Women’s Hockey Set To Host #10 Clarkson on Tuesday
ITHACA, N.Y. — The Cornell women’s hockey team will start a home stretch consisting of three games per week over the final four weeks of the regular season at 6 p.m. Tuesday, when it takes on visiting Clarkson at Lynah Rink. Featuring play-by-play from Grady Whittenburg and color commentary from Tim Vanini ’91, the game will be broadcast on ESPN+ in the U.S. (with an option for international viewers also available through Stretch Internet).
Game Information:
#10 Clarkson at Cornell
SITE: Lynah Rink — Ithaca, N.Y.
DATE: 6 p.m. Tuesday, January 25
BROADCAST (U.S.): ESPN+
BROADCAST (International): Stretch Internet
STATS: CornellBigRed.com
Cornell game notes (PDF)
Making Up For Lost Time:
• Tuesday’s game will be the first of three home contests that were scheduled for earlier in January for the Big Red. Cornell and Clarkson were originally slated to meet on Jan. 14 before health and safety protocols forced a postponement. The other rescheduled dates are visits from St. Lawrence (Feb. 1) and Harvard (Feb. 5), which also led to a shuffling of the games against Colgate (now Feb. 6 and Feb. 15).
Big Red Rewind:
• Cornell is coming off a split of its two-game swing through southern New England last weekend, scoring a late winner in a 2-1 decision over Brown on Friday before coming up on the short end of a 4-1 score Saturday at 10th-ranked Yale.
• Junior forward Gillis Frechette shoveled in a rebound with 2:26 left in the game against the Bears, helping the Big Red finish off a game in which it had a 37-14 advantage in shots on goal.
• Sophomore blueliner Ashley Messier assisted on both goals at Brown in completely different ways. Her blocked shot late in the second period led to sophomore forward Gabbie Rud’s outlet pass for junior forward Elana Zingas, who scored on a one-on-one rush. Messier then helped create the winner with a slapshot that bounced off junior forward Izzy Daniel before Frechette’s conversion.
• Graduate student Lindsay Browning made 28 saves the next day against Yale and largely kept the Big Red in a game where the Bulldogs largely held the edge in play, but three goals created on counterattacks fueled the hosts’ 4-1 victory.
• Sophomore forward Lily Delianedis scored her team-leading ninth goal 11:36 into the game to stake Cornell to an early lead. The loss at Yale ended a three-game Big Red winning streak in which it had outscored opponents, 13-2.
Highlights From Saturday’s Game at Yale:
By The Numbers:
• Junior Gillis Frechette (#11, 7-11–18, plus-8) leads the team in scoring and is second in goals to only sophomore linemate Lily Delianedis (#21, 9-6–15). Junior Izzy Daniel (#12, 3-14–17, team-best plus-10), the team’s leader in assists, typically plays on the other wing of that line. Frechette enters Tuesday’s contest on a seven-game scoring streak, while Daniel has points in each of her last six.
• Freshman Rory Guilday (#5, 3-5–8) leads the team’s blueliners in scoring. She typically plays alongside sophomore Ashley Messier (#8, 2-6–8, team-high 40 blocked shots), giving the Big Red a defensive pairing that features international experience from both the U.S. and Canada. Five of Messier’s eight points have come in the last four games.
• Graduate student Lindsay Browning (#29, 6-7-1, 2.16, .919, 4 SO) — who, in 2020, became the program’s first goaltender to earn All-America honors — is now the first goaltender to serve as the team’s sole captain. Browning’s four shutouts are tied for the most among all ECAC Hockey goaltenders.
Big Red In Beijing:
• Hockey Canada announced Jan. 12 that four Cornell women’s hockey alumnae are among the final roster of 23 that will compete in the upcoming Beijing Winter Games. The group is comprised of forwards Rebecca Johnston ’12 (fourth Olympics), Brianne Jenner ’15 (third) and Jillian Saulnier ’15 (second), and defender Micah Zandee-Hart ’20 (first).
• Doug Derraugh ’91 will also be in Beijing with Team Canada, where he will again serve as an assistant coach with the women’s national team.
• Lenka Serdar ’19 is also ticketed for Beijing after helping the Czech Republic qualify for its first qualification into the Olympics in national team history.
The 300 Club:
• By defeating Dartmouth on Jan. 8, Doug Derraugh ’91 recorded the 300th career victory in his 15-plus seasons behind the Big Red bench as the Everett Family Head Coach of Women’s Hockey. In doing so, Derraugh became the 11th active head coach in NCAA Division I women’s hockey to reach the 300-win plateau.
• Derraugh earned his 302nd win Friday at Brown — though he was not on the bench. With Derraugh having departed the Big Red temporarily to coach in the Olympics, Associate Head Coach Edith Racine will continue as Cornell’s acting head coach.
Back To Work:
• More than half of the Big Red’s roster is new to college hockey this year after the COVID-19 pandemic forced the cancelation of the team’s 2020-21 season.
• Among the incumbents for this year, only nine had played more than 10 collegiate games and the entire group accounted for 33 goals of the 2018-19 and 2019-20 seasons — 24 of which came from junior forward Gillis Frechette.
About Clarkson:
• The Golden Knights had a six-game unbeaten streak snapped on Friday when visiting Rensselaer left Potsdam with a 2-1 victory. Clarkson bounced back with a 4-0 shutout of Union the next night to nestle back into second place in the ECAC Hockey standings (though with two games in hand on first-place Harvard).
• Caitrin Lonergan (#11, 13-23–36; plus-25) leads the team in scoring and ranks seventh nationally in points per game (1.57). She typically centers a line flanked by Gabrielle David (#8, 15-16–31, plus-21) who leads the team in goals and ranks sixth nationally in power-play goals (5).
• Jenna Goodwin (#12, 6-9–15, plus-15) has spent time on the other wing of Lonergan’s line, but Brooke McQuigge (#26, 12-9–21, plus-15) has moved to the spot in recent weeks.
• Michelle Pasiechnyk (#1, 16-2-3, 1.35, .940, 3 SO) is the team’s primary goaltender — ranking fourth nationally in goals against average and 10th in save percentage — but she did not compete last weekend. Amanda Zeglen (#37, 1-1, 1.55, .897) took the loss against RPI, then freshman Alexa Madrid (#30, 1-0, 1.42, .941, SO) earned a 28-save in her first collegiate start against the Dutchwomen.
The Series With Clarkson:
• Cornell holds a 25-22-5 lead in games against Clarkson dating back to the 1974-75 season with the last result ending in a 1-1 tie on Jan. 31, 2020 at Lynah.
Up Next:
• Cornell continues ECAC Hockey play this weekend with a road trip to take on Princeton at 6 p.m. Friday and Quinnipiac at 3 p.m. Saturday.
• The Big Red then returns home to start a six-game home stand over the course of just 12 days, commencing with a makeup date against St. Lawrence at 7 p.m. Tuesday, Feb. 1.
