Box Score

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. – With an important Ivy League contest at No. 9 Harvard on Friday night, the No. 3 Cornell women's hockey team played a stout defensive effort and came away with a 2-0 victory.

Rebecca Johnston and Brianne Jenner had Cornell's goals, and Amanda Mazzotta earned her third shutout of the season in saving all 22 of the Crimson's shots.

Cornell (17-2, 12-1 ECAC Hockey) has now won seven consecutive games overall, nine consecutive ECAC Hockey contests and five in a row against Harvard (11-6-1, 8-4-1). The Big Red takes sole possession of first place in the league standings and has now claimed 16 consecutive victories in the month of January dating back to Jan. 7, 2011.

The shutout was Cornell's first at Harvard since Feb. 25, 1995.

In the Ivy League, Cornell takes over the top spot from Princeton with Friday night's win, as the Tigers were not playing an Ivy League opponent.

The Big Red's first goal of the game came on a nice bit of trickery by center Kendice Ogilvie. Skating the puck into the offensive zone, Ogilvie deked past a defender and centered the puck to Rebecca Johnston. Johnston backhanded the puck into the net to give the Big Red a 1-0 lead with four minutes remaining in the first period.

Cornell's second goal was the backbreaker, coming with just 1.5 seconds to go in the period after a Harvard power play was nullified. The Crimson's Marissa Gedman took an interference penalty with Cornell's Alyssa Gagliardi already in the box, giving the Big Red a four-on-four faceoff in its own offensive zone with 17 seconds to go.

The team didn't wait long to strike, as Johnston passed the puck across the blue line to Lauriane Rougeau. Rougeau wheeled around and took a shot that was deflected into the net and put Cornell ahead 2-0 just before first intermission.

For the rest of the night, the Big Red defense shone brightly and its senior goaltender made her name known at Bright Hockey Center. Mazzotta saved six shots in the second period and eight more in the final frame, fighting off nearly two minutes of a Harvard advantage at the end.

The Crimson pulled goaltender Laura Bellamy with 1:37 remaining and then had a six-on-four advantage for 44 seconds when Chelsea Karpenko got sent to the box for hooking. Still, Mazzotta and the Big Red defense stood tall, becoming just the second team to shut out Harvard this season.

Cornell can solidify its hold on the Ivy League standings and earn some revenge with a win at No. 10 Dartmouth on Saturday night. The Big Green handed the Big Red its only conference loss this season in Ithaca by a 5-4 margin on Nov. 11. The puck drops on Saturday's game in Hanover, N.H. at 4 p.m.