Ivy Release

ITHACA, N.Y. – Rebecca Johnston has been named the Ivy League Player of the Year and Jillian Saulnier took home Ivy League Rookie of the Year honors on Thursday, highlighting a batch of postseason awards for the Big Red women's hockey team.

Johnston's 1.75 points per game in Ivy League player puts her second in the league behind linemate Brianne Jenner (1.88). Johnston scored more goals in Ivy League play (nine) than any other player this season and finished tied for 12th in assists. She scored three game-winning goals in Ivy play and was one of just four players to score short-handed against Ivy competition. Her award is even more impressive considering she missed two Ivy League games while playing with Team Canada at the 4 Nations Cup in November.

Johnston, a senior from Sudbury, Ontario, won the Ivy League Rookie of the Year award in 2008 and made the league's first team in each of her first three years at Cornell. This year marks her fourth inclusion on that team and her first time winning Player of the Year. She was also recently nominated for the Patty Kazmaier Award.

Saulnier, a freshman from Halifax, Nova Scotia, capped a tremendous regular season by scoring an overtime game-winner on Friday night against Clarkson. In Ivy League play, she is fifth in points per game (1.30) and the only freshman in the top 15 in that category. She scored 0.41 more points per game than her closest freshman competition. She scored eight goals – good for second in league play – and tacked on five assists in Ivy games.

Saulnier was recently named a finalist for the ECAC Hockey Rookie of the Year award as well. She also earned a spot on the Honorable Mention All-Ivy team.

Four of the spots on the All-Ivy First Team went to Cornell players, including a sweep of the defenseman category by juniors Lauriane Rougeau and Laura Fortino. Johnston and sophomore Brianne Jenner also made the First Team as forwards. Rougeau won the Ivy's Rookie of the Year Award in 2010 and was placed on the first team last season. Fortino, the reigning Ivy League Player of the Year, was also named to the First Team in each of her first two seasons. Both players earned nominations for the Patty Kazmaier Award earlier in the week.

Rounding out the Cornell representation on the First-Team was Jenner. The reigning Ivy League Rookie of the Year, Jenner also made the First Team in 2011. She led the Ivy League in scoring this season with 1.88 points per game, was tied for 10th in goal scoring with 0.50 goals per game and was first in assists with 1.38 helpers per contest. She also was named a nominee for the Patty Kazmaier Award.

Senior goaltender Amanda Mazzotta graced the All-Ivy Second Team during a senior year in which she became Cornell's all-time wins leader with her 48th win in January. Now at 50 wins in her career, Mazzotta tied for the lowest goals against average in league play, giving up five goals in five games. She also had the league's highest save percentage (.954) and its second-best winning percentage (.800).

The Big Red's presence was also strong on the Ivy League's Honorable Mention team. All three forwards and one defenseman made up this squad, as seniors Catherine White and Chelsea Karpenko earned spots as honorable mention forwards along with Saulnier. White was the league's Rookie of the Year in 2009 and Player of the Year in 2010. Karpenko made the All-Ivy First Team last season.

Sophomore defenseman Alyssa Gagliardi also made the honorable mention team. She was on the ECAC Hockey All-Rookie team as a freshman.

The Ivy League champion Big Red will get a chance to showcase its conference dominance this weekend as Ancient Eight rival Brown comes to Lynah Rink for a best-of-three series in the ECAC Hockey Tournament Quarterfinals. The first game of the series is set for Friday at 3:30 p.m.