On Friday night in the midst of committing four penalties in the opening two periods for the third straight ECAC game, Doug Derraugh ’91 implored women’s hockey to stay out of the penalty box.
“I threaten them a little bit about benching them,” Derraugh said. “And after the second period, I’m like, ‘I can't bench everybody.’”
What made Cornell’s early avalanche of penalties so frustrating — outside of the fact it had become a recurring issue — is the fact that the Red were outplaying first-place Princeton during five-on-five play.
“You’ve been playing really well five-on-five,” Derraugh said to his team midway through the second frame. “Let’s continue to do that and keep ourselves out of the box, or we’re gonna put ourselves in a bad spot.”
Eventually, the message got through. The Red committed its final penalty with the score tied at one halfway through the second period and never looked back, scoring five goals in the game’s final 25 minutes to down Princeton 6-1.
The season-high six goal outburst came against the Tigers’ (17-5-0, 12-3-0 ECAC) third-in-the-nation defense, and came thanks to four players posting multi-point games.
“Tonight’s recipe is what we need for the rest of the season,” Derraugh said.
In the opening stanza, Cornell (13-8-2, 9-5-1 ECAC) looked strong, but neither team could convert on a power-play chance and the first intermission arrived without a score.
Then, the fireworks began. 24 seconds into the second frame, a senior forward Grace Dwyer cross-checking penalty gave the Tigers their second power-play chance of the game. While Princeton failed to force junior goaltender Annelies Bergmann to make a save in its first period skater-advantage, Issy Wunder — who entered the night on a seven game goal streak — put the Tigers in front when she shoveled in a rebound one minute into the power play.
The Red, unable to quickly respond, committed its third penalty of the game seven minutes later.
“I think a lot of the penalties that we were taking, we were trying to do too much,” Derraugh said. “If they were getting beat, they would reach with the stick and take a tripping penalty or a hooking penalty or a slashing penalty. And because they were wanting it so much, they were overdoing it.”
Cornell killed the penalty, and 11 seconds later the offense finally found its footing.
Stretching back to the start of December, Dwyer had committed 16 minutes worth of penalties and tallied just two goals. In a span of six minutes in the middle frame, the Red captain registered three points and possibly turned Cornell’s season around.
Dwyer tied the game with a wrist shot from the right faceoff dot, her fourth goal of the season and third in four games. Three minutes later — in the waning seconds of the Red’s second power play of the game— Dwyer launched a slapshot from the point which ricocheted off the stick of junior forward Delaney Fleming and into the back of the net. The goal was Fleming’s second of the season.
Dwyer, and Cornell, were not done. After two minutes of back-and-forth play, senior forward Georgia Schiff sauced a backdoor pass to a cutting junior forward Piper Grober who deposited the puck past the sliding Tiger netminder. Coming on a set play after a faceoff win, Dwyer’s simple feed to Schiff gave her the goal’s second assist and third point of the night.
“We have to get offensive production from our defense, and that’s just the reality of our team,” Derraugh said when asked about Dwyer’s performance. “We’ve got to get production from different players on different nights, and we’ve got to get it from our defense and our forwards.”
Leading 3-1, the second intermission did little to slow the Red’s momentum. Three minutes into the final period, Princeton was whistled for its fourth penalty of the game.
After working the puck around the perimeter of the Tigers defense, and unsuccessfully testing goaltender Uma Corniea, Grober received a pass from Dwyer and sent a wrist shot into the top right corner of the net. It was Grober’s first multi-goal game of her collegiate career.
With a three goal lead, Cornell’s foot briefly lifted off the gas pedal, and Princeton controlled play for long stretches in the middle of the final stanza. With just over four minutes remaining, the Tigers pulled Corniea. Senior defender Alyssa Regalado fired the puck the length of the ice to put the Red up four and give Bergmann — who finished with 19 saves — her second collegiate assist.
Schiff capped off the night with a goal of her own to match Dywer’s four points.
The loss snapped Princeton’s 13 game winning streak and extended Cornell’s undefeated stretch inside Hobey Baker Memorial Ice Rink to seven games.
The Red will return to the ice to face No. 6 Quinnipiac Saturday at 3 p.m. in Hamden, Connecticut. Action 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.
