For the past three weekends, a single word can describe No. 12 women’s hockey’s play: inconclusive. The Red have split six of its past eight weekends, and seem incapable of putting up strong performances in back-to-back days. In the first half of the season, Friday’s seemed unwinnable, with Cornell dropping four straight weekend openers. Now, Cornell is struggling to win on Saturday.
This past weekend, Cornell (14-10-2, 10-7-1 ECAC) dominated Dartmouth on Friday night before futilely hoisting 49 shots in a Saturday defeat against Harvard. The weekend before, it was a dominant 6-1 win versus then-No. 7 Princeton and a 39 shot 4-0 loss to then-No. 6 Quinnipiac. The preceding Brown and Yale road trip was more of the same.
With all the ups and downs (Cornell has a 7-10-2 record since its seven game winning streak to start the season), it is difficult to come away with any strong impressions from the Red. Still, a few key themes emerge. Cornell’s smaller roster can exacerbate scoring issues, the Red’s goaltending definitely isn’t the problem and this team absolutely loves to take shots.
Shots, Shots, Shots, Shots, Shots (Everybody)!
Cornell shoots the puck a lot. While the Red’s 34.5 shots per game is an unremarkable 14th in the country, it stands out compared to Cornell teams of the past. This year’s squad shoots more than any other group since the 2012-2013 season (the last year with publicly available shots per game data), except for the 2018-2019 team. For head coach Doug Derraugh ’91, this year’s heightened shooting was not necessarily intentional.
“Every year we set goals of what we like to get, [in terms of] an average of shots on goal … we try to achieve that sort of as an average over the course of a season,” Derraugh said. “That hasn’t changed in the last probably 10 years, so it wasn't anything new that we emphasized outside of every other year.”
Even more surprising than the Red’s high shot totals are when these shots are coming. Cornell has outshot its opponents in seven of its 10 losses and in 11 of its 14 wins. While shots-on-goal isn’t always the best metric for measuring which team outplayed the other, it’s a solid indicator of which team had more control over the game.
Yet in its losses, the Red have averaged over five more shots than its opponent, and surprisingly, Cornell is averaging more shots in its losses (34.4) than in its wins (33.3). Derraugh agreed the Red shooting more in loses was “strange,” before offering a potential explanation.
“So in the losses, it would be interesting to know if, probably we were down, maybe earlier in the game, and therefore maybe we were being more aggressive in the second half of the game to generate more shots and more opportunities,” Derraugh said. “But it doesn’t seem to make a whole lot of sense that we would average more in losses than in wins.”
In its 14 wins, Cornell shoots like the best team in the country. With 62 goals on 466 shots, the Red’s shooting percentage in wins is 13.2%, the same percentage as No. 3 Minnesota — who leads the nation in shooting percentage. In its losses, Cornell shoots an abysmal 3.2% (11 goals on 344 shots), which is tied with St. Michael’s for worst in the country.
The Red’s extreme variation in shot outcome is easier to understand than its win-loss shot disparity. When Cornell gets screens in front of goaltenders and bodies in front of the net, good things happen. When they don’t, the volume of shots generated won’t change the game’s outcome.
[It’s] highly unlikely and [there’s] a low percentage chance of you scoring on a shot from the tops of circles of the blue line without some kind of screen, tip or something unusual happening,” Derraugh said. “The games where your percentages are low, you’re taking a lot of shots, probably from the outside, probably without people screening the goalie, probably without people getting to the net for rebound.”
Bergmann’s Still Battling
En route to ECAC Goaltender of the Year and America Hockey Coaches Association Second Team All-American honors, then-sophmore goaltender Annelies Bergmann finished the 2024-2025 seasons among the top-five netminders in the nation in goals against average, save percentage and wins, and led the country with 10 shutouts.
This year, Bergmann’s numbers are nowhere near as impressive. Her .927 save percentage is almost two hundredths worse than last season (meaning she is allowing an additional goal for every 50 shots she faces), and her 1.97 goals against average is the worst of her career.
But watching Bergmann play tells a different story. The electric sliding saves, large frame (she is listed as 6 foot 1) and workhorse reliability have all returned from a season ago. Outside a rough performance against Vermont, it’s difficult to find any stretch of poor play from Cornell’s netminder. Her 23 save shutout against Dartmouth last weekend was a reminder of why she is considered by some to be the future of American goaltending.
“I don’t think there’s been a big difference [in her performance],” Derraugh said after the loss to Harvard. “I think there’s been a difference in teams that are in front of her.”
The drop in Bergmann’s numbers is not due to poor play, but instead closely related to the graduation of two defenders, an Olympian and a PWHL prospect.
Freshman Line Fairs Fine
When sophomore forward Lindzi Avar picked up an injury midway through the first period on Friday, Derraugh was faced with a difficult decision. He could split up one of his veteran top-lines — which the Red relies on to generate most of its offense — or create an all-freshman third line. Derraugh went with the latter.
With Avar missing the next day’s game as well, freshman forwards Nora Curtis, London McDavid, and Shannon Pearson spent over a game and a half playing alongside each other. For the most part, the three members of the Class of 2029 performed well.
“I didn't think they created much offensively, but they certainly didn't hurt us defensively either,” Derraugh said. “[The goal is] they play an even game, then [we] hope that our top two lines can outplay their top two lines.”
With Derraugh describing Avar’s injury as “still day-to-day” on Wednesday, there’s a chance the all-freshman line will see the ice again this weekend.
The Capital Region Comes to Ithaca
Cornell’s second split of the season came back on Nov. 21 and 22, on the road against Union and Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. The 4-3 overtime loss to the Garnet Chargers — Cornell’s second loss to Union in as many years (and third loss all-time) — came thanks to the Red’s inability to score during five-on-five play.
“They play strong defensively [and] they do a good job of protecting around their neck,” Derraugh said. “They do a good job of managing the puck so that they don’t give up a lot of odd man situations and grade-A scoring chances, at least against us they haven’t.”
Outside of its win over Cornell, Union (9-17-3, 2-15-1 ECAC) has struggled in conference play, and enters the weekend having lost its last eight ECAC contests.
Before facing Union on Saturday, the Red will take on RPI (6-24-0, 3-15-0 ECAC) on Friday. Cornell downed the Engineers 4-1 in November to extend its winning streak against RPI to 12. The Red’s six graduating players will be honored after the game.
Cornell will drop the puck versus RPI at 5 p.m. on Friday at Lynah Rink, before matching up against Union at 3 p.m. the next day. Children 12 and under will receive free admission to Saturday’s contest with the Garnet Chargers as part of Cornell Athletics celebration of National Girls and Women in Sports Day. Both games 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.
