Five Players Score as No. 5 Women’s Hockey Opens ECAC and Ivy Campaign With Win

Five different players scored and five more notched an assist as women’s hockey opened up its ECAC title defense with a 5-2 win over Harvard. 

Cornell looked sloppy for chunks of the game and took a season-high five penalties, but the Red scored multiple impressive goals on Izzy Whynot in her collegiate debut and got 29 saves from junior Goaltender Annelies Bergmann. Cornell has not lost a game to an Ivy League foe since November 18, 2023 and now has 14 Ivy League wins in its past 16 games

While No. 5 Cornell’s (3-0, 1-0 ECAC) offense was firing throughout the contest, the biggest moment of the game came from the Red’s penalty kill. After taking a 4-1 lead into the final period, Cornell conceded a goal and then committed a pair of penalties, giving Harvard (2-1, 0-1 ECAC) nearly 30 seconds of a five-on-three power play with 15:22 left to play. 

The Crimson threatened, but the Red and Bergmann held strong for both the 29 seconds of the two-skater advantage and the ensuing 1:31 of a typical power play. With the pressure receding, freshman forward Nora Curtis scored a final insurance goal with 4:39 remaining to ice the game.  

While a freshman scored the final goal of the game for Cornell, it was a senior who got the scoring started. With 7:16 remaining in the opening period, senior forward Mckenna Van Gelder sauced a pass by two Crimson defenders to find an open senior forward Georgia Schiff cutting in front of the net. Schiff brought the puck to her backhand before flipping it over the glove of Whynot for her first score — and third point — of the season.

Although Harvard controlled play after conceding the opening goal, Cornell would double its lead four minutes later. Senior forward Avi Adam forced a turnover while forechecking behind the Harvard net and proceeded to slide a pass to sophomore forward Lindzi Avar. With open space in front of the crease, Avar elected to fire a spinning backhanded shot which slipped by a lunging Whynot.

While the Red entered the locker room with a two-goal lead after the first period, the opening 20 minutes of action were fairly even. Just like in both of its wins against Boston College last weekend, Cornell looked rusty in the opening minutes of play before finding its stride in the final portion of the period.

After failing to score in her first three seasons in Ithaca, senior defender Sarah MacEachern tallied her second goal in as many games when — directly off an offensive zone faceoff win — she sniped a low-angle shot over the netminder to give Cornell a three-goal lead 2:25 into the second frame. 

After each team took a turn failing to score on a power play, Harvard finally beat Bergmann with 3:26 remaining in the period when a deflected shot bounced off a Crimson stick into the back of the net.

However, Adam responded just over a minute later with a one-time slapshot from the right faceoff circle to bring the lead back to three.

Cornell gave Harvard its second power play of the game when junior forward Delaney Fleming was called for slashing with 27 seconds remaining in the period. Cornell entered the second intermission with a three-goal lead after outshooting Harvard 17-12 in the middle frame. 

Just as the power play expired in the third period, a Crimson defender rifled a wrist shot that went bar-down and by Bergmann to cut Harvard’s deficit to two. Then came the pair of Cornell penalties, the Red’s fifth and sixth successful penalty kills of the season, and the Curtis goal. 

After boasting 13 double-digit point scorers in 2024-2025, Cornell now has 15 players with a point through three games this season. The Red’s 12 goals have come off the sticks of 10 different skaters.

Cornell will be back in action tomorrow afternoon against Dartmouth at 3 p.m. The Big Green knocked off No. 8 Colgate Friday afternoon for its first win of the season. Action will be streamed live on ESPN+.

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