Leilani Burke/Sun Assistant Photography Editor

Women's hockey will face a pair of crucial matchups at Lynah Rink this weekend.

January 31, 2025

A Look at the State of the ECAC as No. 5 Women’s Hockey Readies for Crucial Weekend

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The biggest weekend of the regular season in women’s college hockey is here. 

With 38 points, No. 4 Colgate sits alone at the top of the ECAC regular season standings. Trailing by just half a point, No. 5 Cornell is primed to take advantage of any slip by the Raiders. Meanwhile, No. 7 St. Lawrence also trails the Raiders by less than a win — three points — and, in fourth place, No. 9 Clarkson is battling for an at-large bid to the NCAA tournament. 

Luckily for fans, all four teams are set to battle one another Friday and Saturday night in Central New York. In Ithaca, Cornell will face St. Lawrence on Friday before taking on Clarkson less than 24 hours later.

While the ECAC battles for conference supremacy, the matchups are equally intense out west. Wisconsin — the No. 1 team in the country — will travel to sliding No. 6 Minnesota Duluth. The Bulldogs enter the weekend with a four-game losing streak and are desperate for a win. Meanwhile, No. 2 Ohio State — the defending national champion — will head to Minneapolis to take on No. 3 Minnesota.

Here is a look at the top of the ECAC heading into the season’s most pivotal weekend:

Colgate (22-6-0, 13-3-0 ECAC):

The defending ECAC regular season and tournament champions are still atop the conference standings despite losing both head coach Greg Fargo and star forward Danielle Serdachny to the PWHL. However, these departures may be making an impact as the Raiders have vulnerability in a way that was not present at this point in the 2023-2024 campaign. At this point last season, Colgate had lost just once against an ECAC opponent and ranked third in the country.

This year, Colgate has already racked up three losses and, much like Cornell, is coming off a mediocre weekend. On Friday, the Raiders traveled to Cambridge, Massachusetts to take on last-place Harvard. The Crimson carried a 2-1 lead into the late stages of the third period before giving up a game-tying goal with under three minutes in regulation. Kristýna Kaltounková — Colgate’s leading scorer and a top PWHL draft prospect — won the game for the Raiders in overtime to salvage two points on an ugly night. The overtime win resulted in the seventh missed point in the past four weekends, a trend increasingly reminiscent of the Raiders 3-3 end to the regular season last year. 

Cornell (15-4-4, 11-2-3 ECAC, 0.5 pts back):

Entering last weekend tied with the Raiders in the standings, Cornell was unable to take advantage of Colgate’s Friday night stumble, instead answering the Raiders with a misstep of its own. The Red managed only a tie against lowly Dartmouth, dropping half a point behind Colgate when taking sole possession of first in the ECAC was possible. The Red now sit two wins behind the Raiders, which will be the first tie-breaker between the teams if the two end the season equal on points. 

The good news for Cornell is the Red have been on par with, if not better than, the Raiders as of late. Over the past three weekends, Cornell has scored one goal more and given up two goals fewer than Colgate while facing the same opponents. Before clinching the Ivy League championship last weekend, Cornell navigated the infamous North Country trip to St. Lawrence and Clarkson without a loss (something even Colgate could not manage), split with the Raiders the following weekend and then knocked off two nationally ranked opponents. 

Lastly, the Red sits fifth in Pairwise, a mathematical formula used to determine seeding in the NCAA tournament. If Cornell maintains its high-quality play, the Red should be able to finish the season in the top five and earn a first-round tournament bye. 

St. Lawrence (16-7-5, 10-3-3 ECAC, 2.5 pts back):

St. Lawrence and Clarkson’s annual home-and-home series last weekend was a reminder that, on any given day, anything can happen. The Saints took game one in a high-scoring thriller, coming back from down a goal in the third period to win 6-5. Both teams apparently exhausted their offense on Friday night, as nearly two and a half periods went by before a team scored on Saturday. Clarkson earned the weekend split with a 1-0 win, the second St. Lawrence loss in four games.  

Despite the recent setbacks, the Saints are still a huge threat to win the conference. St. Lawrence — alongside Union —  is the only team in the ECAC that Cornell has yet to beat. When the two teams faced off in Canton, Cornell killed two late penalties, including a bench minor for arguing with the referees, to force a 2-2 tie. The Saints also have a 3-2 win over the Raiders, and their Saturday afternoon battle in Hamilton will be one to watch.

Clarkson (19-8-1, 10-6-0 ECAC, 8.5 pts back):

Despite being picked first in the ECAC preseason poll for a reason, the Golden Knights have not quite lived up to the hype. Clarkson is the only team in the conference that had three players on the All-ECAC preseason team, but it has hit a rough patch in 2025, posting a 3-5 record in the new year. With just six at-large bids to the NCAA tournament, Clarkson’s position of 12th in the Pairwise is on the outside of the bubble looking in. The good news is the Golden Knights still maintain a 2.5-point lead on Quinnipiac for the fourth seed in the ECAC, the lowest position with a first-round tournament bye. 

Clarkson’s rough patch started with a 3-0 loss to Cornell in Cheel Arena on Jan. 3, in what Cornell head coach Doug Derraugh ’91 described as the Red’s “most complete game” of the season. With the chances of an at-large bid slipping away, and Quinnipiac breathing down the Golden Knights’ necks, Clarkson will be desperate for a successful weekend on the road. 

No. 5 Cornell will host No. 7 St. Lawrence Friday night at 6 p.m., before facing off with No. 9 Clarkson the next day at 3 p.m. Both contests will be streamed live on ESPN+.