Every player but No. 4 women’s hockey’s two backup goaltenders have seen action in all six of the season’s opening games. You wouldn’t know this, nor that they’d had a midweek game four days before, on Friday night.
Five minutes in, the Red had its first tally on the board. Moments later, it doubled that lead.
The Red (6-0-0, 3-0-0 ECAC) began its second ECAC weekend of the 2025-2026 season with a decisive win over No. 14 Yale (3-3-0, 1-3-0). An explosive first period and locked down defense in the face of a hot-handed Yale offense handed Cornell the 3-0 victory.
“We really took advantage of the opportunities that we did get, but I thought Yale did a really good job of limiting us,” said head coach Doug Derraugh ’91. “They outplayed us a lot tonight, but our defense bended but didn’t break.”
Unlike its slow start on Tuesday, Cornell wasted no time in making its mark against Yale.
Cornell’s leading goal-scorer, freshman forward Nora Curtis, struck first after five minutes of rigorous attack. Junior forward Beatrice Perron-Roy fired a close shot at the Bulldogs’ goal, which ricocheted off a defender to set Curtis up for a tip into the net.
“We are used to doing these kinds of set plays [in practice],” Curtis said. “We know where each other are now. It makes it simple to set up that system.”
Less than two minutes later, the same line found success from the exact spot it had scored from moments before. Curtis and freshman forward London McDavid logged assists, with McDavid firing a cross-ice pass to set Perron-Roy up for an uncontested shot.
Between the two freshman on attack and sophomore defender Rose Dwyer, underclassmen skaters outnumbered upperclassmen on the ice for both goals.
“I give a lot of credit to leaders in our locker room, our captains and our seniors who have helped the first year players understand what’s expected of them in this program,” Derraugh said. “And I have to give the first year players a lot of credit for getting a good handle on the systems early in the season.”
Cornell continued its penalty kill prowess with a successfully defended power play in the last minutes of the first period. Two defenders and junior goaltender Annelies Bergmann threw themselves to the ice to prevent a lead-halving goal by Yale.
Despite being outmatched 6-12 in shots on goal in the opening 20 minutes, the Red headed into the locker room up 2-0.
“That’s just what our team is built on. It’s D-first,” Bergmann said. “It’s important for us to capitalize on the opportunities that we do get, and obviously we don’t want to play as much in the D-zone as we did, but we have a D-first team and it showed up there.”
The Bulldogs seized control of the game coming out of the locker room, wracking up 13 shots in the second period’s first eight minutes. Yale’s dominant run came to a halt when it received a penalty, forcing it off the attack.
Last year’s leader in power play goals, sophomore forward Lindzi Avar, capitalized just before the clock ran out on the advantage. Avar’s close-range tally, which followed up a blocked attempt by senior forward Avi Adam, marked her third power-play goal of the season. Cornell leads the country on the power play, having seen success in one-third of opportunities in its first five games.
Curtis earned an assist on the team’s third goal, giving her a hand in every score of the night.
“She’s come in with a lot of poise for a first-year player,” Derraugh said. “She’s big, she can shoot a puck. She’s getting to those tough areas … and she really battles for position down there. When she gets an opportunity to shoot it, she’s dangerous.”
The second period closed out with a penalty on senior defender Grace Dwyer, which despite a scramble near the net, proved fruitless for Yale. The Bulldogs again outshot the Red — taking 15 shots on goal to Cornell’s 7 over the course of the period — but the Red’s D-line held strong.
The first 10 minutes of the final period passed uneventfully, with the teams trading penalties but coming up short on the finish. Both squads showed waning energy, and their coordination loosened.
Bergmann made several critical saves as the time ran out, protecting her perfect game in net even as Yale pulled its goaltender for the extra skater. Bergmann, already two-time ECAC Goaltender of the Week this season, made 39 saves en route to her fourth shutout of the year.
“It’s never just me out there,” Bergmann said. “Our [defense], no matter what, they’re gonna have my back. If I could split the shutout puck every single way between the [defenders], I would.”
Cornell doesn’t have much time to celebrate the victory, as it now shifts focus to the second game of the weekend. No. 15 Brown, a team which secured a win against No. 7 Quinnipiac last weekend and a shootout victory against Colgate on Friday, will travel to Lynah for an anticipated Saturday-afternoon clash.
Puck drops at 3 p.m., and live coverage will be available on ESPN+.
Alexis Rogers is the sports editor on the 143rd editorial board. She is in the Class of 2028 in the College of Arts & Sciences, and she can be reached at arogers@cornellsun.com.
