After enduring its worst stretch of the season — a pair of losses and an overtime win — women’s hockey needed to respond if it wanted to maintain its position atop the ECAC Hockey standings. On Saturday afternoon against Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Cornell did just that.
The Red (9-2-0, 6-2-0 ECAC) jumped out to a 3-0 lead in the first period and never looked back, outshooting the Engineers (4-13-0, 1-7-0 ECAC) 34-17 in a dominant 4-1 victory.
Entering the matchup struggling to generate offense at even-strength, Cornell started off the game dominating play. 5:26 into the opening frame, the early Red pressure paid off. A pair of junior defenders connected when Piper Grober’s through-crease pass found the stick of Abby Thibodeau who pushed the puck by the sliding RPI netminder. The goal was Thibodeau’s first, coming in her 61st collegiate game. Senior forward Georgia Schiff also picked an assist, her 10th point of the season.
Five minutes after the opening score, Cornell was gifted a five-minute power play when an RPI skater’s hitting from behind penalty was upgraded from a minor to a major. The Red’s best-in-the-nation power play took advantage, scoring twice thanks to goals from junior forward Karel Prefontaine and Schiff. Prefontaine’s goal came on a backhanded feed from freshman forward Nora Curtis, who recorded a pair of assists in the contest.
Cornell largely spent the rest of the first frame in the offensive zone, finishing with 15 shots on goal to the Engineers three. For junior goaltender Annelies Bergmann, the shutout frame came after allowing a goal in all three periods (and overtime) against Union.
The second period was much more even than the first. The Red outshot the Engineers by one, and struck first when a senior defender Alyssa Regalado wrist shot from the blue line rocketed by a screened RPI goaltender to give Cornell a four-goal lead. Since she had also picked up an assist on the Prefontaine goal, the score gave Regalado her third straight mulit-point game.
RPI would battle back, notching its lone goal seconds after Cornell killed its first penalty of the contest. The rest of the period would pass without score after each team was unable to convert on a skater advantage.
Neither team could find the back of the net in the final frame, despite a combined five penalties. The Red’s penalty kill was excellent throughout the game, a good sign after allowing a pair of power play goals to Union the night before. Cornell’s power play finished the game 2/6.
Despite the dominant win, there were warning signs present for the Red. Senior defender Sarah MacEachern did not play, the result of an injury suffered the day before according to the ESPN+ broadcast. Without MacEachern — who missed most of her freshman and junior seasons with injuries — Cornell is down to just 17 skaters.
With the win, Cornell maintains its half-point lead over Clarkson in the ECAC Hockey standings. The Red will now begin on a three game stretch of non-conference games over the next week, beginning with a road matchup in Syracuse against the Orange. Puck drop for the Tuesday night game is set for 6 p.m. with action streaming on FloSports.
Eli Fastiff is a senior editor on the 143rd editorial board and a member of the class of 2026 in the College of Arts and Sciences. You can follow him on X @Eli_Fastiff and reach him at efastiff@cornellsun.com.
