ITHACA, N.Y. – A Cornell women’s hockey record fell on Tuesday night, and the Big Red helped their coach earn that record in style.
With a 4-0 shutout against No. 7 Mercyhurst in Lynah Rink, Doug Derraugh became the winningest coach in Cornell women’s hockey history. His win total stands at 136, one ahead of the team’s first ever coach, Bill Duthie.
“If you stay in it long enough, you’re bound to get there eventually,” Derraugh said. “But I’m very, very blessed to be in a situation where … the administrators really supported women’s ice hockey here at Cornell.”
Brianne Jenner had two goals in the first period, Jessica Campbell had a breakaway goal to seal the contest in the third and Lauren Slebodnick (14-4) earned her third shutout of the season by making 18 saves against the nation’s third-best offense. The win puts her career number at 41, tying her with Alanna Hayes for third in team history.
No. 5 Cornell (17-4) also had to kill off five consecutive penalties in the third period – including two separate spans of five-on-three – to earn the victory over a very competitive Mercyhurst (19-5-1) squad. The win was Cornell’s second straight over Mercyhurst and kept the team a perfect 10-0 in Lynah Rink this season.
“I was real happy with the way our team played,” Derraugh said. “It was good to see us get off to a good start, come ready to play.”
The Big Red got off to a flying start, tallying a goal just 2:27 into the game on a shot from the slot by Hayleigh Cudmore. Taking a pass from the low right side by Jillian Saulnier, Cudmore beat Amanda Makela to the left, and Cornell had a 1-0 lead.
Jenner had the secondary assist on the first goal, but the Big Red’s second strike was all hers. One of the Mercyhurst defensemen had the puck at the left point, and she attempted to dump the puck down low into the corner. Jenner got in the way of the play, deflecting it off her shin pad, and she was off 120 feet in the other direction on a breakaway. She went to her backhand at the last moment, getting around Makela and making it 2-0.
Jenner had the team’s next goal as well when she took a pass down low from Laura Fortino at the left point. She skated the puck toward the net and shot five-hole on Makela. Though the goalie got a piece of the puck, it rolled over the goal line and the Big Red’s lead ballooned to 3-0. The goal marked the 150th point of Jenner’s career. Fortino also earned her 93rd career assist on the play and is now No. 5 on the Big Red all-time list.
“I was kind of caught in limbo because I wasn’t sure if I should go aggressive,” Jenner said. “I just went to my go-to move, and I was lucky it was there.”
The Lakers went with a different goalkeeper in the second period, inserting Stephanie Ciampa in favor of Makela. Cornell nearly extended the lead to 4-0 on a four-on-four situation midway through the second period when Saulnier had a hard wrist shot from the slot. The puck rang off the right post, though, keeping the margin at three for the moment.
The third period saw Cornell’s penalty killing unit in top form, holding the Lakers scoreless despite spending nearly 12 full minutes in the box. Cornell was overall 8 for 8 on the kill Tuesday night, and the backbreaking goal came soon after Cornell killed off its fourth straight penalty of the period.
“We relied a lot on our PK, which we weren’t too happy about,” Jenner said. “But the performance of the PK was good.”
Alyssa Gagliardi fished the puck from the corner of the boards while two players were going after it, and she started up the ice. She fed Taylor Woods in the neutral zone, and Woods found a streaking Campbell who was behind the defense. Campbell, on a breakaway, sniped the puck over Ciampa’s glove hand for the 4-0 lead.
The Big Red is back in action on Friday when it hosts Rensselaer in the first game of the Do It For Daron Series at 7 p.m. Fans are encouraged to wear purple to show support for the charity.
