ITHACA, N.Y. — The No. 7/7 Cornell women’s hockey team defeated two-time defending national champion No. 3/3 Clarkson, 3-1, Saturday afternoon at Lynah Rink. This marks Cornell’s first win over Clarkson since Jan. 20, 2017 when it won 2-1.
“This was a big win for us going into the break,” said head coach Doug Derraugh. “Clarkson is always a tough opponent. We have struggled to keep the lead at home against them in the past two games at Lynah but tonight we played through until the end. I thought we battled hard, but disciplined, and managed the game well.”
With the win, the Big Red improved to 8-1-4 and to 6-1-1 in ECAC Hockey play, while the Golden Knights fell to 12-4 overall and to 3-3 in league play. Additionally, Cornell is 5-0 at Lynah Rink this season.
In the early going, both teams had several good chances. Around midway through the first Clarkson had one of its top opportunities of the game. Elizabeth Giguere, who leads the nation in points scored, set a pass to set up Loren Gabel, who is second in the nation in points scored. Gabel put the shot attempt on the side of the net.
The Golden Knights also had a goal called back after goaltender interference was called with 5:51 left in the period.
Cornell opened the scoring with a Maddie Mills goal on the power play with 4:03 left in the first period. The play started with a faceoff from the right circle, which was won by Kristin O’Neill and played back to Mills.Then, Mills tossed the puck back to Micah Zandee-Hart, who sent a powerful shot off of a Clarkson defender. Mills then gathered the puck and sent a back-hander past Kassidy Suave in net, giving the Big Red the 1-0 advantage.
The Big Red’s 1-0 advantage held until Gabel got the Golden Knights on the board with 10.1 seconds remaining in the second period. After Cornell goaltender Marlène Boissonnault had fallen down, Gabel was able to push the puck into the back of the net, despite Boissonnault’s efforts to stop it with her stick.
The Big Red regained its lead with 11:53 left to play on blast from Jaime Bourbonnais on the power play. After the puck was sent along the boards, Sam Burke tracked it down and sent a quick touch pass to Maddie Mills who was stationed by the goal line. Mills then sent a decisive pass to Bourbonaiss in the slot, which the sophomore defenseman one-timed to the back of the net.
Clarkson pulled Suave out of net with 1:14 left in the third. O’Neill responded with an empty-netter to secure the win for the Big Red.
In the third period, it was Clarkson though that had more offensive chances. The Golden Knights had nine shots on goal, opposed to the Big Red’s four.
In net, Boissonnault finished the day with 19 saves. This marks the senior goaltender’s 43rd career win in net, which puts her in sole possession of fourth place on the program’s all-time wins list. She entered the matchup tied with Paula Voorheis (2013-16). Boissonnault needs four more wins to move into third place, which is currently held by Sarah Mott (1978-81), who had 47.
The Big Red has over a five-week hiatus before returning to action on Jan. 8 when it travels down to University Park, Pennsylvania, when it takes on Penn State.
