ITHACA, N.Y. – The No. 8 women’s hockey team charged to a 3-1 victory over Princeton on Saturday afternoon at Lynah Rink to complete the home-opening weekend sweep.
“I felt like tonight was our most complete game that we’ve played so far this year,” said head coach Doug Derraugh. “I felt like we played our game for 60 minutes tonight. It could have gone either way, obviously. It was a close game but I felt like we played the right way. With all of the games that we’ve played so far, this was the first game I really felt that we played a full 60 minutes.”
Freshman Madlynne Mills struck on a power play with about five minutes remaining in the second period to get Cornell (3-1-0, 3-1-0 ECAC Hockey) up, 1-0. Jaime Bourbonnais evaded two Tiger defensemen in the corner of the rink to get off a pass to Mills as she was falling to the ice. Mills would receive the puck right outside of the circle and slapped in a shot that hurdled passed Princeton’s (1-3-2, 1-3-0) goaltender, Stephanie Neatby for the score.
The Tigers would equalize just 34 seconds later as Carly Bullock broke away and stuck in the puck from within the crease, but it was all Cornell the rest of the game as Pippy Gerace and Amy Curlew would both light the lamp in the third period to secure the 3-1 win.
Gerace intercepted the puck in Princeton’s own offensive zone and brought it around to the edge of the circle where she sniped in a shot to earn the unassisted score. With about 40 seconds left on the clock, Amy Curlew sent in an empty netter to seal the weekend sweep for the team.
Curlew gained control of the puck inside the circle on the Big Red’s own offensive zone and sprinted down the side of the rink before sending in a shot as a Princeton skater was tailing her. The sophomore’s shot would find itself neatly tucked into the back right corner of the net to close out the scoring.
Kristin O’Neill led the team in shots with five on the day while Bourbonnais and Mills each recorded three. Marlene Boissonnault was in the net for the entirety of the game, collecting 19 saves.
Cornell returns to Lynah Rink next week to host No. 1 Wisconsin for a two-game weekend series. The games are scheduled for Friday, Nov. 10 and Saturday, Nov. 11 with the puck dropping at 3 p.m. on both days.
“To play against a team like Wisconsin and have any success, you’ve got to limit their chances,” Derraugh said. “So we’re going to work on a lot of the defensive ends of things and make sure that we’re consistent in our defensive effort and our defensive systems, but we’re looking forward to it”
“They’re a great team and it’s going to be a tough challenge and I think that’s going to be good for our young squad.”
