On Friday night in Burlington, Vermont, No. 8 women’s hockey fell 4-3 to the University of Vermont to cap off the Red’s worst week in at least two seasons. From Nov. 21-28, Cornell lost to a team tied for last in ECAC Hockey, a team the Red had not lost to since 2010 and then the Catamounts — a 6-10-2 team with a .365 win percentage dating back to 2023-2024.
However, less than 24 hours after the Red’s third worrying result in eight days, Cornell (10-3-1, 6-2-0 ECAC) was back looking like the team that started the season 7-0. Senior forward Georgia Schiff scored a pair of goals and junior goaltender Annelies Bergmann made 20 saves en route to a commanding 5-1 win on Saturday. Here are three takeaways from Cornell’s third weekend split in as many weeks.
Concerning Inconsistency
In November, Cornell’s weekends have followed a consistent hot-and-cold pattern. In the Red’s past three Friday night contests (stretching back to a Nov. 14 3-0 loss to Colgate), Cornell has been outscored 11-6 en route to all three of its losses this season. A day after each of those losses, the Red responded with inspired get-right wins.
Cornell’s two-game series with Vermont adds a new layer of complexity to this trend — Cornell’s weekend split with Colgate was marked by a change in speed and intensity from the first to the second game. The weekend split in the Capital Region came thanks to a shift in the success of the Red’s even-strength offense. But it was a phenomenon completely foreign to Cornell this year that haunted the Red in Burlington: inconsistent goaltending.
On Friday, despite taking a 2-1 lead into the first intermission, the Red unraveled in the second period after a series of mistakes from its normally surefire netminder. Bergmann — the reigning ECAC Goaltender of the Year and the steadiest player for Cornell all season — began the second frame by allowing a haphazard shot from the neutral zone to slip over her shoulders and into the back of the net.
Four minutes later, Bergmann failed to locate a rebounding puck leading to a go-ahead Vermont goal. Then, after sophomore forward Lindzi Avar tied the game at 3-3 on the power play, another loose rebound in the crease was poked home by the Catamounts. Cornell responded well in the third period, but could not find an equalizing goal despite firing off 13 shots and receiving a late power play.
While bad puck luck certainly hurt Cornell, the Red’s dominant performance on Saturday made the loss all the more confounding. In Cornell’s 5-1 win, Bergmann played nearly flawlessly while an early goal from junior defender Abby Thibodeau and a pair of third-period tallies from senior forward Georgia Schiff paced the Red offensively.
While the difference in Bergmann’s play was the main driver of the divergent outcomes, the return of Cornell’s quick decision-making and ability to keep the puck in the offensive zone for long stretches helped turn opportunities into goals on Saturday.
The weekend marked a new way for the Red to be inconsistent, but also demonstrated the team’s resilience. After five straight games away from Lynah Rink, the pieces are there for a return to the strong early season form for Cornell.
Cornell Goes Line Dancing
During Cornell’s 7-0 start to the season, the Red featured the same exact lineup in each game. However, with Cornell’s even-strength offense slumping and the opportunity to use non-conference matchups for experimentation, head coach Doug Derraugh ’91 elected to pull the trigger on Cornell’s first full-scale line shuffle of the season.
Derraugh began the year featuring a clear-cut top forward line of junior Karel Prefontaine, Avar and senior Avi Adam. After its mid-month struggles, the Red mixed things up against Syracuse with freshman Nora Curtis replacing Adam as the top-line right winger, with Adam forming a completely new line alongside senior Mckenna Van Gelder and freshman Shannon Pearson. Cornell’s groupings didn’t stay consistent throughout the 2-2 tie to the Orange, but the message was clear: something needed to be done to jumpstart Cornell’s offense.
Cornell's forward lines versus Syracuse (starters circled). Photo courtesy of Cornell Athletics.
For much of November, the only thing working for Cornell offensively was its power play. Adam, Avar, Prefontaine and Curtis (alongside senior defender Alyssa Regalado) formed one dominant unit, while a rare three-defender second power-play group also saw success. Together, these two squads have given Cornell the best power play in the country.
Through this lens, the rationale behind the tweaks to Cornell’s lineup become clear — Derraugh is hoping that by slotting Curtis in with the same skaters she has found success with on the power play, the best-in-the-nation skater advantage will translate to strong even-strength play.
Against Vermont, Curtis moved alongside Avar and speedy junior Delaney Fleming, while Adam was reunited with Prefontaine. Additionally, freshman London McDavid made her first appearance as a third-line center, pushing junior Beatrice Perron-Roy to right wing.
Cornell's forward lines versus Vermont. Photo courtesy of Cornell Athletics.
The new forward trios seemed to mesh well, with each line contributing to at least one goal in Saturday’s win. With coaches generally taking less risks during conference play, it will be interesting to see if Derraugh’s lineup experimentations continue when Cornell faces a pair of ECAC Hockey foes next weekend.
A Lack of Depth Still an Issue
A week after sustaining an injury against Union, senior defender Sarah MacEachern remained absent against Vermont. With Cornell down to 17 skaters, Derraugh’s options for lineup changes are mostly limited to rearranging forward lines and defensive pairings, rather than suiting up new players altogether. The lack of personnel has also led to big roles for relatively untested players, including all five freshman skaters. Though learning on the fly certainly didn’t seem to hamper Cornell early in the season, for many players this is their first experience playing major minutes during a team-wide slump.
While the Red would certainly rather have a skid on this side of winter break, Cornell’s youngest skaters will have to make adjustments on the fly since there is no one to replace them.
Cornell returns home to Lynah Rink this weekend to face off against Quinnipiac and Princeton. Puck drop against the Bobcats on Friday night is set for 6 p.m., while Saturday’s bout with the Tigers will begin at 3 p.m. Both games will be streamed live on ESPN+.
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.
