No. 3 women’s hockey continues to find a way to win. In front of a roaring record crowd of 3,135 fans, sophomore goaltender Annelies Bergmann stopped 28 shots en route to a shutout 1-0 win over No. 6 Minnesota Duluth in the NCAA tournament regional final. With the win, the Red will head to Minneapolis next weekend for the Frozen Four, just two games away from the program’s first national championship.
Cornell’s (25-4-5, 16-2-4 ECAC) game-winning goal, the only to pass either goaltender, came from an unlikely source. Exiting the second period tied with nothing on the board — and being outshot 18-16 — the Red did not panic. Instead of giving a fiery speech during the second intermission, head coach Doug Derraugh ’91 did what he had done all season: preached consistency and trust.
“What I found over the course of this season is that we’ve been in this situation a lot,” Derraugh said. “My message has been for them, probably boring, but consistent. It’s just reinforcing ‘hey, we've been here before, we've gotten through this before, we know what to do, let’s do what we always do.’”
Derraugh’s team did exactly that. Just a week after a triple overtime win over Clarkson, and two weeks after scoring twice in the game’s final 70 seconds against Colgate in the ECAC championship, Cornell found the goal when it needed it most.
3:24 into the final frame, senior forward Gabbie Rud skated into the offensive zone, leading a 4-3 odd-skater rush. Sensing an opportunity, junior defender Alyssa Regalado skated hard up the ice, eventually working her way behind the UMD defense. After corralling a pass from Rud next to the goal, Regalado skated behind the net before wrapping around to face Western Collegiate Hockey Association Goaltender of the Year Éve Gascon.
“My goal was just put it in front [of the net], because I saw a player driving [to] the net. It was just a lucky bounce off her feet [that went in], but I guess that’s what happens when you get pucks to the net.” Regalado said. “It just felt unreal, especially with the atmosphere that we had today.”
The goal was just Regalado’s second on the season, an unsurprising fact considering how much Cornell has relied on its depth all year.
“Every weekend it’s been somebody different [stepping up], either a different line, a different defenseman or our goaltender,” Derraugh said. “It really has been a total team effort.”
The record crowd — the highest attendance ever for a women’s hockey game at Lynah Rink — settled in for what everyone in the building knew was coming: 16:36 of ferocious defending.
Suddenly down a goal and with its season on the line, UMD became desperate to salvage its chances of making it to the Frozen Four. While the Bulldogs struggled for the first few minutes after the goal to get set up in the offensive zone, as time wore down the chances began to increase. With 6:30 remaining in the period, Bergmann made a sprawling stop for her 22nd save of the game, prompting chants of “brick wall Bergmann” from the Lynah Faithful.
“I just play as loose as I can,” said Bergmann. “I know that my team’s gonna have my back no matter what, that’s been a huge thing this whole year.”
As the Bulldogs pressed on, it seemed the tension in Lynah Rink could not get any higher. Then, with 2:26 remaining, sophomore forward Karel Prefontaine was whistled for tripping.
For the first minute of the penalty kill, the Bulldogs fired multiple heavily screened shots at Bergmann. While the ECAC Goaltender of the Year managed to send them all away, the Cornell skaters were quickly tiring.
Then the Bulldogs pulled Gascon for an extra skater. Now with a 6-4 advantage, UMD looked ready to strike.
It didn’t matter. For a minute and 50 seconds, the same group of Cornell penalty killers stayed on the ice and managed to turn away every Bulldog attempt. With the penalty expiring and just 25 seconds left on the game clock, it seemed as if the Red were in the clear.
Instead, Duluth’s best opportunity of the game came when an odd-man rush left a skater free in front of an out-of-position Bergmann. Cornell’s netminder gloved the puck, preserving her perfect game. After the Red took the next faceoff, the horn sounded and the celebrations began.
“I said to [senior defender Rory Guilday], this is what we play for,” said Bergmann. “I think that just shows just the resiliency of our team and how we’re able to just fight through those situations, even if it's two minutes left and we’re two men down.”
While it took Cornell until the third period to score, the Red nearly lit the lamp on the first play of the game. After the opening faceoff, the Red just missed an opening-minute strike when senior forward Lily Delianedis’s open shot from the slot went wide.
While Cornell’s offense looked potent early, it would be UMD who earned the first power play of the game when, after a sustained period of pressure, senior forward Kaitlin Jockims headed to the box for tripping.
As the opening frame progressed, a pattern emerged. UMD controlled the pace of play, getting more pucks to Bergmann than the Red did to Gascon. However, the Bulldogs’ control was disrupted when a UMD player was penalized for hooking with 3:00 to go in the period. Cornell used the skater advantage to pressure Gascon — firing multiple screened shots from the point, then pouring shots on the net after the penalty ended.
After the first intermission, Cornell came out with all cylinders firing. Gone were the long stretches of UMD offensive zone pressure that characterized the first period. Instead, it was the Red who controlled the puck for the first half of the frame.
With 5:52 remaining in the second period, UMD sensed the shift in momentum and challenged a high sticking no-call, looking for a major penalty. While the Bulldogs lost the challenge, and crucially its lone timeout, UMD continued to set the pace of play until the period concluded.
While Duluth continued to pressure Bergmann to start the final frame, it would be Regalado who finally broke the deadlock and secured the Red’s place in the next round of NCAA tournament play.
“We played a really strong team game today,” said Derraugh. “We got big saves from Annelies [Bergmann] when we needed them and managed to squeak it out.”
With the win, Cornell is slated to play No. 2 Ohio State in the Frozen Four. This will be the Red’s first time in the NCAA semifinals since the 2018-19 season, when Cornell fell 2-0 to the University of Minnesota.
The game will take place at Ridder Arena in Minneapolis, Minnesota, on March 21 at either 5 p.m. or 8:30 p.m. The game will be streamed live on ESPN+.
