Box Score

ITHACA, N.Y.—Junior goaltender Jenny Niesluchowski made 43 saves en route to leading the Big Red women's hockey team to a 3-2 win over Rensselaer to complete a weekend conference sweep on Saturday afternoon. Karlee Overguard, Amber Overguard and Catherine White all scored for the Big Red, and freshman defenseman Jess Martino notched assists on Cornell's first two goals. Cornell improves to 9-8-2 overall this season and 5-5-2 in ECAC Hockey, while RPI moves to 11-9-3 and 6-4-2 in league play.

At 5:24 of the first period, sophomore Karlee Overguard shot the puck at RPI netminder Sonja van der Bliek from the just outside the crease. Van der Bliek made the initial save but the puck deflected off her pads right back to Overguard who flipped it into the right side of the Engineers' goal. Jess Martino and Chelsea Karpenko assisted on the goals.

The Big Red went on the power play at 9:26 of the first period off a hooking call to RPI. Cornell quickly set up the play with Karpenko feeding the puck to Martino on the left point. Martino slid the puck over to Karlee Overguard on the right point who sent the it sailing through traffic in front of the net. The shot deflected off of her sister Amber's stick past the Engineers' goalie to put the Big Red up 2-0.

With a little more than six minutes left in the game, RPI was on the power play after Cornell took a checking penalty. The Engineers plastered Niesluchowski with shots, but the Big Red goaltender robbed RPI of every scoring opportunity making spectacular saves.

Early in the second period, Alison Wright shot the puck through traffic from the point at the Big Red net. Niesluchowski was trying to find the puck to cover it, but Alisa Harrison found it first and flipped it up into the Cornell net to score at 3:31.

The Big Red carried its two-goal lead into the third period. Midway through the third, Cornell defenseman Sam Wauer passed the puck to sophomore Rebecca Johnston who skated up the ice and passed off to freshman Catherine White. White raced along the left boards right through the RPI defense. The rookie cut through the circles and looked like she was going to pass off to Johnston. White faked the goaltender and scored Cornell's third goal at 8:45 of the third period over van der Bliek's shoulder.

RPI once again came within a goal when Jill Vandergrift scored at 16:39 of the third period. Kendra Dunlop picked up the assist.

The Engineers pulled their goalie with 1:15 left in the game in favor of the extra attacker. Niesluchowski remained solid in net while the Big Red fought off last minute RPI scoring chances. Rensselaer was forced to put their goalie back in net to end the period after taking a tripping penalty with less than 30 seconds left in the game, and Cornell skated away with a 3-2 win.

Cornell was 1-6 on the power play, while RPI was 0-5.

The Big Red will hit the road next weekend to take on Yale and Brown.