After losing only their third game of the season Friday night, St. Lawrence rebounded with a 5-2 win over Cornell to maintain possession of second place in the ECAC.
Through 20 minutes, the teams were deadlocked at 0-0, with solid saves from both goaltenders keeping the offense under wraps, but the second period was a different story. The Saints score the most goals in the middle period, and they found twine twice in the second to lead 2-0 after 40 minutes.
Micah Hart was sent to the box for hooking and the Saints had a power-play opportunity with 6:30 left in the period. Justine Reyes had two straight shots blocked from the left faceoff dot, but her third chance, a one-timer from the same spot, beat Paula Voorheis low blocker to break the stalemate.
The Saints and Raiders continued to battle late into the second before the top line of St. Lawrence broke through. Brooke Webster tried to feed Kennedy Marchment on a breakout pass, but the puck deflected off of Hannah Miller and dropped down right inside the offensive zone for SLU. Marchment took the puck, skated in on Voorheis, and passed it through the slot to Webster, who buried her 14th of the season with 22 seconds remaining in the period, the first of three goals her line would produce, after scoring just one last night.
“Yesterday was kind of an off night for our line last night; we weren’t getting the bounces or making the passes we usually would,” said Webster of herself and her linemates in SLU loss to Colgate Friday. The line had three goals and six assists in the game, and Saints coach Chris Wells mentioned that as a critical difference between the loss to Colgate and today’s win against Cornell.
The biggest goal of the game for St. Lawrence, according to Wells, was their next goal, off the stick of Kennedy Marchment. The Saints had started the third period on a power play, but a short-handed goal from Kristin O’Neill made the score 2-1 and put the moment in the hands of Cornell, coming off a successful PK and looking to tie the game.
“We talked about trying to get a short-handed goal, and trying to stretch out and catch them off guard, and we were able to do that,” said Cornell coach Doug Derraugh. “We talked about how it didn’t all have to happen in the first two minutes, we had 20 minutes to play. We were getting our opportunities and playing well.”
With Cornell within one, Marchment collected a loose puck and fired a shot that Paula Voorheis got a piece of with her glove, but not enough to keep it from going in, a goal that Wells said settled his team down after conceding the short-handed goal.
Hannah Miller scored a short-handed empty-net goal with 8:46 to play, scoring on the penalty kill with Cornell’s net empty in favor of an extra attacker. Not long after, Kaitlin Doering took a pass through the slot from O’Neill and beat an outstretched Grace Harrison to get Cornell within two with 5:51 to play.
However, with 4:39 to play, Nadine Edney’s forecheck caused a turnover. Edney took the puck from behind Voorheis, spun to the net, and fired a shot that Voorheis turned aside. The puck fell right to sophomore, who fired a snap shot past the blocker of Voorheis, seizing the momentum and putting SLU up 5-2 permanently.
The Saints are on the road at Union and RPI next weekend, while Cornell travels to Dartmouth and Harvard.
