No. 3 Women's Hockey Claims ECAC Hockey Regular Season Title, Celebrates Ivy Title With 6-1 Win at Yale (original) (raw)
NEW HAVEN, Conn. – Make it three in a row.
With a 6-1 victory against Yale at the Bulldogs' Ingalls Arena on Saturday afternoon, No. 3 Cornell clinched its third consecutive ECAC Hockey regular season championship, the top seed in the conference's postseason tournament and just the third conference title in team history.
Cornell will host the tournament quarterfinals in Lynah Rink, playing the league's eighth-seeded team in a best-of-three series on Feb. 24-26. Should the Big Red win that series, Ithaca will also be home to the ECAC Hockey Semifinals and Finals on March 2-3.
On Saturday against Yale, each of Cornell's three top line forwards scored two goals each to power the offense past the Bulldogs. Rebecca Johnston, Brianne Jenner and Jillian Saulnier got all the goals while Lauriane Rougeau, Amanda Young, Laura Fortino and Erin Barley-Maloney earned assists.
The Bulldogs (1-25-1, 1-18-1 ECAC Hockey) came into the game with the nation's worst scoring offense, scoring defense and penalty kill. Cornell (23-3, 18-2) defeated Yale 9-0 at Lynah Rink back in October with a shutout from Amanda Mazzotta and now has won five consecutive games against Yale. Cornell is also 4-0 against teams from Connecticut (Quinnipiac being the other) this season.
The first period saw three goals from the Big Red as Cornell racked up a 26-1 shots advantage. Johnston got things started just 2:29 into the game. Rougeau took a pass at the right point from Young and fired a shot at the net. In front were the bodies of Johnston and Saulnier, but Johnston got her stick on the puck and deflected it past Yale goalie Genny Ladiges.
Less than two minutes later on the power play, the Big Red struck again. After missing on a gaping net seconds earlier, Jenner got another cross-crease pass from Johnston and didn't falter, burying her 14th goal of the season and the 37th of her career.
At the 6:05 mark of the period, Saulnier made it 3-0 when she was the beneficiary of a juicy bounce. Skating into the zone, Jenner fired a hard shot from the left circle that was blocked by a Yale defender. But unluckily for the Bulldogs, the block went right to a streaking Saulnier who potted the puck into a wide open net as Ladiges had moved over to play the initial shot by Jenner.
Cornell extended its lead by two in the second period, both goals coming thanks to special teams play. When Olivia Cook took a tripping penalty at the 12:13 mark, it was Cornell who spent the bulk of the kill playing offense. When Jenner chipped the puck out of the defensive zone to herself, Johnston sprinted up the center of the ice to earn a breakaway pass. Johnston succeeded on the breakaway, beating Ladiges to earn her second shorthanded goal of the year.
Six minutes later on the power play, Saulnier got her second goal of the game on a slapshot from the right point. Taking a pass from Fortino, Saulnier launched one that went past Ladiges to the right and gave the Big Red a five-goal lead. The goal was Saulnier's 19th of the season.
With just nine minutes to go, Jenner made it a 6-1 game when she stole the puck from a Yale forward and earned a breakaway against Ladiges. Jenner slotted a wrist shot to the right of the goalie for the game's final goal.
Lauren Slebodnick notched her 13th win of the year, stopping eight of nine shots she faced. While Cornell kept the puck in its own offensive zone for the most part, Slebodnick didn't have much to do. She made
In the locker room af ter the game, Cornell was presented with the Ivy League trophy, an award the Big Red has won now 11 times in school history and for the third consecutive year. The team will get the ECAC Hockey regular-season trophy next weekend.
Cornell closes out its regular season next weekend with games against Clarkson and St. Lawrence in Lynah Rink. The Knights come to Ithaca for a Friday-night game at 7 p.m., while the Saints visit East Hill on Saturday at 4 p.m.