BOSTON – The Big Red went 42 days without seeing the ice, but it only took another 20 minutes for its offense to return to form.
No. 4 Cornell scored three goals in the second period, twice erasing one-goal deficits, and held on for a 4-2 win against No. 9 Northeastern at Matthews Arena on Saturday afternoon.
The Big Red – playing its first contest since Dec. 1 – got two goals from Jessica Campbell, the game-winner fromAlyssa Gagliardi and an insurance tally by Brianne Jenner as Lauren Slebodnick made 25 saves to earn the victory.
“It’s never easy to be away from the game for a month at a time, but I think the team did a good job of coming back strong and sticking to our game plan,” Campbell said. “You never forget your system, so just being able to jump back into those and getting the speed back going was really key today.”
Cornell (11-3) improves to 3-1 in non-conference play this season and now holds a 2-1 record against teams from Hockey East with Saturday’s win over the Huskies (11-8-2). The victory was Cornell’s first over Northeastern since 2001.
The Huskies got on the board first as Kendall Coyne was the beneficiary of a Cornell turnover. Rachel Llanes took the loose puck dropped it off to Coyne, who had some steam behind her and the Big Red defense going the other way. Coyne skated into the slot from the left side and beat Slebodnick five-hole to give Northeastern a 1-0 lead 11 minutes into the game.
The second period was much more favorable to the Big Red as the team moved into the lead with three tallies.
Campbell had the first goal, a fluky dump-in from the left side of the blue line while on the penalty kill. The play, which looked like it wasn’t intended as a true shot, bounced on the ice and tricked Desjardins, tying the game at 1-1.
“I was actually going for a line change, and I just threw it on net, and it took an odd bounce and popped in the net,” Campbell said. “We got pretty lucky, but we’ll take whatever bounces we can get.”
Campbell earned her second goal with more style, taking a pass in the right slot from Jenner and firing it high and to the left. The puck went just under the crossbar and re-tied the game seven minutes after Llanes gave Northeastern a 2-1 advantage on a two-on-one play.
Gagliardi gave Cornell its first lead of the game with 38 seconds left in the period. Earning a power play when Llanes slashed a Big Red player, Lauriane Rougeau got the puck at the right point. She laid it off to Poudrier on her left, and Poudrier’s slapshot was expertly deflected past Desjardins by Gagliardi.
After trailing twice, that goal put Cornell up for good.
“There’s always big heart on this team,” Campbell said. “It says a lot about the program that we take a lot of pride in bouncing back when we’re down.”
Jenner added the final goal of the afternoon for the Big Red, scoring on a move where she cut to the front of the net from the left corner. Despite two Northeastern players trying to get the puck away from her, Jenner kept it on her stick and fired short side after Desjardins started cheating over to her left.
The third period saw eight more saves by Slebodnick (8-3), and the Big Red defense kept the Huskies off the board for the game’s final 30 minutes.
