Leilani Burke/Sun Assistant Photography Editor

The team celebrates after winning 2-1 at the women's ice hockey game against Clarkson at Lynah Rink on Feb. 1, 2025.

February 1, 2025

No. 5 Women’s Hockey Completes Weekend Sweep, Clinches First-Round Tournament Bye

Print More

Less than 24 hours after taking the lead in the ECAC thanks to a 6-0 statement win over No. 7 St. Lawrence, No. 5 women’s hockey extended its margin over second place Colgate to 1.5 points by knocking off No. 9 Clarkson, 2-1. With the six-point weekend, Cornell has clinched a top-four seed and the accompanying first round bye in the ECAC postseason tournament. 

“It was a good game. Both these teams are top teams in the country so you have got to show up,” said junior defender Alyssa Regalado. “It’s pretty cool to come out on top.” 

After an offensive explosion the night before, head coach Doug Derraugh’s ’91 prediction of a more defensive matchup was proven correct. 

For Cornell, the first high-percentage chance of the game came just three minutes in, but senior forward Gabbie Rud couldn’t handle a deflected pass to capitalize on a two-on-one rush. 

For the next 10 minutes, a battle of netminders ensued. Holly Gruber’s efforts to keep the Red off the scoreboard were mirrored by sophomore goaltender Annelies Bergmann, who made a series of lunging saves to keep the game tied 7:30 into the game.

After many impressive saves from each side, it seemed inevitable that a shot would finally find its way into the back of the net.

Unfortunately for Cornell, that moment came with 7:57 left in the period when Clarkson forward Sena Catterall deked a Cornell defender and slipped the puck beneath Bergmann’s pads. The goal was the Golden Knights’ first against Cornell since Jan. 5, 2024.

Less than a minute after taking the lead, a Clarkson skater was whistled for hooking and the Red’s power play unit — entering the matchup ninth in the nation — took to the ice with a chance to quickly tie the game. Instead, Gruber continued to stymie Cornell’s offense and the Red could not convert on the skater advantage. 

A Bergmann save on a shot from the low slot with 1:37 remaining in the period was met with a Gruber save on an open look from sophomore forward Karel Preforntaine seconds later, and Cornell entered the first intermission remaining down a goal.

During the first intermission, Derraugh reminded his team that despite the deficit Cornell’s offense still looked potent. 

“Coach said to us ‘you have got to score a goal to win,’” Rud said.  “So we knew as long as we kept putting pucks to the net and playing the way we were playing, something good was going to happen.”

However, Clarkson controlled the opening minutes of the second period as the Cornell offense struggled to maintain possession of the puck in the offensive zone. It wasn’t until over halfway through the period that Cornell’s offense finally seemed to come to life. 

The brief momentum swing ended when Regalado was penalized for tripping, giving Clarkson its first power play of the game. The Cornell penalty kill unit killed its fourteenth penalty in a row, and two minutes later Clarkson committed a penalty of its own. 

Cornell’s second power play looked stronger than the first, and the Red nearly tied the game when Prefontaine launched a one-timer that rang off the crossbar. 

Then, after multiple quality scoring chances with the skater advantage, the Cornell pressure finally paid off. For the second night in a row, a senior defender Rory Guilday slapshot from the point got the scoring started for Cornell. 

“[Our] special teams got a big goal for us,” said Derraugh.  

With the score tied, Clarkson began to push for a second goal to break the deadlock. With 1:30 to go in the second period, multiple shot attempts off rebounds lead to Bergmann sprawling out in her crease to prevent a Golden Knight goal. 

Moments later, Guilday was whistled for tripping and Cornell was back on the penalty kill. The action-packed period finally came to a close, but not before play had to be stopped due to goaltender interference by Clarkson’s power play unit.

Despite tying the game, Cornell looked like the lesser team for large swaths of the second period, with Bergmann being forced to make nine saves to Gruber’s four.

The third period was marked by a series of penalties. Cornell started the final frame by finishing killing the Guilday penalty, before earning an advantage a few minutes later. However, just 25 seconds into the Cornell power play senior forward Claudia Yu was called for interference, setting up 1:35 of four-on-four play.  

While neither team could score during the four-on-four play, the Golden Knights nearly regained the lead. With 10:43 to go in the third period, Bergmann was caught out of position with a rebounding puck in front of the net. Luckily for Cornell, Regalado kept the score tied by stopping a Golden Knight shot attempt with her skate.

“I saw a girl coming off the back door, and I knew we were a little bit out of position. …I was like, ‘you know what? The puck has got to stay out of the net,’” Regalado said. “So I did whatever I could to make sure that the puck stayed out of the net.”

25 seconds after the Yu penalty was complete, Cornell was awarded another opportunity with a skater advantage. The Red forced multiple difficult saves from Gruber, but again failed to capitalize on the power play.   

Then, after so many hard shots and high percentage chances, it was an accidental shot that would end up being the game-winner. 

With 5:58 remaining in the game, Rud gained possession of the puck in the neutral zone and skated down the ice until she was parallel with the goal. When the Cornell forward tried to center the puck, it knocked off the back leg of Gruber and into the net. 


“I guess good things happen when you get the puck to the net,” Rud said. “It’s not like I was trying to shoot there, but [I] try to get pucks on net and create something.”

After Gruber made her 20th and final save, Clarkson called a timeout with 2:01 left on the clock and pulled its netminder for an extra skater.

Bergmann would notch her 27th save of the game as time wound down, and for the second time in 24 hours, Lynah erupted with cheers as the horn sounded.

Bergmann’s play over the course of the weekend was impressive. The Detroit native posted 47 saves while only allowing a single goal against two teams that average 2.5 and 3.7 goals per game respectively. 

Just like the night before, moments after Cornell secured a win in Ithaca, Colgate did the same in overtime in Hamilton. Still, the Red entered the weekend trailing Colgate by half a point, and now sit 1.5 points in front of the Raiders.


Next weekend, Cornell will head to the Capital region looking to correct a historic early-season miscue. The Red will face Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute on Friday, before heading to Schenectady to take on Union on Saturday. All action will be streamed live on ESPN+.