ITHACA, N.Y. – Facing the best professional squadCanada has to offer, the Big Red women's hockey team had a brief lapse at the start of the second period from which it could not come back.
The Montreal Stars of the Canadian Women's Hockey League scored two goals in the first 84 seconds of the second period and went on to a 3-1 exhibition win over Cornell at Lynah Rink on Sunday afternoon that was a fairly even contest throughout.
Cornell got its lone goal from
Jessica Campbell with 48 seconds remaining in the game, capping a solid performance from the junior that saw her take a team-high five shots on goal. The Big Red earned a three-on-two with Campbell skating hard down the ice alongside
Monika Leck and
Brianne Jenner. Leck found Jenner with a pass, and Jenner got the puck over to Campbell who finished the play, preventing Cornell from being shut out.
Montreal, though, with 12 players who have been on the Canada or United States national teams, had put the contest away less than a minute before that when U.S. National Team member Julie Chu tapped a puck past Cornell's
Lauren Slebodnick to make it a 3-0 Stars lead.
When the game had concluded, Montreal -- the three-time defending league champion -- only had a one-shot advantage in the final stats. The Stars racked up 24 shots to the Big Red's 23, and Slebodnick had an excellent game in making 21 saves.
Despite outshooting the visiting Stars 14-8 in the first period, the Big Red could not get anything past starting goalie Charline Labonté. She played the first 29 minutes for Montreal, making 15 saves. Kim St. Pierre, the team's second goalie, made seven saves and allowed just Campbell's goal.
Montreal got on the board 45 seconds into the second period when Noemie Marin fired home a pass from teammate Ann-Sophie Bettez, stunning the home crowd with a quick strike. The Stars' offense was not done, though, as Haley Irwin made it 2-0 just 39 seconds later after she took a pass from Jesse Scanzano.
The Stars played excellent defense for the rest of the night and held on for the win.
No. 2 Cornell opens its regular season on Saturday night at Boston University's Agganis Arena. The Terriers are currently the No. 3 team in the country.
