Cornell Athletics Hall of Famer and four-time Olympic medalist Rebecca Johnston ’12 announced her retirement from hockey on Thursday in a letter posted to Hockey Canada's website. Johnston, 36, is one of the most important women’s hockey players in school history, helping establish Cornell as a top-tier program in the NCAA. The forward holds the program’s NCAA-era career goals record and was the first Cornellian to be named to the All-ECAC first team and the first to win ECAC Rookie of the Year.
“Hockey has given me so much more than medals and championships. It gave me purpose. It gave me friendships that will last a lifetime. It taught me about sacrifice, commitment, teamwork, perseverance and love,” Johnston wrote in her letter. “It took me around the world, introduced me to people who inspired me, and helped me grow into the person I am today.”
While Johnston will always hold a special place in Cornell hockey history, she will be best remembered in the hockey world for her success with the Canadian national team. The Sudbury, Ontario native captured three gold medals and a silver in her four Olympic Games, including in 2010, when she took a gap year in what should have been her junior season to help Canada win gold in the Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In addition to her Olympic success, Johnston also won a trio of gold medals, eight silver and a bronze at 12 IIHF world championship tournaments, as well as five Four Nations Cup titles.
Despite all the international experience, it’s her time in Ithaca that Johnston credits with molding her into who she is today.
“Those four years were some of the best of my life,” she wrote. “All of it shaped me into the player and person I became. Cornell was where I truly discovered who I was, both on and off the ice.”
When Johnston arrived in Ithaca in 2007, the women’s hockey program was a national afterthought. Two years prior, Doug Derraugh ’91 had taken over a program which had yet to finish higher than fifth in the ECAC. With Johnston, Cornell’s fortunes were reversed — the Red’s leading goal scorer all four years she played, Johnston helped capture Cornell’s second ECAC championship in 2011 and a pair of trips to the Frozen Four in 2011 and 2012.
In December of her sophomore season, Derraugh described what made Johnston so special in an interview with the Sun.
“Rebecca is a hard working player and probably the most explosive player I’ve ever seen in girl’s hockey,” Derraugh said. “I don’t think there’s a girl more challenging to play against than Rebecca. Her first three or four strides I think are better than anybody in women’s hockey right now. I consider her to be one of the top players in Canada and the world for that matter.”
Johnston’s accolades echo Derraugh’s assessment. She was named ECAC Rookie of the Year, spent three years as a Patty Kazmaier Award top-10 finalist — which is the award given to the best collegiate women’s hockey player — four seasons on the All-ECAC and All-Ivy first teams, was a first team All-American as a senior, and collected a pair of second team All-American honors.
When looking at Johnston’s statistics, it’s easy to see why she racked up the hardware. As a freshman,she became the program's first 30-plus point scorer in 10 seasons, before pushing that total to 45, 50 and finally 61 her next three seasons.
Cornell’s ECAC quarterfinal matchup with Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute Johnston’s junior season is an apt illustration of her goal-scoring prowess. With seven seconds remaining in regulation in game one, Johnston scored a game-tying goal. The next night, Johnston scored a hat trick to send the Red to the semifinals.
With stories like that, it’s no surprise the Cornell women's hockey record book is littered with her name. Johnston not only holds the NCAA-era (since 2001) program record in career goals, but also sits third in total points and fifth in plus/minus. Her senior season is statistically the second-best in school history — she had the second-most goals (30), power-play goals (8), points and tied for the program record in game-winning goals (7) in a single season.
After graduating with a major in communication, Johnston was drafted second overall in the 2012 Canadian Women’s Hockey League draft. She went on to claim a Most Valuable Player title and two Clarkson Cup championships with the Calgary Inferno. She was inducted into the Cornell Athletics Hall of Fame in 2023.
Johnston’s last on-ice appearance was in the 2023 IIHF Women’s World Championship for Canada. She has now serves as the player development and grassroots hockey coordinator for the Calgary Flames in the NHL.
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.
