After narrowly avoiding a major upset en route to a 2-2 tie with Dartmouth on Friday, No. 6 women’s hockey bounced back the next day to defeat Harvard, 6-1, and secure its 17th Ivy League championship in program history.
“[Winning the Ivy League] was exciting,” said head coach Doug Derraugh ’91. “I’m proud of our team in the way that [they] recovered from the start of the season and then played really consistently over the past two months.”
The Ivy crown comes less than a year after Cornell won the championship on the last game of the 2023-2024 regular season, and marks the first back-to-back titles since winning in 2016-2017 and 2017-2018. The Red has now won the Ivy league in half of Derraugh’s 18 seasons at the program’s helm.
Despite clinching the first of four possible championships, the weekend was underwhelming for Cornell (15-4-4, 11-2-3 ECAC). The Red started off its final weekend of Ivy play in Hanover, New Hampshire, taking on a Big Green team that is second-to-last in the ECAC standings.
Despite the mediocre record — which includes a 4-0 loss to Cornell at Lynah rink on Nov. 16 — Dartmouth (4-15-3 2-11-3 ECAC) entered the matchup having allowed just three goals in its last four games.
Despite junior forward Mckenna Van Gelder nearly opening the scoring 1:25 into the game, Cornell’s offense struggled against an improved Dartmouth defense.
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“They play physical, they make it difficult to get to their net,” Derraugh said. “They’ve really clamped down defensively and [they] play hard. That combination of them doing what they did, and I did not think we played our best game either … You saw the result.”
Cornell did well defensively in the opening period, allowing just two shots on goal, but struggled to test Dartmouth netminder Michaela Hesová.
It took until midway through the second period for Cornell’s offense to strike. The first penalty of the game gave the Red a five-on-four advantage, and just 13 seconds in, freshman forward Lindzi Avar rocketed a one timer so hard she spun around as the puck flew into the back of the net.
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45 seconds after taking a 1-0 lead, Cornell was put on its back foot when senior defender Rory Guilday was whistled for interference. Despite not allowing a shot on goal during the penalty, the Dartmouth power play slowed the Cornell momentum. Then, with two minutes to go in the second period, Dartmouth would tie the game on a two-on-one rush, the Big Green’s first goal against Cornell since Nov. 11, 2023.
The teams would trade chances in the third period, with Cornell getting the majority of the looks but unable to find the back of the net. Instead, Dartmouth would score with just 1:42 remaining when a well-placed wrist shot sailed by sophomore goaltender Annelies Bergmann.
Cornell took a timeout to regroup and pulled Bergmann for an extra skater. Despite surrendering the late goal and being on the verge of a troubling loss, the Red did not panic.
“One of the things I found, when we called the timeout [was that] there seemed to be a really calm presence about our team,” Derraugh said. “It felt like we were going to get [the late goal] back.”
As the time wound down, the Red maintained possession of the puck while probing the Dartmouth defense and Hesová. Crucially, Cornell won all three offensive-zone faceoffs that occurred while trailing. And just as all hope seemed lost, a cross-ice pass from sophomore forward Karel Prefontaine snuck through the Big Green defense to find the stick of junior forward Avi Adam in the low slot. Adam flicked the puck into the net to preserve the Red’s unbeaten Ivy campaign with just 11.6 seconds remaining on the clock.
Cornell would dominate much of the five-minute overtime despite another Guilday penalty, but would end the night with a 2-2 tie. With the 1.5 points already secured, Cornell won the ensuing shootout 2-0 — it was the Red’s third win in the shootout, which is the ECAC’s fourth tiebreaker category.
After the disappointing result the day before, Cornell turned its attention to what could be improved in next day’s matchup against the Crimson (2-18-2, 1-14-1 ECAC).
“We just talked about execution and consistency,” Derraugh said. “The teams that tend to do well in the playoffs are the ones that are consistent in their habits [and] consistent in their details.”
Cornell responded to Derraugh’s call for consistency against Harvard in front of a crowd of 1,741 fans, a Bright Landry Hockey Center record for women’s hockey. The Red commanded the Crimson all game long, dominating Harvard in shot attempts, 81-20, over the course of the afternoon.
For the second game in a row, Avar converted first for Cornell, this time finding the back of the net off a rebounded shot. Five minutes later, Avar once again lit the lamp when she deflected a shot from junior defender Alyssa Regalado past Harvard netminder Ainsley Tuffy. The goal was Avar’s 13th, and her seventh in the past six games.
“I thought tonight we came out a lot sharper,” Derraugh said.
The Red would remain in control of the first period outside of a Crimson power play, but would not increase its 2-0 lead until the second period.
After killing off a second Harvard five-on-four advantage, Cornell’s third goal of the game came thanks to senior forward Katie Chan halfway through the middle frame. Three minutes later, junior forward Delaney Fleming joined in on the goal-scoring action, netting her sixth goal of the season. Not to be outdone, senior forward Lily Delianedis notched her 50th career goal to complete the three-goal period.
Heading into the third period down 5-0, the Crimson replaced Tuffy with Emily Davidson, who was scored on 8:36 into the period by Chan. The goal was Chan’s fourth in as many games, and the fifth goal of the weekend scored by the Chan-Avar-Jockims line. While Avar and senior forward Kaitlin Jockims have been affectionately nicknamed the “twin towers” by Chan’s dad, Chan’s physicality is also crucial to the line’s success despite her 5’2″ stature.
“Katie plays a real physical game and she’s really strong with the puck, so they all have a similar style that way,” Derraugh said.
Bergmann would lose her bid for a nationally leading seventh shutout of the season with under four minutes to go, and finished the game with just eight saves in the 6-1 victory. Minutes after Cornell stepped off the ice, Princeton wrapped up a 3-0 win over Yale, securing Cornell’s 17th Ivy championship.
Winning the Ivy League does not come with an automatic qualification to the NCAA tournament. Instead, the Red will need to win the ECAC postseason tournament or receive an at-large bid to compete for a national championship. Cornell currently sits second in the ECAC standings, half a point behind Colgate.
The Red will return home next weekend to take on a pair of top-10 teams at Lynah Rink. Cornell will square off against No. 7 St. Lawrence Friday night at 6 p.m. before facing No. 9 Clarkson the next day at 3 p.m. All action will be streamed live on ESPN+.