Last season, women’s hockey finished atop the ECAC Hockey standings. With the top seed in the conference’s postseason tournament, Cornell never had to leave the friendly confines of Lynah Rink en route to winning its fifth ECAC championship.
This year, the No. 11 Red (16-10-2, 12-7-1 ECAC) won’t have the luxury of playing every playoff game at home. In fact, no ECAC team — not even the one finishing atop the standings — will play all playoff games on its own campus. For the first time, championship weekend — the ECAC tournament’s semifinals and final — will take place in Lake Placid, New York.
With the change, winning the conference’s regular season title has lost its most important advantage. Now, finishing anywhere in the top four — which comes with a first-round bye and home ice in the quarterfinals — has become the major fault line, separating the favorites to reach Lake Placid from those who will have to rely on winning on the road.
“Home ice for the [quarterfinals] is helpful for us, especially because of the great crowds and atmosphere that we get at Lynah Rink. We've had a lot of success at Lynah Rink,” said head coach Doug Derraugh ’91. “That said, if you’re going to win the championship, you’ve got to beat everybody in front of you.”
In a season defined by parity, it’s no surprise that the chase for a top-four seed is coming down to the wire. Entering the final weekend of the regular season, only Princeton has clinched a first-round bye, with six other teams set to duke it out for the remaining three slots.
The Red, at 37.5 points, enters the weekend in sixth place and on the outside looking in. However, with Cornell set to face Clarkson — one of the teams currently in the top four — and the other teams surrounding the Red and the Golden Knights also set to face one another, Derraugh’s squad can earn itself a bye if it can take home all six available points.
“You hate to put yourself in a situation where you have to play in that one game [first round],” Derraugh said. “But if we do, we do.”
The North Country Awaits
Before the Red gets its chance to leapfrog Clarkson in the standings, Cornell will take on St. Lawrence on Friday night. When the two teams first met in January at Lynah Rink, the Red came out firing, scoring a pair of goals in the games first 10 minutes before eventually coming away with a 5-2 win.
According to Derraugh, the similarity in playstyles between the Saints and Cornell often lead to fast-paced affairs when the squads face off.
“They play an aggressive style, similar to us, so when we play St. Lawrence, there's a little more back and forth.” Derraugh said. “Both teams have had successes over the years with the same coaches, so I think it makes for exciting games.”
While Cornell has lost just twice to St. Lawrence since 2018, playing in Appleton Arena has been difficult for the Red in recent years. Next week will mark four years since Cornell last won in Canton, New York, with the Red going 0-2-1 in that span.
Playing Clarkson (19-10-3, 12-6-2 ECAC) away from Lynah Rink has also been a struggle for Cornell, with the Red owning an all-time record of 13-17-3 at Cheel Arena.
Add in the fact that the Golden Knights are still looking for revenge over Cornell’s triple-overtime ECAC semifinals win last spring, and Saturday’s regular season finale becomes all the more challenging.
“I anticipate two tough games,” Derraugh said. “Everybody’s fighting for something right now too, [and] everybody wants to play their best going into the playoffs.”
Cornell will first match up with St. Lawrence at 6 p.m. Friday at Appleton Arena, before taking on Clarkson at 3 p.m. the next day at Cheel Arena. Both games will be streamed live on ESPN+
Avar Remains Questionable
Since picking up an injury during Cornell’s Jan. 30 win over Dartmouth, sophomore forward Lindzi Avar has yet to see the ice for the Red despite her injury being termed “day-to-day” by Derraugh.
“We don’t want to risk anything before the playoffs,” Derraugh said. “So if she's not 100%, she will not be playing, but if she is [100%], then she will.”
Without Avar, who led the 2024-2025 squad with 15 goals, Cornell has relied on an all-freshman third forward line. After the three rookies — Shannon Pearson, London McDavid and Nora Curtis — were held to a single point in their first weekend together, the trio contributed a goal and a pair of assists in the Red’s 3-0 win over Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.
The Ivy League Title Comes Down to Princeton
On Jan. 31, Cornell wrapped up its Ivy League season with a 3-1 loss to Harvard. Since then, the chances of a third consecutive Ivy League championship for Cornell have been in the hands of the Tigers.
With Princeton’s Ivy League schedule backloaded, the Tigers seemed on track to chase down Cornell and take first in the standings. However, Princeton suffered a loss of its own to Harvard last weekend, setting up an intriguing finish to the Ivy League championship. Sitting five points behind Cornell with a pair of Ivy League games left to play, the Tigers need a (regulation) weekend sweep to claim an unshared title.
Any slipup from Princeton against Yale or Brown, and Cornell will capture its third Ivy League crown in as many years.
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.
