ITHACA, N.Y. — Freshman forward Madlynne Mills scored a pair of goals in her Lynah Rink debut, spurring the women’s hockey team to a three-goal third period and a 5-1 victory in an exhibition on Friday night against the Vanke Rays.
Mills’ first goal capped off a pretty passing sequence on the power play 3:14 into the final frame, set up by Jaime Bourbonnais and Brianna Veerman. Mills poked in a loose puck from beneath the goaltender’s pads about three minutes later to expand the Big Red’s lead to three goals, then Amy Curlew capped the scoring.
Cornellians actually scored all six goals on the night, but the first came off the stick of Hanna Bunton ’17. Now playing professionally with the Rays — an China-based expansion team in the Canadian Women’s Hockey League — Bunton rifled a shot high to the glove side from the left circle to put the visitors up nine minutes in.
The Big Red was quick to respond, with Kristin O’Neill’s goal off a defensive turnover just over a minute later. Cornell then took the lead for good 3:47 into the second period on Pippy Gerace’s backhand goal off the crossbar, set up by a breakaway pass from Kendra Nealey.
Marlene Boissonnault earned the victory with 11 saves, then Lindsay Browning stopped all 16 shots she faced over the final 16 minutes.
Cornell will participate alongside the men’s team at the Red/White Game at 7 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 21, then open its regular season Friday, Oct. 27 at St. Lawrence.
