The no. 4-ranked Cornell women’s ice hockey team defeated the Brown Bears 6-2 on Friday night at Lynah Rink. With the victory, the Big Red improved to 20-4-4 and secured the program’s seventh ECAC Hockey regular season title and its first since the 2019-20 campaign.
“Proud of our team as we fought through some early season adversity and got better each week. This is a very tough league and the team had to be consistent throughout to claim the ECAC Hockey regular season title.”, Doug Derraugh, the Everett Family Head Coach of women’s ice hockey said.
Ashley Messier, Gabbie Rud, Delaney Fleming, Mckenna Van Gelder, Lindzi Avar, and Kaitlin Jockims registered Big Red goals in the contest. Jockims, Katie Chan, Rose Dwyer, Lily Delianedis, and Rud (two) were credited with helpers in the contest. Annelies Bergmann made 15 saves in the game.
In the first period, Chan and Jockims found Messier who got things going when she fired the puck toward the net to put the Big Red up 1-0 10 minutes into the game. Rud got a friendly bounce from the puck as she skated down the ice unabated, ultimately beating the Brown net-minder to extend Cornell’s lead to 2-0.
Decoste lit the lamp for Brown on the Bears’ second power-play of the game to cut the deficit in half. Moments later, Lyons scored on a feed from Broz to knot the game up at two apiece. Fleming scored when Delianedis got a stick on the puck in the slot just enough for it to breeze past the Brown defender and find Fleming’s stick who finished it off to give Cornell breathing room.
The Big Red put the game on ice in the final period, and it was started when Van Gelder scored 30 seconds into the stanza. Lindzi Avar found pay-dirt on a gritty sequence behind the net which put Cornell ahead 5-2. Jockims put in the empty-netter off of the face-off to seal the Bears’ fate as Cornell skated to its first ECAC Hockey Regular Season Championship since the 2019-20 campaign.
Cornell has clinched home ice for the entirety of the ECAC Hockey tournament. Cornell will open up its post-season endeavors in the quarterfinals against the lowest-seed remaining from the ECAC Hockey Opening Round.
Next Up
The Cornell women’s ice hockey team will return to the ice tomorrow for the final game of the regular season against the Yale Bulldogs. Puck drop is slated for 3:00 p.m. at Lynah Rink. Game action will be broadcast on ESPN+.
Kyle leads sports coverage and hosts the Concrete Jungle podcast. Have a lead or question? Send it to [email protected].