Women’s hockey’s six seniors — Avi Adam, Grace Dwyer, Mckenna Van Gelder, Sarah MacEachern, Alyssa Regalado and Georgia Schiff — sat down on the Tuesday before senior night to discuss some of their most memorable on-ice moments from their time playing for Cornell.
Below is an annotated transcript of their conversation with Eli Fastiff ’26 and Jane McNally ’26, hockey editors for The Sun.
The following interview has been edited for length and clarity.
The interview begins with a video of then-freshman Schiff scoring the 2022-2023 season’s biggest goal…
Feb 25, 2023: Cornell at Clarkson (ECAC quarterfinals Game 2)
After falling 5-1 to the Golden Knights the previous day, the Class of 2026 faced its first win-or-go-home game of their collegiate careers. With each team scoring a goal in the middle frame, Cornell and Clarkson headed to overtime with the score tied, 1-1. Finally, in the second overtime period, Schiff broke through to keep Cornell’s season alive.
Fastiff: This is from the ECAC quarterfinals.
Adam: Oh my god!
Schiff: Avi, are you on the ice with me?
Adam: Yeah, we’re all together! This was, like, our second shift of the game.
Silence as the room watches Schiff’s goal.
McNally: Who’s hopping?
Regalado: Me.
Schiff: Reggie hops at like every goal.
McNally: How’d you feel after that?
Schiff: It was a long time ago. It was a pretty surreal moment. It was a survive-and-advance game, so it was exciting for the team to get that one.
The goal itself, I don't really remember much. I mean, [I was] kind of just standing net-front, which isn’t too unusual for me, and trying to take care of any rebounds that popped out.
Fastiff: Do any of you remember anything about that overtime?
Adam: It was the second overtime of the game, so it was a long game for sure. And it was hot downstairs at Clarkson. I remember they cranked the heat in the away locker room down there.
McNally: If you were to pick one goal that you’ve scored, would that have been the one you picked?
Schiff: Ooh, I don’t know. That one, or I think one that was also pretty memorable for me was two years ago against Quinnipiac in the playoffs. [Scoring] the first one in game two was something that was pretty meaningful.
Fastiff: That game two was the one after Karel [Prefontaine] had the crazy goal?
Schiff: Yeah! Karel had the crazy goal and —
Schiff is interrupted.
Multiple seniors: “The Lynah boards!”
March 1, 2024: Quinnipiac at Cornell (ECAC Quarterfinals Game 1) AKA “The Lynah Boards Game”
After blowing a two-goal lead, No. 6 Cornell entered overtime versus No. 9 Quinnipiac hoping to avoid an upset in its first playoff game of the season. Three minutes into the overtime period, the Bobcat netminder came out of her net to play a wayward pass, but the puck took a strange bounce off the end boards right to Prefontaine who fired the puck into the mostly-open net.
Adam: She went to go play the puck, and it rimmed around, popped out and Karel just put it in.
MacEachern: That poor girl.
Regalado: At practice that week, didn’t it happen to Bergs [then-sophomore goaltender Annelies Bergmann]?
Others agree.
Regalado: We were at practice and the same thing happened. Then that weekend, sure enough.
Adam: We were joking about it. We were like, ‘Oh, make sure this doesn’t happen in the game.’
MacEachern: We were like, ‘Lynah boards.’
All six seniors start laughing.
Fastiff: Changing gears, Sarah, this is one from this year.
MacEachern (with a laugh): I was going to say …
A video of MacEachern’s first goal plays.
Oct. 18, 2025: Boston College at Cornell
After missing most of her freshman and junior seasons due to injuries, MacEachern entered her senior year still searching for her first collegiate goal. Seven minutes into the second game of her final season, MacEachern found the back of the net.
MacEachern: Netfront …
MacEachern is interrupted by a chorus of cheers and shouts of “That’s a netfront.” Trying to get bodies in front of the net for tip-ins, deflections and rebounds has been a goal for Cornell this season.
MacEachern: Honestly? I didn’t know that I scored. I was just happy to be playing again and to be back in Lynah. I guess I was following what coach [Doug Derraugh ’91] was saying, getting all players interchangeable. So I was net front, and I think it was actually my D partner that shot the puck. I just tried to take away the goalie’s eyes.
Fastiff: Were you thinking going into this year about how you hadn’t scored?
MacEachern: No, I wasn't. I feel like most people would, but I was just happy to be down with the team on the bench, whether I was on the ice or not. Honestly, I’m just happy not to be injured. So no, a goal was not on my mind, but it was nice to get one.
Fastiff: Avi, I have one from Dartmouth last year.
Multiple players audibly say, “Oh,” with seemingly mixed emotions.
A video of Adam’s game-saving goal versus Dartmouth plays.
1.24.24: Cornell at Dartmouth
Needing four points to capture a second straight Ivy League crown, No. 6 Cornell headed east to face a struggling pair of conference foes in Dartmouth and Harvard. Despite the Big Green’s 2-10-3 ECAC record, the Red found themselves trailing by a goal with under two minutes remaining and pulled Bergmann for an extra skater. After the Red won three straight offensive zone draws, Adam lit the lamp with 11.6 seconds left in regulation. After a back-and-forth overtime ended in a tie, Cornell went on to beat Harvard the following day to claim the Ivy title.
Regalado (whispering): Oh my god, I remember this!
Adam: I have mixed feelings about that goal. I mean, it was cool to score, but obviously, it was frustrating being down against Dartmouth and not getting the win in regulation. So, kind of frustrating that we were in that position to begin with, from my perspective, at least.
A lot of my family was actually at that game, and they don't really see me play that often, so that was a special moment for me personally, that they were there that weekend. I think that was the weekend we won the Ivies, right? So that was a great weekend for me and my family. And then I think our junior coach was there as well, so that was pretty cool, him and his wife.
Fastiff: Would you have chosen another goal?
McNally: Or even something you factored in on?
Adam: I think you'll probably show Reggie's goal from the NCAA tournament.
Fastiff: Yup.
Multiple players start to cheer.
Adam: Coach would show [the NCAA tournament goal] on video because it was a well-executed D zone breakout to neutrals on forecheck, and we had people driving in the lanes that they needed to. And obviously not to take away from …
Adam nods towards Regalado.
Adam: It was a bit of a fluke goal, but we were running our routes the way that we needed to, which I think was kind of what made it happen. That was cool. We set you up to be there for it.
Adam starts to laugh as she remembers the post-goal celebration.
Adam: And then we had to chase you all the way over to the boards!
McNally: On that note, should we watch the goal?
Multiple players agree, and the video of Lynah Rink’s most-viewed women’s hockey goal begins to play.
March 15, 2025: Minnesota Duluth at Cornell (NCAA Tournament Regional Final and Lynah Rink Women’s Hockey Attendance Record)
After winning its fifth ECAC championship, No. 3 Cornell hosted No. 6 Minnesota-Duluth with a trip to the Frozen Four on the line. In front of 3,135 fans — many of whom were wearing green thanks to St. Patrick’s day festivities — Regalado scored the game’s only goal four minutes into the third period, and the Red held on to shutout the Bulldogs.
Fastiff: It was so loud. That’s what I remember from that game.
MacEachern: Damn, Lynah was packed.
Adam: Is there no sound?
The video plays again, this time with sound: “Trying to jump-start a rush, here comes Gabbie Rud. Rud, at the line, play stays on side. Wide of the net, Regalado… She scores!!”
Regalado: I don’t know how I felt in the moment. I talked about it after the game, but I blacked out. I didn’t come-to until I was back on the bench after. It was a great play by Gabbie to gain the red line and make that pass through the defender right to my stick. And then, to be honest, I saw Avi going to the net, and I was trying to get it to Avi.
Adam: You confessed that later, though.
The group laughs.
Regalado: I honestly was. And then obviously, good things happen when the puck goes to the net. I thought [the puck] was the goalie’s foot at first. But I’ll take it. I was happy that the team could pull through for the rest of the game and play strong defensively to get us to the Frozen Four. It was, like Avi said, a team-effort goal. Everyone did kind of what they needed to do, and things went the right way.
Fastiff: It must have been incredible to play in front of all those people. I remember at the post-game press conference, everyone was talking about how loud it was and what it was like lining up on the line before the game, hearing the ‘Red’ during the anthem.
Regalado: It was pretty cool, too, because we don’t get the newspapers at very many of our games, and it kind of started a little bit during the playoffs, and then that game, the whole student section had newspapers, and were throwing them on the ice. That was pretty surreal for us, because it’s not something that we got to really experience. It was pretty cool to live up to the Lynah traditions, and then obviously winning the game too is the cherry on top.
McNally: I’m curious, for how many of you, if that's one of your favorite games or moments you've had here?
Everyone but MacEachern nods.
Adam: Hands down. I don’t think anything compares.
MacEachern (with a laugh): I wasn’t there. I was in bed. I was sick, but it was really fun to watch.
Regalado: We FaceTimed her after the game in the locker room.
I think the coolest part, too, is kind of looking at all the games afterwards, and the capacity of the fans from the other games, and ours was, what, 1,000 over the next game. And some of the games had like 400 fans. We had 3,100.
The other three regional finals had an average attendance of 1,538.
McNally: I think, in terms of attendance last year, you guys were top five, at least.
Cornell averaged 1,218 fans per home game, third most in the country.
Regalado: As each game went on, it felt like more and more people were coming. The Union playoffs brought more people, then obviously the ECAC tournament brought more too.
Dwyer: [The NCAA tournament] was also St. Paddy’s day.
Fastiff: I was going to say …
Adam: It was definitely a bit rowdy.
Regalado: You could see people in green in the stands.
Schiff: Trying to come home after the game, there was traffic and roadblocks.
Adam: It was like red, red, red, green. It was cool that it was — not exactly a holiday — but obviously, on a college campus, it kind of is, and people still went out of their way and made an effort to come to the game. The atmosphere was absolutely electric. It was so loud in there.
Schiff: You couldn’t hear coach talking during TV timeouts, it was just deafening.
Dwyer: Everyone was so locked in.
Regalado: And the football team behind the net was pretty electric.
Adam: Something that comes up for me is the PK at the end of the game. We were stuck out there for two and a half minutes, or whatever it was, in the D zone, and couldn’t change. And Bergs was just, like … on one. Nothing was getting by her. They had so many shots, and I think the goal was obviously awesome, but the end of that game was insane.
Schiff: They might have outshot us by the end of the game.
Fastiff: It was also so much louder than the year before against Stonehill.
Schiff: Yeah, at Colgate. I remember they were playing Colgate’s goal song when we scored. That was an out-of-body experience.
Fastiff: And their goal horn is so loud.
Adam: It’s obnoxious.
Dwyer elects to discuss her assist in Cornell’s 2025 ECAC semifinals win over Clarkson, instead of her game-winning goal over Stonehill in the 2024 NCAA tournament.
March 7, 2025: Clarkson at Cornell (ECAC Semifinals)
In Cornell’s second-longest win in program history, the Red needed a third overtime period to overcome an upset bid from the Golden Knights. Bergmann’s 54 save performance kept Cornell in the game, and eventually it was then-senior Lily Delianedis ’25 who broke the deadlock midway through the sixth period.
Dwyer: First of all, it was the sixth period. At that point, people were just laughing in the locker room — it was kind of delirious.
Van Gelder (laughing): The sacrifice!
Others urge Dwyer to explain.
Dwyer: We were putting some — offerings — into the middle of the locker room.
People were just putting their legs up, and we were like, ‘Guys, we got it.’
Everyone was laughing. I remember feeling like, ‘We’re not losing this game.’ And so they took a penalty — which was kind of crazy, because usually you don't call a penalty in an OT game like that — we were like ‘we gotta capitalize.’ I remember we were moving it around, and I passed it to Lily. And she shot it, and it deflected off the D or something — and that was it. I kinda blacked out, everyone cellied.
Fastiff (with a laugh): I want to hear more about that intermission.
Regalado: It didn’t really start until before the third overtime.
MacEachern: It was going into the sixth period, like what?
Regalado: 100 minutes, yeah.
Van Gelder: I thought it started after the first overtime, then we added more —
Multiple seniors jump in to agree, trading thoughts on who (or what) started the pile.
MacEachern: I remember coach walked in, and he was like —
Regalado makes a confused expression, mimicking Derraugh’s reaction.
MacEachern: He just looked and then kept walking.
The group breaks into another discussion of who started the pile, with multiple players referencing a box of Honey Stinger gummies, part of a banana and a half-eaten Snickers.
Adam: So I guess it started with people giving snacks, saying, ‘Eat, eat,’ since at that point it had been hours and hours since anyone had eaten a meal or anything. I was personally seeing stars.
I think everyone was dehydrated and lightheaded, it was not good. It started with a snack circle and then it became an offering. Like whoever wanted to could come and snack.
Dwyer: I think it was a cool team-bonding moment. I think the best part, too, is it rolled into the next game against Colgate. We didn’t have time to recover, so we just kept going; the adrenaline was still going.
Cornell faced Colgate in the ECAC championship game 20 hours after its win over Clarkson.
Fastiff: I was going to say, I didn’t necessarily expect a dominant performance the next day after five and a half periods of hockey.
Regalado: I guess it helped that their game started at 9 p.m.
Fastiff: Okay, Mckenna, the last clip was actually the first goal from that Colgate game.
A video of Van Gelder’s goal against Colgate plays.
March 16, 2025: Colgate at Cornell (ECAC Championship Game)
After knocking off Clarkson in triple overtime, No. 3 Cornell showed no signs of tired legs in its championship matchup with No. 5 Colgate. The Red scored a pair of goals in the game’s opening three minutes en route to a 5-1 win and Cornell’s first ECAC title since 2014.
MacEachern (laughing): Oh my god, I remember that celly!
Schiff: That’s on the back of like every workout card.
Fastiff: I think I need to see it again.
MacEachern: She’s punching the air.
Adam: She just dropped her stick and just —
Adam is interrupted.
Van Gelder: I didn’t drop it, someone took it from me. Okay, so that one: sick pass from Avi, and then, I remember I was really upset I didn’t score off the hop [the start of the game], so I was like, ‘I have to put this in.’
Cornell had lost all four of its matchups with Colgate the season before, including in the ECAC and NCAA tournaments.
Van Gelder: So that was a goal that I just had to celebrate so hard on, and I didn't have a stick, so I had both my hands to do so. I was just pumped and throwing my arms everywhere, and then Reggie was basically holding me back to the band. We got some pretty good pictures off of that. But, yeah, Colgate is a good rival, so it always feels good to score against them.
Adam: That was our first shift of the game, too.
Van Gelder: I think that’s also why I was so excited because it was right off the hop, the energy was already there. So it was just like, really electric. And then we scored the next shift.
Adam: We literally sat back down on the bench after that goal like, ‘Let’s go,’ and before we knew it, the crowd erupted again.
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.
