Last season, women’s hockey lost just two games at Lynah Rink. One to Colgate, the ECAC Hockey runner-up and an NCAA tournament team. The other to Union.
This year, the Garnet Chargers came to Ithaca with only a pair of victories in conference play. One came against Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, the 11th-place team in the conference. The other? A 4-3 overtime win over Cornell.
So when Union jumped out to an early 8-3 lead in shots on Saturday, a sense of déjà vu began to take hold of the Lynah Faithful. Would the Red’s kryptonite deal a near-fatal blow to Cornell’s hopes of a top-four finish in ECAC play?
The Red had other ideas.
“We never were defeated,” said senior forward Mckenna Van Gelder. “So we just stuck together and realized in that [first] intermission that we need to play harder. And that’s what we did. Simple as that.”
Cornell (16-10-2, 12-7-1 ECAC) quickly bounced back after its slow start, scoring a pair of power-play goals and outshooting Union (9-19-3, 2-17-1 ECAC) 43-19 en route to a 5-0 win and junior goaltender Annelies Bergmann’s sixth shutout of the season.
The first period was a tale of special teams. Both teams traded chances five-on-five, but it was the two power plays that saw the stanza’s best action.
Under eight minutes in, Cornell took a body-checking penalty, sending Union to the skater advantage. A Union one-timer from the slot rang off the iron and two stuff chances were denied by Bergmann. Gutsy shot blocks from senior forward Avi Adam and Van Gelder allowed the Red to clear the puck and survive a dangerous-looking Union power play.
Then, with just over six minutes remaining in the frame, the Red got a chance to break the ice after the Garnet Chargers committed a cross-checking minor penalty.
After a faceoff win, the Red’s three-defender power play unit cycled the puck around the perimeter before finding Van Gelder, who fired a shot from the high slot. Senior forward Georgia Schiff was parked in front of Union’s Emma Rhéaume and corralled the rebound before spinning the puck past Rhéaume to put the Red up 1-0.
Cornell’s atypical power play unit — which has stayed together since the start of the season — would prove to be a force throughout the afternoon, generating high chance opportunities and scoring twice on four attempts.
“We think we’ve got some defenders that are skilled offensive defenders,” said head coach Doug Derraugh ’91. “We tried to make power plays based on skill sets of players, but also based on structure. With that power play, it seemed to make the most sense that we have the three Ds on.”
Moving into the middle frame, the Red began to take the charge out of the Garnet Chargers, hemming Union in its own zone and laying shot upon shot on Rhéaume.
Just over halfway through the period, junior forward Karel Prefontaine gathered a long stretch pass before catching an edge and hitting the ice entering the offensive zone. Coming to the aid of her linemate, Adam worked the puck past a pressing Union defender and beat a second Garnet Charger before dishing it to Van Gelder, who had a wide-open net.
“That was all Avi [Adam] and Karel [Prefontaine] on that one,” Van Gelder said. “Avi was just really generous, giving me the puck there.”
Van Gelder’s eighth goal of the season gave Cornell a two-goal lead and a score to show for a period that was dominated by the Red. Strong forechecking and efficient offensive zone cycling allowed the Red to remain in the driver’s seat heading into the third frame.
The Red ended the game in command, adding three more goals in the third period, the first of which came on the power play.
The sequence leading to Cornell’s third goal started when Van Gelder received the puck from sophomore defender Rose Dwyer on the left circle and quickly slid the puck to junior defender Piper Grober, who had found soft space in the slot. Grober settled the puck and fired a wrist shot across the grain, off the post and in to extend the Red’s lead nine minutes into the final stanza.
“I consider myself more of an offensive defenseman, so I guess that was the mindset there,” Grober said. “Georgia [Schiff] did a great job getting netfront too, which really helped take away the goalie’s eyes.”
Just two minutes later, a strong body from Prefontaine opened up a two-on-one opportunity. Shaking off a Garnet Charger defender, Prefontaine passed the puck to junior forward Beatrice Perron-Roy, who roofed a snapshot glove side to beat Rhéaume and make the score 4-0 Cornell.
Cornell’s dominance continued as the Red earned a five-on-three power play, albeit going scoreless on the two-skater advantage. But, for good measure, the Red added one more goal, Van Gelder’s second goal and fourth point of the night.
With a win and a series of favorable scores from around the conference, the Red moved to within 2.5 points of third in the ECAC standings.
Next weekend, Cornell will head north to face off against St. Lawrence Friday night at 6 p.m. and Clarkson Saturday afternoon at 3 p.m. Both games will be streamed live on ESPN+.
Eli Kwait is a reporter on The Sun’s hockey beat. He is a member of the Class of 2028 in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences. You can follow him on X @EliKwaitand reach him at ekwait@cornellsun.com.
