Box Score

ITHACA, N.Y. -- The Cornell women's hockey team won its first-ever ECAC Hockey regular-season championship on Saturday by knocking off Union, 6-1, at Lynah Rink in Ithaca. The Big Red will be the top seed in the upcoming league tournament and will play at home for as long as it is alive in the tournament.

Laura Fortino had four assists and Chelsea Karpenko picked up a pair of goals for the Big Red (15-8-6, 14-2-6 ECAC Hockey). Lauriane Rougeau, Amber Overguard, Amanda Young and Melanie Jue each scored a goal, with Kendice Ogilvie and Catherine White both adding in two assists. Liz Zorn, Jess Martino, Kelly McGinty, Hayley Hughes and Catherine White each had an assist on the day, with goaltender Amanda Mazzotta stopping 12 shots for the victory. Cornell finished the night 2-of-4 on the power play and held Union scoreless in its lone power-play attempt.

Jeannie Sabourin scored the lone goal for the Dutchwomen (5-28-1, 1-20-1 ECAC Hockey), with assists going to Perri Maduri and Lauren Cromartie. Alana Marcinko stopped 32 shots in taking the loss for Union.

Cornell jumped out to an early 2-0 lead behind goals from Young and Rougeau just 3:20 apart, but Union cut into the deficit less than a minute later with Sabourin's tip of a shot from the point by Maduri. Karpenko scored a minute and a half later to push the margin back up to two, 3-1, and Cornell coasted from there.

Karpenko scored her second of the night in the second period as Cornell led by three, 4-1, at the end of two periods, and added goals from Amber Overguard and Melanie Jue in the third for the final margin.

Saturday's game served as senior day for the four Cornell seniors - Laura Danforth, Melanie Jue, Kelly McGinty and Liz Zorn. The quartet was a key part of Cornell's resurgence, winning four games as freshmen in 2006-07, making the ECAC Hockey playoffs in both of the last two seasons and finally claiming the first league title in school history.

Cornell will open post-season play next weekend when it welcomes Colgate to Lynah Rink for a best-of-three series. Game one will be at 3:30 p.m. on Friday at Lynah Rink.