top offenses and wrestled control of the top seed in the ECAC from Colgate.
The following day, Cornell twice rallied from a goal deficit and avoided a last-second meltdown to escape then-No. 10 St. Lawrence with a point and a half, leaving the Red tied with the Raiders in points atop the ECAC standings.
Newly minted No. 6 Cornell (10-3-3, 7-1-2 ECAC) started the second half of its season in impressive fashion, notching a 2-0 win against then-No.6 Clarkson (16-5-1, 7-3-0 ECAC) and a hard fought 2-2 tie against St. Lawrence (12-5-5, 6-1-3 ECAC) in the infamous North Country road weekend. After the 4.5-point weekend, the Red sits tied atop the ECAC standings with No. 5 Colgate
With 11 seconds to go and the score tied Saturday night against St. Lawrence in Canton, New York, Cornell’s place in the standings and undefeated streak was pushed to the back of the team’s mind. Instead, fury over a blown icing call threatened to spoil what had been a stellar weekend.
Just 40 seconds after killing a St. Lawrence power play — the Saints’ third of the night — the Cornell bench erupted when icing was not waved off despite senior forward Kaitlin Jockims outracing St. Lawrence skaters to the puck. Unhappy with Cornell’s complaints, a referee awarded a bench minor to the Red, giving St. Lawrence another two minutes with the skater advantage.
Cornell’s penalty kill, which went 5/6 over the weekend, held on for 1:49 of four-on-three overtime hockey thanks in part to sophomore goaltender Annelies Bergmann’s two clutch saves. Despite the unsuccessful power play, the Saints controlled the rest of overtime but could not beat Bergmann, leading to a tie and shootout. Cornell won the shootout — which does not award a team a bonus point — instead serving as the fourth tiebreaker for ECAC tournament seeding.
The night began with a scoreless first period in which the Red outshot the Saints 16-6. St. Lawrence got on the board first midway through the second period with a power play goal that was upheld after a review for offsides. Two minutes later, junior forwards Mckenna Van Gelder and Avi Adam connected to tie the game when Van Gelder tapped in a rebound off of Adam’s shot.
The Saints got another goal late less than a minute after Van Gelder’s game-tying goal, but junior forward Georgia Schiff answered back for the Red with a goal of her own early in the final period, the last score of the game and Schiff’s first of the season.
Bergmann finished the night with an impressive 36 saves, double her total from the night before.
Friday night’s matchup against Clarkson was headlined by a dominant defensive performance by Cornell and Bergmann, shutting out the Golden Knights 3-0 in Cheel Arena for the second straight year. While Bergmann made an extraordinary 43 saves in last year’s game, she was called upon just 18 times on Friday en route to her sixth shutout of the year. Bergmann now trails only Wisconsin goaltender Ava McNaughton’s seven shutouts nationally. McNaughton has played 21 games compared to Bergmann’s 16.
It took just five minutes for the Red to get on the scoreboard. The nation’s fourth-best defense entering the weekend looked on helplessly as sophomore defender Piper Grober picked off a pass between the faceoff circles and fired a shot past Clarkson’s Julia Minotti. It was Grober’s second goal of the season, her first scored in the team’s previous game, a 5-1 thumping of Rochester Institute of Technology.
With under six minutes to go in the second period, the Red struck again. Junior defender Grace Dwyer dropped a backhanded pass to sophomore forward Delaney Fleming in the neutral zone. Fleming caught the pass as she raced into the offensive zone, rocketing the puck above the glove of Minotti and into the back of the net.
An empty net goal from Adam in the period would seal it for the Red, which impressively scored three goals on just 19 shots on goal.
While Cornell’s five-goal weekend against two of the best defenses in the NCAA was impressive, the Red’s power play struggled, failing to score in three chances across the weekend. The lack of power plays for Cornell is becoming a theme this season, as the Red’s 37 opportunities are tied with Yale for the fewest in the NCAA.
Cornell’s annual home-and-home bout against Colgate will take place next weekend, a matchup sure to draw the attention of women’s hockey fans across the nation. Last season, Colgate defeated the Red in all four matchups between the two teams, including in the ECAC and NCAA tournaments. Cornell has not defeated the Raiders in Class of 1965 Arena since 2022 and has won just one of the previous nine contests.
Puck drop is slated for 3 p.m. both on Friday in Hamilton and on Saturday in Ithaca. All action will be streamed live on ESPN+.