Box Score
ITHACA, N.Y.—The Big Red women's hockey team took advantage of a Niagara five-minute major penalty in the third period, to skate past the Purple Eagles by a 5-3 mark on Sunday afternoon. Cornell notched two power-play goals and added a third goal one second after the penalty expired. Five different Cornell forwards scored for the Big Red, and with a goal and an assist sophomore Rebecca Johnston notched her 50th career point. Junior goaltender Jenny Niesluchowski earned the win making 24 saves to help Cornell improve to 5-5-1 overall; Niagara fell to 4-10-2 for the season.
A little over four minutes into the game in the Niagara defensive zone, junior Melanie Jue passed the puck to freshman Ashley Duffy on the left point. Duffy let off a huge slap shot at the Purple Eagles' net and the puck deflected off the stick of sophomore Amber Overguard straight past goaltender Jenni Bauer. Duffy earned the assist to notch her first point of her collegiate career.
Cornell took a one goal lead into the first intermission, and 23 seconds into the second period freshman Catherine White put the Big Red up by two. Freshman Jess Martino shot from the right point, with Bauer making the save. White found the rebound and flipped it past the Niagara goaltender to score her fifth goal of the season. Chelsea Karpenko also assisted on the goal.
At 12:58 of the second period, Niagara's Autumn Stuntz shot from the blueline through traffic to put her team within a goal. Sarah Zacharias tied the game at 17:37 with a shot of her own from the point. Caitlin Kenkins and Jennifer MacLean picked up the assists.
Niagara took its first lead of the game at 9:55 of the third period off a goal from MacLean.
The Purple Eagles' Melanie Mills took a five-minute major penalty at 10:20 of the third period for slashing Cornell's Stephanie Holmes behind the play.
Cornell set up the play in the Niagara zone with freshman Amanda Young and Jue taking the puck away from a Purple Eagle defender and centering it to junior Laura Danforth. Danforth skated from the right circle across the ice and with a wrist shot at the left side of the net, tied the game at 11:41.
With Mills still in the penalty box, the Big Red sent out a fresh line to the ice. Holmes was on the point and fed the puck to White. She passed to Johnston and the Cornell sophomore shot the puck past Bauer, to score what would prove to be the game-winning goal.
Cornell was set up around the Niagara net again with the penalty to Mills wearing down. Mills just stepped on to the ice when Johnston let off a shot at Bauer. Karpenko found the rebound to send Cornell to its final 5-3 score.
The Big Red outshot Niagara for the second night in a row, by a 43-27 margin. Cornell was 2-for-6 on the power play, while Niagara was 0-3. Bauer made 38 saves in net for the loss.
Cornell will resume ECAC Hockey action next weekend as it travels to Clarkson and St. Lawrence.
