The magic number is down to one. Heading into the final weekend of the regular season, No. 4 women’s hockey needs just a single win to capture the Red’s seventh ECAC regular season title.
The last time Cornell won the ECAC was the 2019-2020 season, which ended in heartbreak for the then No. 1 Red when the NCAA Tournament was canceled due to COVID-19. For head coach Doug Derraugh ’91, getting back into the same conversation as that 2019-2020 team is cause for excitement.
“It’s exciting that we're even in the hunt to [win the ECAC for the first time since 2020],” Derraugh said. “This is a league that is highly competitive, and to be able to do that shows that your team has shown consistency throughout the season, which is not an easy thing to do. So it would mean a lot if we’re able to accomplish that.”
Aside from the prestige, winning the ECAC regular season also ensures Cornell (19-4-4, 15-2-3 ECAC) will have home ice throughout the conference’s postseason tournament.
Traveling to East Hill to end the regular season are Brown and Yale, two teams which have caught fire in the second half of the season.
“[Brown and Yale] both are really well coached. They play a really strong team game,” Derraugh said. “It will be a good challenge for us this weekend.”
The Bears (14-10-3, 9-8-3 ECAC) and Bulldogs (15-10-2, 10-9-1 ECAC) sit eighth and fifth respectively in the ECAC standings, part of a five-team cluster separated by just five points. The leader of that group, Clarkson, is fourth in the standings, the final position which earns an ECAC tournament first-round bye.
Trailing by five points, Brown technically could still catch Clarkson and grab a bye, but the chances are slim. Still, the Bears will look to move up in the standings to avoid having to face Union in the ECAC tournament’s first round, a team Brown lost to twice in the regular season.
Meanwhile, Yale sits fifth in the ECAC — just two points out of a first-round bye.
Both Brown and Yale head to central New York with momentum. Combined, the travel partners have posted a record of 10-4-2 over the past four weekends. Brown has been especially hot as of late, losing just once in its last nine games, a stretch which includes impressive overtime road wins against top-10 Clarkson and St. Lawrence.
Derraugh noted that both of Cornell’s opponent’s recent strong play has been due to a range of factors.
“Both have good goaltending and play a strong defensive structure,” Derraugh said. “[Brown and Yale] have some players up front that are real dangerous and can do stuff individually and score goals for them.”
For Cornell, a win over Brown on Friday would not only clinch the ECAC title for the Red, but also allow Cornell to focus on honoring its seniors on Saturday. The Red’s 11-skater class of 2024 has helped rebuild the program from its post-pandemic lows (Cornell went just 14-14-2 in 2021-2022), to its current national championship contender status.
While Saturday’s contest will still matter for the Pairwise ratings regardless of Friday night’s outcome, if the ECAC title is secured, Derraugh indicated that many seniors who rarely see the ice could play on Saturday.
Cornell will host Brown at 6 p.m. Friday night and Yale at 3 p.m. Saturday. Both matchups will be streamed live on ESPN+.
