PROVIDENCE, R.I. — The #7 women’s hockey team used five different goal scorers and had eleven different players register a point on its way to a 5-1 and Ivy League title clinching-win over Brown on Saturday afternoon at Meehan Auditorium. It’s the first time since the 2011-12 season that Cornell has won the outright title – doing it this year by way of its 7-0-3 record and 17 Ivy points – and the 13th time in program history that it has earned at least a share of the title, last doing that during the 2012-13 season.
Freshman Kristin O’Neill opened the scoring less than five minutes into the game with her second power-play goal of the season when she stood open at the right post and finished off a slick backhand pass from senior Brianna Veerman.
The 1-0 lead would hold until near the midway point of the game when Hanna Bunton grabbed her 10th goal of the season. The senior had just gone to the bench for a new stick when O’Neill pushed the puck up to the right point which allowed Bunton to take off from the wall, skate through the circle to use the defender as a screen and then beat Monica Elvin to the far left post with a wrist shot.
Bunton assisted on classmate Kaitlin Doering’s goal seven minutes later when she again skated through the slot and fired a shot that bounced to the co-captain at the right post for a finish into the wide-open net.
The Big Red held the 3-0 lead for the first 14:39 of the final period but then jumped out to a 5-0 lead in a span of nine seconds.
As sophomore Diana Buckley was battling in front of the net with a Brown defender, freshman Jaime Bourbonnais took a shot that deflected off of Buckley and past Elvin for the forward’s sixth tally of the season. On the ensuing faceoff, O’Neill won the draw back to senior Sydney Smith who then found freshman Amy Curlew up the left wing. Curlew drew in the Brown defenders and then sliced a tape-to-tape pass through the slot to classmate Paige Lewis who roofed the puck past Elvin’s glove into the top-right corner of the net.
Brown pulled a goal back on Leah Olson’s fourth of the year with 3:43 left on the clock to spoil sophomore goaltender Marlène Boissonnault’s bid for a shutout. Boissonnault (10-1-1) finished the game with 16 saves while Elvin (4-16-0) stopped 32 shots.
Cornell outshot Brown, 37-17, and dominated at the dot, 41-26, with Doering and sophomore Lenka Serdar each registering 14 faceoff wins.
The win moves Cornell to 17-6-4 overall and 13-3-4 in ECAC Hockey play while Brown drops to 5-22-0 and 3-17-0.
The team will wrap up the regular season next weekend at Lynah Rink when it takes on #3 St. Lawrence on Friday, Feb. 17 and #5 Clarkson on Saturday, Feb. 18, with the seniors being recognized after the game against the Golden Knights. While Cornell has locked up an ECAC Hockey playoff spot, the Big Red has yet to clinch one of the top four spots for home-ice in the quarterfinal round but currently sits in third place.
