The Cornell-Colgate rivalry has produced no shortage of nail-biting finishes.
Between the heavy-hitting regular-season tilts to playoff thrillers, it’s difficult to find two teams with more pure hatred for one another. And considering 14 of the last 27 matchups between Cornell and Colgate have been decided by a single goal, it’s no surprise that Friday’s ECAC quarterfinal matchup was all tied up at the end of regulation.
In the end, it took a senior for Cornell — in her 12th career game against the Raiders — to settle the latest iteration of the Red-Raider rivalry. Her goal, which came 10:18 into overtime, delivered a 3-2 win to Cornell and a 1-0 series lead.
“It was exciting. I think Lynah was pretty packed,” said senior forward Avi Adam, fresh off of scoring the overtime winner. “So it was a great atmosphere to play in front of, something special, especially as my class’s last weekend in Lynah. It was awesome.”
Adam was all over the ice on Friday, firing six shots on goal and taking hits from Colgate skaters. The Raiders’ physicality was brooding as it battled back and overcame a 2-0 deficit before falling in overtime.
“It was a typical playoff game,” said head coach Doug Derraugh ’91. “I thought both teams came out, played hard. It was pretty physical, obviously a close battle.”
Though she allowed two goals in the final frame, junior goaltender Annelies Bergmann was the reason Colgate didn’t walk away with a lead in the series. She made 25 stops, including eight in the extra period, to secure her third playoff overtime win in her three-year tenure.
“[Colgate] had their chances,” Derraugh said. “[Bergmann] made some big saves for us to keep us in it in overtime. It could have went either way.”
In fact, she was flawless through the first two periods, where Cornell built itself a 2-0 lead on goals from senior forward Georgia Schiff and junior forward Delaney Fleming.
From the first period’s drop of the puck, Cornell’s week of rest seemed to have paid off. A physical first frame was dominated in the early goings by the Red — Colgate, on the other hand, took down Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, 4-2, the weekend prior.
After earning a couple of strong chances, a fortuitous bounce was all Cornell needed — good pressure in the offensive zone yielded a handful of shots on goal, and a putback on a rebound off the goaltender deflected off the shinpad of Schiff and into the back of the net 11:09 into the contest. The goal was momentarily reviewed to determine whether it had crossed the goal line, but Schiff’s 11th goal of the year — her first of these playoffs — was upheld.
The teams would skate into the locker room with the home team up by one, in a frame characterized by heavy hitting and stingy defense — expected for the two bitter rivals. Cornell outshot the Raiders in the opening period, 10-7.
The Red carried its momentum into the middle frame, and it didn’t take long for the Red’s lead to double. Hemmed deep in its defensive zone, Colgate allowed Fleming to fire a sharp-angle shot — the shot, to the dismay of Raider netminder Brooke Davis, snuck through her pads just 5:59 into the period to make it a 2-0 game.
With a rejuvenated Lynah Rink crowd on its side, Cornell injected frustration into its opponents as Colgate was nabbed for boarding moments after Fleming’s tally. To the power play the Red would go, and after two unsuccessful power plays earlier in the frame, the third time was the charm.
Or so Cornell thought — junior defender Piper Grober appeared to make it a 3-0 game just 23 seconds after Fleming’s goal, but amid some commotion atop Davis’ crease, Colgate utilized its coach’s challenge to check for goaltender interference. This time, the call on the ice would be reversed — the Raiders’ challenge was successful, and Grober’s strike was wiped from the board.
There would be no further scoring from Cornell for the remainder of the period, but Colgate could not find the back of the net either. Bergmann has had some humanizing moments this season, but she looked like her dominant self between the pipes on Friday, stopping all 11 Colgate shots through two periods.
Bergmann is not impenetrable, however — she might have been perfect through two periods, but after the Raiders were dealt an early third-period power play, Bergmann saw a hard one-timer off Colgate’s Alexis Petford’s stick sail into the back of the net, halving Cornell’s lead just 2:13 into the final frame.
The Raiders were physical — that was most apparent in the final minutes of regulation, when Cornell had a prime opportunity to add an insurance goal after Colgate was whistled for tripping with 5:03 to go.
The Red executed a couple of stellar passing plays, but none were able to find the twine. Cornell was stymied by some brooding hits by the Raider penalty killers, including one on Adam that had her wincing as she tried to tee up another goal to put Colgate away.
"We talk about toughness all the time, especially at this time of year," Derraugh said. "And what does that look like? I think sometimes people think that it's making a big hit. I think toughness, a lot of times, is [when] somebody's winding up for a slap shot, and you're going to get down and you're going to pay the price, right? ... That's toughness to me."
But the Raiders got the kill, and it wasn’t long before Petford — for the second time — ripped a one-timer that beat Bergmann. Cornell’s once two-goal lead was suddenly erased, as the Raiders used the extra attacker to make it a 2-2 game with just two minutes to play.
To overtime Cornell would go. For Adam, Friday marked the fourth playoff overtime she and her fellow seniors have played in since arriving in Ithaca as freshmen.
That experience, she said, paid off.
“We’re confident [because] we have that [experience] to kind of fall back on.” Adam said. “There was no doubt in our minds when we went into the locker room after the third period that we were going to come up with a win, especially after the Clarkson game last year.”
It was evident in how Cornell took over the extra period — Colgate took charge early, but the Red soon found its legs and retaliated. Near the halfway point of the extra period, Adam was heading off for a line change, before junior forward Karel Prefontaine hounded her to turn around and find the loose puck.
Adam did, taking it to the slot, beating Davis and putting her squad one win away from Lake Placid.
“I don’t really know where it went, but it went in,” Adam said. “I think Colgate is obviously our rival, so it always feels good to win games against them, especially after sophomore year. They were kind of our kryptonite that whole year, beating us in the [NCAA] regional final, but the job's only half done.”
Cornell will look to finish the job and earn a sweep of the Raiders when the two foes meet again 3 p.m. on Saturday at Lynah Rink. All action will stream live on ESPN+, and live updates will be provided by @DailySunSports on X.
Jane McNally is a senior editor on the 143rd editorial board and was the sports editor on the 142nd editorial board. She is a member of the Class of 2026 in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences. You can follow her on X @JaneMcNally_ and reach her at jmcnally@cornellsun.com.
