Box Score Harvard-Clarkson Box

ITHACA, N.Y. – Taylor Woods had a career day, scoring a hat trick and the game-winning goal in a 4-2 Cornell win against St. Lawrence in the ECAC Hockey Semifinal at Lynah Rink on Saturday afternoon.
 
Woods had Cornell's first two goals in the first period, and St. Lawrence fought back to tie the game at 2-2 entering the final frame.
 
From there, the Big Red had to fight off 30 seconds of five-on-three before Woods struck for the game winner. She took a pass from Brianne Jenner and chipped the puck over St. Lawrence's Carmen MacDonald with just 1:38 left in the game.
 
“All three of my goals were just crashing the net, so I knew that just going around the net, pucks will be there,” Woods said. “[The tournament's] intensity, as they warned us before, was going to be more than what it is in the regular season. If  you think that you're going 100 percent, you've got to go harder.”
 
Jenner iced it with an empty-netter with 40 seconds on the clock, and Lauren Slebodnick earned her 50th career win with 25 saves including eight in the decisive period.
 
“Our team did a good job again like they did last weekend of finding a way to get it done in the third period,” coach Doug Derraugh said. “That's always a good sign in the playoffs.”
 
Cornell (26-5-1) advances to the ECAC Hockey Championship Game for the fourth consecutive season and will face either Clarkson or Harvard in the contest on Sunday at 1 p.m.
 
St. Lawrence (19-14-5) had its season come to an end with the loss.
 
The first period was very evenly played for much of its duration. But late in the frame, the Big Red struck twice to take a 2-0 lead.


Woods made two savvy plays in front of the net on both occasions, taking two shots with the first saved by MacDonald and the second getting through.
 
On her first goal, Woods came down low on the forecheck and stole a pass from St. Lawrence that the Saints intended to go around the boards. Woods took the puck off the end boards, came in front of the net and shot low on MacDonald. MacDonald made the initial save, but Woods lifted the puck over her on a rebound attempt to make it 1-0 Cornell at the 17:37 mark.
 
Just 91 seconds later, the Big Red doubled its lead on the power play. Jenner had the puck in the middle of the zone, and she fed Lauriane Rougeau to her left. Rougaeu took a shot that was blocked in front, and the loose puck went to Woods near the same spot where she scored her first. Again she took a quick jab at the puck and MacDonald made the save, but persistence paid off as she got the rebound shot into the net.
 
The Saints, though, got right back in the game thanks to goals in the last 5:17 of the second period. Rylee Smith ripped a shot from the right side over the left shoulder of Slebodnick soon after entering the zone to cut Cornell's lead in half.
 
And just after a Cornell power play expired, Smith and Kelly Sabatine found themselves on a two-on-zero breakaway. Sabatine brought the puck in close to Slebodnick before dishing off to Smith, and Smith got her second goal by faking out Slebodnick. That sent the teams into the second intermission knotted up at 2-2 and set up the game's thrilling conclusion.
 
 “This year we've had a number of games where we had to claw at the end of games and get those one-goal wins,” Derraugh said. “It's hard to replicate that in practice. That's what strong teams do: They find a way to get things done even when they're not playing their best.”
 
More than 2,000 fans saw the Big Red take checking and slashing penalties within 90 seconds of each other, leaving the team with 30 seconds of five-on-three to kill off. After the team successfully did that, St. Lawrence's Amanda Boulier took a checking penalty to make the game four-on-four for the next 1:10.
 
Killing off those late penalties – including another one by Woods at the 15:55 mark of the period, gave Cornell the momentum on its way to Woods' game-winner.
 
“That really helped us, especially the three-versus-five,” Derraugh said. “You could feel the energy on the bench when we killed that one off. Our penalty killing did a tremendous job.”
 
Cornell has now defeated St. Lawrence in all four games the teams played this season. The Big Red is now 14-1 in the ECAC Hockey Tournament over the last four years and is 16-0-1 in front of the home crowd.
 
The Big Red hosts Clarkson or Harvard in the championship game on Sunday at 1 p.m.