The story of the 2025-2026 women’s hockey season has been one of survival. No. 11 Cornell has had to survive a series of surprising upsets, a 3-6-2 midseason slump and injuries to key contributors, all while rostering just 18 skaters, the fewest since the pandemic.
So it’s no surprise that the final game of the regular season against No. 12 Clarkson (20-11-3, 13-7-2 ECAC) — which the Red (18-10-2, 14-7-1 ECAC) needed to win to secure a top-four finish in the ECAC Hockey standings and a first-round bye — came down to Cornell’s ability to survive.
Survive a hot Golden Knights start, survive taking three penalties taken within a seven-minute span in the second period and survive a desperate Clarkson offensive onslaught in which the Red was outchanced 20-4.
In the end, Cornell survived it all. Junior forward Delaney Fleming scored the game’s winning goal five minutes into the third period to put the Red ahead 2-1, and Cornell held on to secure the weekend sweep and fourth place in the standings.
“It's really important,” said head coach Doug Derraugh ’91 when asked about the impact of the top-four finish. “It's always nice to know that next round we're going to be playing Lynah Rink.”
Unlike the previous night’s overtime win over St. Lawrence, the Red got off to a difficult start against Clarkson, managing just three shots on Golden Knight’s netminder Arianne Leblanc in the game's opening 10 minutes. On the other end of the ice, junior goaltender Annelies Bergmann made a series of impressive saves, including a sprawling effort to rob Sara Manness, who entered the matchup on a 15-game point streak.
“I think both teams were a little cautious early on,” Derraugh said. “It was a big game for both teams, as far as the rankings go in the ECAC and as far as playoff implications go, so I think both teams were a little extra cautious early on, but I thought as the game [went] on, I started to see more flow.”
While the Red seemed outmatched during five-on-five play in the first period, Cornell’s special teams looked potent.
The Red received its first power-play opportunity of the game just past the halfway point in the frame, and quickly got to work testing Leblanc. Multiple tries from the point and the high slot, and a plethora of rebound chances, were all turned away by the Clarkson netminder. A second Cornell power play, seven minutes after its first, yielded similar results. The two teams entered the first intermission with the game still scoreless thanks to 10 saves apiece by Bergmann and Leblanc.
The second stanza was nearly a mirror image of the first, with Cornell dominating during even strength stretches, but the Golden Knights getting the majority of the special teams opportunities.
Part of Cornell’s control of the start of the second period can be explained by the Red’s success in the faceoff circle. Specifically, senior forward Mckenna Van Gelder spent the first half of the game winning draw after draw, capturing her 15th faceoff win on her 20th attempt midway through the second frame.
However, six minutes into the period, Cornell’s penalty parade began. First, sophomore defender Rose Dwyer was whistled for interference. Two minutes after the penalty expired, Fleming was called for hooking, an infraction which senior defender Grace Dwyer would also commit three minutes later while attempting to break up a one-on-none chance.
Each Golden Knight power play looked more lethal than the last, but Cornell’s penalty kill unit — and Bergmann — stood strong. The quick succession of penalties — combined with the fact that the Red was missing one of its best penalty killers due to injury — worried Derraugh.
“With [sophomore forward] Lindzi Avar being out … and [a] couple of penalties that we took were also our penalty killers, [it] made for a lot of work for the ones that were left to do the job,” Derraugh said. “I thought they really did a good job, though, killing off really good power play.”
A minute after Grace Dwyer was released from the penalty box, Cornell received its third skater advantage of the game when a Golden Knight was called for cross-checking. The Red power play — which had looked so promising the first period — finally delivered.
After working the puck around the exterior of the Clarkson defense, senior defender Alyssa Regalado sauced a pass to a wide-open junior forward Karel Prefontaine whose one-time slapshot beat Leblanc to put the Red in front.
The lead did not last. Three minutes after Prefontaine scored her team-leading 11th goal of the season — and with just 11 seconds left in the frame — a Clarkson two-on-one breakaway yielded an equalizer when a shot bounced off the post before ricocheting off of Bergman’s back and just past the goal line.
After the pair of back-and-forth periods marked by excellent goaltending, it seemed like a moment of offensive brilliance would decide the contest. Grace Dwyer nearly delivered that moment for Cornell, sending a hard shot off the crossbar four minutes into the final frame. Instead, Fleming would be the hero.
Skating four-on-four thanks to a pair of coincidental penalties, Fleming received a pass from junior defender Piper Grober near the right faceoff circle and fired a well-placed wrist shot above the Golden Knights’ netminder's reach to light the lamp and give the Red the lead.
With 14:57 remaining on clock, Cornell began to dig in defensively, coming under increasing pressure from Clarkson. Bergmann — who made 54 saves in a triple overtime victory over the Golden Knights in last season’s playoffs — was excellent, tallying 12 saves in the third period.
“We did give up a couple of chances I would have liked back, but [Bergmann] came up with some really big saves at times,” Derraugh said. “I also thought we did a pretty good job in front of our net of not allowing second and third opportunities.”
Derraugh took his timeout with 7:33 left in the contest, hoping to avoid another late defensive collapse which had nearly sunk the Red versus St. Lawrence the night prior.
“[We] talked a little bit about what we needed to do in the last six [to] seven minutes, and the fact that also now we had used our timeout, so [to] be prepared for them potentially to pull their goalie in the last few minutes,” Derraugh said.
This time, Cornell would hold on to win in regulation. Just as the Golden Knights pulled their netminder for an extra forward, a Clarkson skater was called for interference, forcing Leblanc to re-enter. Bergmann made her final save with 10 seconds remaining, moments before the Red began to celebrate a weekend sweep and a top-four finish.
“It's always two really tough games on the road [in the North Country], so to get five or six points down here [is] never easy,” Derraugh said. “I think the team is starting to play pretty good here at the right time of year.”
The ECAC Hockey Playoffs will begin next weekend, without the Red. Instead, Cornell will host a best-of-three quarterfinal series at Lynah Rink beginning on Feb. 28 against a yet-to-be-determined opponent.
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.
