In the first game of the ECAC Hockey Quarterfinals, a dominating defensive performance helped the fifth-ranked Clarkson University Women’s Hockey team shut out visiting Cornell 2-0 on Friday afternoon in Cheel Arena.
Clarkson is now 27-3-5 on the season and unbeaten in its last 16 games (13-0-3), while Cornell is 13-13-4. The second-seeded Golden Knights have a 1-0 lead in the best-of-three quarterfinal series and can knock out the seventh-seeded Big Red with a win tomorrow.
“Today’s game was definitely what we expected,” said Clarkson Head Coach Matt Desrosiers. “It was a hard fought playoff style game with both teams playing well and competing all over the ice. I fully expect the same kind of game tomorrow.”
For most of the game, just a single goal separated the two teams. That goal came courtesy of a great individual effort by junior Genevieve Bannon. Bannon slipped between Cornell defenders on the right side of the net and then poked her shot between the goaltender’s legs to give Clarkson a 1-0 lead at 15:44 in the first period. Freshmen Josiane Pozzebon and Loren Gabel picked up the assists.
Both teams had chances to score the second goal of the game, but it did not come until less than thirty seconds remained in the final period. Cornell pulled its goaltender with 1:32 remaining in the game to add an extra attacker in order to score the game-tying goal. Clarkson was able to withstand the pressure and with 24 seconds remaining, freshman Cassidy Vinkle sent a pass to junior assistant captain Cayley Mercer who deked past a defender and skated in to score on an empty net and clinch the victory.
Clarkson was held to only 26 shots, its second lowest total of the season, but was able to limit Cornell to just 15 shots of its own. Clarkson was 0-3 on power plays, while Cornell failed to score on its two extra-man opportunities. Sophomore goaltender Shea Tiley made 15 saves for her eighth shutout of the season while Paula Voorheis made 24 stops for Cornell.
The two teams will meet again tomorrow afternoon at 3:00 pm in Cheel Arena.
