Game Notes (PDF)

ITHACA, N.Y. -  After a 1-0-1 weekend on the road against Princeton and Quinnipiac last weekend, the Big Red women's hockey team returns to Lynah Rink to take on Capital District teams Rensselaer and Union.
 
ABOUT THE BIG RED
     Still unbeaten, Cornell picked up three points on its first road trip of the 2013-14 season, but struggled to stay consistent throughout the entire 60 minutes. After building a 5-0, first-period lead versus Princeton on Friday, the Big Red gave up four goals in the second - three in a span of 50 seconds in the opening three minutes of the second period– and narrowly escaped with the 5-4 victory. On Saturday at No. 7 Quinnipiac, Cornell was down 1-0 midway through the third until leading-scorer Emily Fulton was hauled down on a breakaway and awarded a penalty shot. Quinnipiac's Chelsea Laden initially made the stop on Fulton, but kicked the puck into her own net while trying to close her pads. The Bobcats' goal was a short-handed tally and is the second short-handed goal allowed by the Big Red already this season. The team surrendered just four all of last season.
     Cornell is currently in sole possession of first place in the ECAC Hockey standings with seven points, and is the only league team without a loss so far this season.            
 
HEAD COACH DOUG DERRAUGH '91
     Derraugh returned to his alma mater before the 2005-06 campaign to coach a team that the season before had tallied only four victories. Now in his ninth season, Derraugh has transformed the women's hockey program at Cornell into one that continues to be ranked among the nation's elite year after year. Derraugh's record at the helm of the program is an impressive 151-95-18 through last weekend's roadtrip to Princeton and Quinnipiac; every ECAC championship and NCAA tournament appearance Big Red women's hockey has to its credit has come during his tenure. He earned his second ECAC Hockey Coach of the Year honor after leading the team to both a regular season and tournament championship in 2012-13.
     Returning as his assistants this season are Danielle Bilodeau '01 (eighth season) and Edith Racine (fifth season).
 
ABOUT RENSSELAER
     The Engineers come to Lynah Rink after earning split at home against No. 8 Harvard and Dartmouth in their first ECAC Hockey games of the season. RPI (2-6-1, 1-1-0 ECACH) upset the Crimson, 2-1, on Friday night thanks to a third-period, game-winning goal by Lauren Wash. On Saturday against the Big Green, RPI allowed two special-teams goals in the later stages of the game and eventually fell 3-1. Freshman Katie Rooney was named the league's rookie of the week after contributing a goal and two assists on the weekend for the Engineers. She assisted on Wash's game-winner against Harvard and scored the only RPI goal – the first of her career – Saturday against Dartmouth. Leading the Engineers in scoring thus far is fellow freshman Laura Horwood (2-4—6). RPI is under the direction of Head Coach John Burke who is now in his tenth season at the helm of the program and is already RPI's all-time winningest coach (149-150-37).
    
THE SERIES WITH THE ENGINEERS
     The shortest running series for Cornell against current ECAC Hockey members; the teams did not meet until the 2006-07 season. RPI won the first three meeting between the teams, outscoring the Big Red 13-5 in those contests. Despite the early struggles, Cornell has a commanding 13-4-0 series lead against the Engineers. Cornell earned its first win against the league newcomers in February 2008 and has not lost to the RPI since February 2009. 
    
ABOUT UNION
     The Dutchwomen (4-6-0, 1-1-0 ECACH) also enter the weekend after a split with Dartmouth and No. 8 Harvard at home in their first conference games. Both of Union's games last weekend came in the form of 3-0 shutouts; Union downed Dartmouth by that three-goal margin on Friday night, before being shut out by the Crimson on Saturday. The team is a perfect 7-for-7 on the penalty kill, and boasts the ECAC Hockey goaltender of the week Shenae Lundberg.  Lundberg's 25-save effort against the Big Green on Friday helped Union to its first ever program win over Dartmouth and was the second shutout of her career. Sophomore forward Courtney Turner leads the Dutchwomen with 10 points on four goals and six assists.
 
THE SERIES WITH THE DUTCHWOMEN
    Since the team's first met during the 2003-04 season, Cornell has a dominant 19-1-0 lead in the series with Union. The Dutchwomen's only victory over the Big Red came in the form of a 3-1 win in Schenectady in February 2004, taking the second of a two-game series. Cornell won the opening contest 4-0. Since the Big Red's string of ECAC Hockey titles began in the 2009-10 season, Cornell has outscored Union 48-6 through eight games.
    
#IVYDIGITAL
     Every women's hockey home game for 2013-14 will be available on the network as well. The link to the game feed will be accessible in the minutes leading up to the scheduled start time. To purchase an Ivy League Digital Network pass go to http://www.ivyleaguedigitalnetwork.com/packages and select the package of your choice.
 
55 & COUNTING...
     After earning two wins in Cornell's ECAC Hockey opening weekend, senior Lauren Slebodnick is now the winningest goaltender in Cornell history. She passed former teammate Amanda Mazzotta's previous record of 53 wins with a 6-3 victory over No. 5 Clarkson. The win against St. Lawrence the following afternoon was number 55. Heading into this weekend's home series Slebodnick has a career record of 56-8-3.
 
100-POINT CLUB
     Junior forward Jillian Saulnier reached the 100-point mark with two goals and one assist against Clarkson on Oct. 25. She is the only player on the Big Red roster this season with more than 100 points (37-66--103).
 
PLAYER OF THE MONTH
     Emily Fulton was named ECAC Hockey's Player of the Month for October after finishing the month leading all Division I women's hockey players in points per game (3.00) and assists per game (2.00). She has amassed 12 points through the Big Red's first four games thanks, in large part, to a combined nine-point performance against Clarkson and St. Lawrence. The five-assist showing against the Golden Knights was a career high for Fulton, and tied her with former teammate Laura Fortino at eighth on the all-time list for most assists in a game.

CORNELL AT LYNAH
    Since Doug Derraugh took over prior to the 2006-07 season, the Big Red has posted an 87-36-7 record on its home ice in Lynah Rink and has only lost four games at home in the past three seasons. The team's only loss at home last season came in its NCAA first round overtime heartbreaker when the Big Red fell, 4-3, to No. 9 Mercyhurst.
 
NATIONAL NUMBERS
    Emily Fulton remains the national leader in points per game (2.33), and is the only player averaging more than two points. Heading in to the weekend Fulton has 14 points (6 goals, 8 assists) through six games.  Jessica Campbell- who at one point was second to Fulton in this category – is now sixth (1.67).  Fulton is also still the national leader in assists per game (1.33) and is  tied for second with Boston College's Haley Skarupa in goals per game (1.00), while linemate Jillian Saulnier is fifth in the latter category, averaging 0.83.
    
PRESEASON HONORS
     Junior forward Jillian Saulnier was the lone Big Red player named to ECAC Hockey's preseason All-League team.  In addition to her ECAC Hockey Second Team honors last season, the Halifax, Nova Scotia native dished out a career-high 33 assists. Four of her 10 goals were game-winners, and she finished the season 14th in the country in points per game (1.43) and fifth in the nation in assists per game (1.10). She was also a Patty Kazmaier Award nominee last season.
 
ALL-LEAGUE RETURNERS
     In addition to her ECAC Hockey Second Team honors, Jillian Saulnier was also named to the All-Ivy League First Team following last season. She is joined by goaltender Lauren Slebodnick (ECAC Third Team) and defenseman Cassandra Poudrier (ECAC All-Rookie Team) as Cornell's all-league returning cast for 2013-2014.
 
CORNELL IN THE POLLS
     The Big Red maintained its third-place ranking in both the USCHO.com poll and the USA Today/USA Hockey Magazine poll this week. The team has been consistently ranked in both polls since the preseason when it started at number four and six, respectively. Cornell is the highest-ranked ECAC Hockey team in the polls this week, ahead of Clarkson (6), Quinnipiac (7) and Harvard (8).  The Minnesota Golden Gophers have been the number one pick for 33 weeks running.
 
SHARING RESPONSIBILITIES
     Seniors Jessica Campbell and Alyssa Gagliardi – who was an alternate captain for Cornell in 2012-13 – will   serve as co-captains for the Big Red this season. Cornell's captain last season was senior Lauriane Rougeau, while her classmate Laura Fortino joined Gagliardi as an alternate. The last time the Big Red had co-captains without alternates was in the 2009-10 season with Liz Zorn and Kelly McGinty both wearing the C. Liz Zorn is the older sister of current Big Red sophomore Anna Zorn.
 
BETWEEN THE PIPES
     After serving as a primary backup to former netminder Amanda Mazzotta, senior Lauren Slebodnick found a home in the paint for the Big Red last season. She started 31 games for Cornell, posting a 24-6-1 record with 1.55 goals-against average and .927 save percentage. She enters her senior campaign as Cornell's program leader in both categories and is also the program leader in wins (56). Backing up Slebodnick this season will be sophomore Stefannie Moak and freshman Paula Voorheis.
 
CAREER NUMBERS WATCH
- Jessica Campbell's next point will be number 75.
- Monika Leck and Taylor Woods are both just one point shy of 30 for their careers.
- Alyssa Gagliardi needs on point to reach 65 for her career.
 
CORNELL IN THE OLYMPICS
     The Big Red are notably without leading scorer Brianne Jenner this season, who has taken the year off from Cornell to compete as a member of Team Canada in hopes of joining her native country in Sochi, Russia for the 2014 winter games. Jenner, along with former Big Red teammates Laura Fortino, Lauriane Rougeau and Rebecca Johnston, was named to Canada's centralization roster in April. The final nominations for the Olympic squad are set to take place in December.
 
THE NEWCOMERS
     The class of 2017 is forward heavy, as four of the six will be expected to make immediate contributions on offense for the Big Red. The remaining two, defender Sydney Smith and goaltender Paula Voorheis, will be guided by the standout seniors in their respective positions so that they can play important roles for the Big Red in the years to come. Voorheis and classmates Caroline DeBruin and Brianna Veerman all come to East Hill from the Aurora Junior Panthers.
 
THE BREAKDOWN
     The Big Red roster is made up of four seniors, three juniors, eight sophomores and six freshmen. Seventeen of the 21 active players are Canadian and represent six provinces: Alberta, Manitoba, Nova Scotia, Ontario, Quebec and Saskatchewan. The four remaining players are Americans, hailing from North Carolina, New Hampshire, New York and Ohio.
 
UP NEXT
     Cornell heads back on the road to No. 8 Harvard and Dartmouth for its final ECAC Hockey weekend of the first semester. The Big Red will face the Crimson at 7 p.m. Friday, Nov. 15 and Dartmouth at 4 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 16.