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ITHACA, N.Y. — Cornell University’s women’s ice hockey team won the 2025 ECAC Hockey championship with a 5-1 victory over Colgate during a March 8 home game. The championship is the team’s first in over a decade, and the fifth in program history. With this victory, Cornell — ranked third in the country — clinched the third seed for the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) national championship tournament this month. The win also means the team receives a bye to the regional final and the first game of its NCAA tournament run on Saturday, March 15 will take place at Cornell’s Lynah Rink.With 1,870 in attendance, it was the largest crowd for a women’s hockey game since the 2019-20 season. At the time, Cornell — then ranked first in the country — went undefeated in ECAC play and lost the final to Princeton in the conference finals before the postseason was cut short due to the COVID-19 pandemic.Cornell got off to a hot start early on Saturday. Forward Avi Adam stole the puck from Colgate forward Madeline Palumbo. Forward Mckenna Van Gelder got past two Colgate defenders inside the faceoff circle and took the pass from Adam, but her shot was saved by Colgate goaltender Hannah Murphy. However, the rebound leaked back into the crease, and Van Gelder put it in the net just one minute and 13 seconds into the game. Just 24 seconds later — with the public address announcer still giving the details on Van Gelder’s goal — defender Rose Dwyer sent an outlet pass to forward Lindzi Avar, who skated the puck into Cornell’s offensive zone and fired a shot from the blue line to extend the lead to 2-0. The score would remain there until nine minutes and 37 seconds into the second period, when Colgate forward Kaia Malachino scored off a rebound from goaltender Annelies Bergmann’s save on Colgate defender Avery Pickering. The Colgate goal snapped Bergmann’s 108 minute, 15 second shutout streak dating back to the second period of the Friday, March 7 ECAC semifinal against Clarkson — a game which Cornell won 2-1 in triple overtime. Cornell’s head coach Doug Derraugh challenged a preceding play 29 seconds prior for an uncalled five-minute major penalty, but the goal stood as called.Colgate would proceed to control large parts of the second period, as it appeared Cornell’s marathon game the night prior affected their play. Forward Kaitlin Jockims put Cornell on the penalty kill for a slashing penalty with 30 seconds left in the period. However, Colgate’s power play could not convert and appeared disjointed and sloppy against a strong Cornell defense.Seven minutes and 13 seconds into the third period, Colgate defender Jaimee Spring high-sticked forward Katie Chan in the face. Chan fell to the ice, and Cornell went on the power play. Cornell capitalized on the man advantage, and just nine seconds into the power play, Avar tried to deflect defender Alyssa Regalado’s shot into the net, but it missed and bounced to forward Karel Prefontaine, who beat a flailing Murphy for Cornell’s third goal.Colgate was forced to pull Murphy for the extra skater towards the end of the third period, and Cornell capitalized on the empty net chances. After a few moments of back-and-forth, Jockims found herself with the puck in the neutral zone and fired a shot into the empty net 17 minutes and 24 seconds into the third period. Then, Chan — who transferred from Colgate in 2023, prior to her junior season — followed up with a shot from her own faceoff circle in the Cornell defensive zone into the empty net with just a few seconds remaining to ice the game at 5-1. Following the game, forwards Avar and Lily Delianedis, defender Grace Dwyer and goaltender Bergmann were named to the ECAC All-Tournament Team. Bergmann was also named the tournament’s Most Outstanding Player as chants of “Brick Wall Berg” rained down from the Lynah faithful. The sophomore saved 27 of Colgate’s 28 shots through the game.Cornell’s next game, the NCAA regional final, will take place at Lynah Rink on Saturday, March 15 at 4 p.m. against the winner of the game between Sacred Heart and sixth-seeded Minnesota-Duluth. That game, which will also be held in Ithaca, will take place on Thursday, March 13 at 7 p.m. Both games will be broadcast on ESPN+. If Cornell wins, they will proceed to the Frozen Four in Minneapolis on Friday, March 21. See the full bracket and schedule here.The post Cornell women’s hockey wins conference championship appeared first on The Ithaca Voice.First published by The Ithaca Voice.

Daily Archives: March 10, 2025

Cornell women’s hockey wins conference championship

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