ITHACA, N.Y. – A power-play goal from sophomore Micah Hart and an empty-netter from sophomore Diana Buckley helped lift the women’s hockey team to a 2-1 victory over Dartmouth on Saturday afternoon at Lynah Rink. The win moved Cornell to 8-4-1 overall and 6-2-1 in league play while Dartmouth dropped to 2-8-0 overall and 1-6-0 in the conference.
“I thought it was a hard fought game by both teams today,” head coach Doug Derraugh said. “There was a lot of back forth play and not a ton of chances for either team, but a lot of game-play and close-checking.”
Despite outshooting Dartmouth 14-5 in the first period, Cornell couldn’t get the puck past Robyn Chemago.
The Big Red’s line of senior Hanna Bunton and freshmen Paige Lewis and Kristin O’Neill did well throughout the opening stanza to create opportunities. O’Neill fed Bunton open with a few chances – including a wrist-shot from the senior that dinged off the post with eight minutes to go in the period – but the teams finished the first scoreless.
And then – the day after the Class of 2020 scored all of Cornell’s goals against Harvard – it was the Class of 2019 that stepped up for the Big Red against the Big Green.
After continuing to pressure the Dartmouth defense, Cornell earned a power-play 1:54 into the second and would turn it into a one-goal lead.
As the Big Red moved the puck around the Dartmouth zone, freshman Jaime Bourbonnais found a wide passing lane to Bunton at the top of the right circle. The senior one-touched the puck over to Hart at the top of the blueline and the co-captain sent in a low wrist shot that beat Chemago at the left post.
It was Hart’s second power-play goal of the season and the second man-advantage assists for both Bunton and Bourbonnais. It was also Cornell’s second power-play goal of the weekend.
“It’s something we worked on over the past week,” Hart said. “We weren’t really producing on our power-play so that was our focus going into this weekend.”
Dartmouth kept churning but the Cornell defense limited the quality of the Big Green’s shots. The team also displayed an aggressive penalty-kill, with Buckley putting in a huge effort to clear the puck and kill some seconds off the clock.
Sophomore goaltender Marlène Boissonnault only had to make three saves in the period, none bigger than when she gloved aside a breakaway bid by Alyssa Baker to send Cornell into the break up by a goal.
With Chemago pulled for an extra-attacker with less than two minutes to play, Bunton cleared a blocked shot out of the zone straight into the path of Buckley. The sophomore then out-skated the Big Green defenders and slotted the puck home for what would prove to be the game-winning goal.
Dartmouth continued with the fight and the team potted an extra-attacker goal with 40 seconds to play when Kennedy Ottenbreit roofed home a feed.
The Big Red remained disciplined for the remaining 40 seconds, though, and held on for the 2-1 win.
Boissonnault (4-1-1) finished with 11 saves while Chemago (2-6-0) stopped 31 shots. Cornell led in shots on goal, 33-12, and shot attempts, 61-38.
Cornell will now have over a month off from play, as the team won’t take the ice again until after the holidays. First up in 2017 will be Providence of the Hockey East conference, as the Friars will come to East Hill for a pair of games on Jan. 6 and 7.
