HAMILTON, N.Y. — For seven games to open the season, women’s hockey dominated opponents. No. 4 Cornell led the nation in power play and penalty kill percentage, claimed a +25 goal differential and featured a goaltender who led the nation in save percentage. In game eight on Friday afternoon in Hamilton N.Y., the Red did not look like itself.
Cornell (7-1-0, 4-1-0 ECAC) struggled with an aggressive No. 14 Colgate (6-6-1, 2-2-1 ECAC) forecheck, while also failing to string together passes in the offensive zone. Coming into the game having led at the end of every period so far this season, the Red conceded a pair of goals in the second frame and never recovered, falling 3-0.
“Full credit to Colgate,” said head coach Doug Derraugh ’91 after the loss. “They were faster than us, they were more physical than us. They dominated the game.”
While the first period ended without score, warning signs were evident throughout the opening 20 minutes. Junior goaltender Annelies Bergmann was forced to make 17 saves thanks to numerous turnovers deep within Cornell’s defensive zone. The Red only recorded 10 shots.
“They put a lot of pressure on us, we turned over more pucks than we would have liked,” Derraugh said. “We were slow getting to pucks, I thought we were slow in general tonight.”
The first penalties of the game came nearly 15 minutes into the action when both Cornell and Colgate skaters were whistled for slashing and cross checking respectively. With 21 seconds remaining in the offsetting penalties, the four-on-four turned into a four-on-three for the Red when a Colgate player was sent to the penalty box for tripping after knocking over a Cornell skater who was purposefully shielding the Raider skaters’ dropped stick. The Red could not convert on the power play, despite bringing the puck in front of Raider netminder Brooke Davis multiple times.
Davis — a freshman — was excellent for Colgate, making back-to-back saves off loose rebounds throughout the game and denying all 20 of Cornell’s shots on goal. The Colgate defense, which came into the weekend ranked 35th in the country and allowing an average 3.25 goals per game, was dominant in both five-on-five and special teams play.
The Raiders scored their first goal just 24 seconds into the second period off a Cornell miscue. After a period-opening faceoff win, the Red controlled the puck and attempted to bring it out of its defensive zone along the boards. Just as Cornell’s defenders were skating up the ice in anticipation of the puck being cleared, a Colgate player stole the puck and sauced a pass to a wide open teammate in front of the net. Bergmann, left alone with a player in the low slot, could not react quickly enough to stop a wrist shot and for the first time in the 2025-2026 season Cornell trailed.
Things quickly got worse. Colgate doubled its lead less than a minute later when a rebounding puck was pushed by a sprawled-out Bergmann. The Red’s best stretch of play came late in the middle frame, when a series of tic-tac-toe passes led to multiple open shots, but Cornell was denied by Davis.
In the third period, the Red’s push to get on the board was aided by a pair of Raider penalties. However, what had been a dominant power play unit all season struggled to test Davis. The last of Cornell’s three power plays in the game was illustrative of the team’s shortcomings.
With 5:06 remaining in the final frame, a Colgate player was whistled for interference. Trailing by two and with time quickly running out, finding a way to score with the skater advantage was crucial to a late-game comeback. Instead, Cornell spent more time in its defensive zone than near the Raider net thanks to multiple defensive and neutral zone turnovers.
“We need to be better with the puck, we need to be more physical, we need to win more battles,” Derraugh said. “We need to be better in our execution of all aspects of the game.”
After the Red pulled Bergmann for an extra skater, Colgate tallied an empty net goal to ice the game.
The loss was surprising considering how differently Cornell and Colgate’s seasons had started. While the Red reeled off seven straight wins, the Raiders suffered a number of surprising upsets. However, Colgate looked like a clearly better team Friday afternoon. The Raiders outshot Cornell 44-20 and handed Cornell its first shutout since the first game of the 2024-2025 season.
“I’m not going to sit here and make excuses, they were better than us. That’s the bottom line,” Derraugh said when asked about what caused the team’s lethargic play. “Whatever that reason is, we’ll have to figure it out tomorrow.”
Cornell and Colgate will face off again tomorrow at 3 p.m. in Lynah Rink. 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.
