This story is part of The Sun’s 2025 NCAA Hockey supplement. To view the rest of the supplement, click here.
It had to be Colgate. A year removed from losing four times to the Raiders — including in both the ECAC and NCAA tournaments — it was only fitting that women’s hockey lined up with its central New York rival in the 2025 ECAC championship game. This year, the result was different.
“Obviously that’s something there, that little rivalry between us and Colgate, so to be able to come out on the other side of this today is just an amazing feeling,” said sophomore goaltender Annelies Bergmann after the championship game.
After claiming Ivy League, ECAC regular season and tournament titles — and beating Colgate twice — Cornell has just one final box to check off: winning the program’s first national championship. After a season filled with glory, the Red will begin its quest for a national title exactly a year after falling to Colgate in the 2024 Hamilton regional final. While the loss still stings, the experience that it brought is valuable to this year’s squad, according to head coach Doug Derraugh ’91.
“I think they learned a little bit more about what it takes at this time of year and though the regular season is one thing, the playoffs are a very different brand of hockey. Everything is elevated,” Derraugh said. “I think this team from last year understood that we needed to keep pushing and not be satisfied with how we were playing in December.”
After a 1-3-1 start, Cornell has gone on a 24-1-4 tear, entering the NCAA tournament as a three seed with a 15-game unbeaten streak. Outside of experience, with 11 seniors adorning the Red’s roster, the key to this season’s success for the Red has been its depth.
This year’s Cornell team is as deep as they come, up and down the ice. In net, Bergmann is a finalist for the Hockey Commissioners Association’s Women’s Hockey Goalie of the Year Award and is coming off a legendary performance in the Red’s triple-overtime ECAC semifinal win, when the Detroit native stopped 54 shots (22 in overtime).
On the blue line, all six of Cornell’s defenders have national team experience, with four being upperclassmen. The unit, along with Bergmann, has allowed the second-fewest goals and goals per game in the nation and posted nine shutouts, three coming against NCAA tournament teams.
Offensively, the motto for the Red this year has been ‘Strength in Numbers’, with 12 Cornellians notching more than 15 points and five scoring double-digit goals. That level of offensive depth has allowed Derraugh to play three and even four lines in key situations, keeping Cornell’s legs fresh for when it matters most.
“We’ve gotten balanced contributions from everyone,” Derraugh said.
This depth serves as a reminder of how Cornell was underrated entering the season since the Red lacked star scoring power up front. Cornell was ranked third in the ECAC preseason coaches poll, behind both Clarkson and Colgate.
Cornell’s success in the regular season and the ECAC tournament has been rewarded with the most valuable gift a team can receive this time of year: a bye and home-ice advantage in the NCAA tournament.
As the No. 3 overall seed, Cornell has the luxury to sit and watch as No. 6 Minnesota Duluth and Sacred Heart University square off Thursday night to determine who the Red will face in Saturday’s regional final contest.
The heavy favorite on Thursday is Minnesota Duluth. The Bulldogs finished the year fourth in the Western Collegiate Hockey League standings, and were a minute away from beating the top team in the country to overtime in the WCHA championship game. Ranking sixth in the Pairwise, Minnesota Duluth earned an at-large bid to the NCAA tournament.
Sacred Heart, meanwhile, earned its first-ever tournament bid by knocking off Long Island University, 4-2, in the New England Women’s Hockey Alliance championship game. Cornell has recent NCAA tournament experience against NEWHA competition, knocking off Stonehill 7-1 in the opening round of last season’s tournament.
Both the Pioneers and the Bulldogs are led by their strong goaltending, setting up an intriguing Thursday night matchup. While Minnesota Duluth’s Ève Gascon joins Bergmann as a finalist for the ACA’s Goalier of the Year award and was recently named the WCHA Goaltender of the Year, SHU’s Carly Greene has the highest save percentage in the country and the second lowest goals against average. However, these numbers have come largely against NEWHA teams, who are a step below the competition Greene will be facing in Minnesota Duluth and possibly Cornell.
For Derraugh, while both Gascon and Greene are impressive, Cornell needs to keep doing what it has been doing all season if it wants to advance to the Frozen Four.
“Each goaltender has their style, but generally speaking we have to do a lot of those same things we needed to try to do this whole season,” Derragh said.
Along with being well rested, Cornell will bring one loud advantage into Saturday’s matchup: Lynah Rink. While the Red have averaged just over 1,000 fans per game over the course of the season, the past two weekends have seen more than 1,400 members of the Lynah Faithful attend each of Cornell’s four games. In the championship game against Colgate, 1,870 fans gave the Red a serious energy boost less than 24 hours removed from winning the triple-overtime thriller. For Derraugh, the crowd at Lynah Rink is one of the first things that stands out when looking back at ECAC Championship Weekend.
“What really stood out to me was the Lynah Faithful. The crowds that we had were outstanding [and] the turnout was amazing. It makes such a difference,” Derraugh said. “I think our opponents were also amazed and the atmosphere was electric.”
Minnesota Duluth and SHU’s first round matchup will take place Thursday at 7 p.m. at Lynah Rink. Cornell will face off against the winner on 4 p.m. Saturday. 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.
