ITHACA, N.Y. – Lynah Rink welcomes the women's hockey team for its home opener on Tuesday night against ECAC Hockey rival St. Lawrence. The No. 2 Big Red, coming off a split weekend against No. 3 Boston University, will look to get back in the win column and avenge a loss to the Saints in the ECAC Hockey Tournament Final last season in Tuesday night's non-league game.

GAME INFORMATION
GAME #3: No. 2 Cornell vs. St. Lawrence
GAME TIME: Tuesday, October 23, 7 p.m.
GAME SITE: Lynah Rink (Ithaca, N.Y.)
SERIES RECORD: St. Lawrence leads 32-25-4
LAST MEETING: St. Lawrence won 3-1 on March 3, 2012
2012-13 RECORDS: Cornell (1-1-0); St. Lawrence (0-4-0)
LIVE STATS: Cornell Live Stats
LIVE VIDEO: RedCast

ABOUT THE BIG RED
The Big Red, which has been to the Frozen Four for the last three seasons, started its 2012-13 campaign in Boston last weekend with a win and a loss against the No. 3 Boston University Terriers. Playing in front of more than 1,800 Boston fans on Saturday night, Cornell emerged with a 5-2 victory thanks to two assists each from Alyssa Gagliardi and Hayleigh Cudmore. The next afternoon, though, in a smaller venue in front of a smaller crowd, the Big Red fell by a 5-1 margin despite Laura Fortino earning the game's first goal for Cornell. Cornell had four players finish the weekend with two points total and had six different players score goals. Twelve different players have points, including goalie Lauren Slebodnick.

HEAD COACH DOUG DERRAUGH
Now in his eighth season directing the Cornell women's hockey program, Doug Derraugh has quickly brought the Big Red women to their current place among the nation's elite. Taking a program that won just four games in the season prior to his arrival, Derraugh guided the Big Red to the national title game in his fifth season and back-to-back-to-back NCAA Frozen Four appearances in 2010, 2011 and 2012, completely turning around the culture of the women's hockey program at Cornell. Derraugh, a 1991 graduate of Cornell, was the last Big Red men's hockey player to score 30 goals in a season. He earned his 100th career win at Union on Jan. 6, 2012 and has the second-most wins of any Cornell women's hockey coach.

ABOUT ST. LAWRENCE
The Saints, based in Canton, had last week off but have had a difficult start to the season. They sit at 0-4 on the year, lost two games to nearby rival Clarkson to start the year and were shut out 5-0 and 6-0 at home to No. 1 Minnesota the following weekend. Still, the Saints are a talented group of athletes who won the ECAC Hockey Tournament Final against Cornell last season, earning a berth in the NCAA Tournament where they lost to fourth-seed Boston College. Kayla Raniwsky and Kelly Sabatine have scored the Saints' only goals so far this year year. Carmen McDonald has a 3.34 goals against average in four games.
St. Lawrence is coached by Chris Wells, now in his fifth year with the team.

THE SERIES WITH ST. LAWRENCE
Cornell hockey fans will no doubt remember St. Lawrence's upset victory over Cornell in the ECAC Hockey Tournament Final last year, a 3-1 win that was a tie game until the third period. Prior to that meeting, the Big Red had defeated the Saints twice in the regular season. But that night, Kelly Sabatine struck with 1:50 left in the contest to put St. Lawrence ahead 2-1 before an empty-netter sealed the victory. The Saints lead the all-time series 32-25-4, but Cornell had won four consecutive games against St. Lawrence before the loss in March.

A WINS AGAINST ST. LAWRENCE WOULD…
…boost Cornell's record to 2-1…be Cornell's fifth win against St. Lawrence in the last six meetings…be Cornell's eighth straight win in a Tuesday-night game.

FRESHMEN SCORERS
Two Big Red freshmen got their first career goals on Saturday night at BU. Anna Zorn tapped home a rebound of a Jillian Saulnier shot in the second period to put tie the contest at 1-1. A few minutes later, Taylor Woods ripped home a shorthanded goal to once again give the Big Red a tie at 2-2.

SHORT-HANDED OFFENSE
The Big Red scored two shorthanded goals on Saturday, marking the first time the team has tallied two short-handed goals in a game in at least nine years. Taylor Woods scored the first to tie the game at 2-2, and Emily Fulton struck about a minute later to give Cornell a 3-2 lead it would hold for a 5-2 victory.

HELPING GLOVE
Goalie Lauren Slebodnick got her first career assist on Saturday, passing the puck to Hayleigh Cudmore who found Fulton for Cornell's third goal. The assist was Cornell's first from a goalie in more than three years. Jenny Niesluchowski had the last goalie assist on Jan. 4, 2009 against Providence College.

SCHEDULE CRUNCH
The Big Red will be playing its third game in four days on Tuesday night. Cornell will then play games on Friday and Saturday, making it five games in eight days when this hectic stretch is complete.

OUTRANKING THE COMPETITION
In its last 23 games against ranked opponents from the start of the 2009-10 season until now, the Big Red holds a 16-8 record. Cornell was a very impressive 9-3 against ranked opponents in 2011-12.

REPRESENTING HER COUNTRY
Brianne Jenner won a spot on the Canadian Women's National Team last week and is the only Big Red player to earn that honor. She will compete at the 4 Nations Cup with Canada for the third consecutive season. The tournament, held in Finland in November, will also have Rebecca Johnston '12 suiting up for Canada.

MEET THE CAPTAINS
The Big Red's captain this season will be senior defenseman Lauriane Rougeau. Serving as alternate captains will be senior defenseman Laura Fortino and junior defenseman Alyssa Gagliardi. Cornell's four captains last season were seniors Rebecca Johnston, Catherine White, Chelsea Karpenko and Amanda Young.

NEW KIDS ON THE ICE
Cornell welcomes a talented class of eight freshmen to Ithaca this year. Goalkeeper Stefannie Moak will be joined by defensemen Kelly Murray, Cassandra Poudrier and Morgan Richardson along with forwards Jess Brown, Victoria Pittens, Taylor Woods and Anna Zorn.

TELEVISION STAR
Besides sending her team to the Frozen Four, Lauriane Rougeau got a special treat after scoring the game-winning goal against BU last year. For her efforts, the junior was put on ESPN's SportsCenter, and her goal was the show's No. 3 play in SportsCenter's Top 10 the next morning.

ECAC YEARLY HONORS
Cornell had four players earn ECAC Hockey individual honors last season. Senior forward Rebecca Johnston was named the Player of the Year, Jillian Saulnier was named the Rookie of the Year, Chelsea Karpenko was named the Best Defensive Forward and Lauriane Rougeau was named Best Defensive Defenseman. Johnston, Rougeau, Laura Fortino and Brianne Jenner were named to the league's first team, while Saulnier earned second team All-League honors.

IVY LEAGUE AWARD WINNERS
Rebecca Johnston was named the Ivy League's Player of the Year, and freshman Jillian Saulnier earned Rookie of the Year honors. The Big Red also had four players make the All-Ivy First Team: Johnston, Brianne Jenner, Lauriane Rougeau and Laura Fortino.

NO SHUTOUTS
Cornell scored a goal in every game last year, something only it can say. Clarkson and Northeastern were on that list until late in the season, but the Big Red was the lone team to make it through the whole season without a shutout against. Cornell was also the only team playing a full Division I schedule to not have a tie last year.

NATIONAL POLLS
Cornell remains the No. 2 team in the country this week according to the USCHO.com poll after winning one and losing one against No. 3 Boston University. The Terriers also remained at No. 3, while Minnesota continues to be the top team in the nation. ECAC Hockey and Ivy League foe Harvard entered the poll at No. 9 for the first time this year, while Clarkson moved up to No. 4.

CAREER NUMBERS WATCH
Over the weekend:
• Laura Fortino and Lauriane Rougeau played in their 100th career games.
• Emily Fulton earned her 20th point.
• Brianne Jenner scored her 110th point.
• Lauriane Rougeau earned her 70th assist and 90th point.
• Hayleigh Cudmore notched her 25th assist.
Approaching career numbers:
• Jessica Campbell's next assist will be her 25th.
• Lauren Slebodnick is six seconds away from her 2,000th minute and two wins away from her 30th.

UP NEXT
The Big Red gets right back to action when Brown and Yale come to Ithaca to start the 2012-13 conference schedule this weekend. The Big Red and Bears play at 3 p.m. on Friday while the Big Red and the Bulldogs play at 3 p.m. on Saturday.