Game Notes (PDF)
Live Stats | Video (Friday)
Live Stats | Video (Saturday)


ITHACA, N.Y.—The No. 3 Cornell women's ice hockey team will hit the road this weekend, first traveling to Union for a 7 p.m. contest Friday at Messa Rink in Schenectady, and then heading to Rensselaer for a 4 p.m. faceoff on Saturday at Houston Field House in Troy. The Big Red swept Colgate this past weekend, netting a first-period penalty shot, a last-minute goal for an overtime win, a short-handed goal, and picking up the program's 499th win. Jillian Saulnier (2g, 2a) and Emily Fulton (1g, 3a) led the team in points this weekend, scoring three goals and five assists between them. Alyssa Gagliardi, Cassandra Poudrier, and Hayleigh Cudmore each had one goal and one assist. The four-point weekend slid Cornell up two spots to No. 3 in the USCHO.com poll.

ABOUT THE NO. 3 BIG RED
This past weekend saw a ton of action, first on Friday as Caroline DeBruin netted a first-period penalty-shot goal against Colgate. Emily Fulton scored Cornell's second goal that game and assisted on the last two tallies. Cassandra Poudrier locked the game up at 3 to send it into overtime, where Jillian Saulnier scored the game-winner with 19 seconds left in OT and led the Big Red to a 4-3 victory. The following night at Lynah Rink, Saulnier opened up scoring five minutes into the game, but the Raiders came back four minutes into the second period. Two minutes later Alyssa Gagliardi netted a goal to give the Big Red the lead, then Hayleigh Cudmore had a short-handed insurance tally later in the period to lift Cornell 3-1. 

Cornell is currently in atop the Ivy League standings, two points ahead of rival Harvard, and is second place in the ECAC Hockey standings, just one point behind the Crimson with 29 points.

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 160-97-20 record; 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 UNION
The Dutchwomen (9-20-1, 4-14-0 ECAC Hockey) enter the weekend after a split with Yale and Brown on the road. Stefanie Thomson scored three of Union's four goals on the weekend, netting two in its 3-1 win against Yale and its lone goal against Brown. Thomson is tied for second in the nation in power-play goals with seven and the team converts on 20 percent of its power plays, good for sixth best. The Dutchwomen are led by senior Maddy Norton, who has a team-best 19 points on three goals and 16 assists. Fellow senior Thomson is right behind her with 11 goals and seven assists for 18 points. Junior goaltender Shenae Lundberg combined for 53 saves on the weekend and currently has a 2.72 goals-against average with a .907 save percentage. At the helm of the Dutchwomen is head coach Claudia Asano Barcomb, who is in her seventh year.

THE SERIES WITH THE DUTCHWOMEN
Since the teams first met during the 2003-04 season, Cornell has a dominant 20-1 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 56-7 through nine games.

ABOUT RENSSELAER
The Engineers come to Lynah Rink after struggling on the road against Brown and Yale. RPI (10-16-3, 6-10-2) lost to the Bears, 3-0, on Friday night. On Saturday against the Bulldogs, RPI netted two goals, one in the last minute of regulation, to send the game into overtime and pick up the 2-2 tie. Leading the Engineers in scoring thus far are a pair of sophomores, Alexa Gruschow (7-11—18) and Lauren Wash (11-4—15). RPI is under the direction of Head Coach John Burke, who is now in his 10th season at the helm of the program and is already RPI's all-time winningest coach (167-160-39).
   
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 14-4 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.

2014 HOCKEY HUMANITARIAN AWARD
Senior defenseman Alyssa Gagliardi has been nominated as one of 18 hockey players, both male and female, for the Hockey Humanitarian Award. The award recognizes hockey's finest citizen and includes players from Division I, II, and III. Finalists will be announced in February and the winner will be named at the Frozen Four in Philadelphia on Friday, April 11. On the men's side, Andy Iles was also nominated. Union College was the only other school to have both a male and female nominee.

THE HUNT FOR 500
Cornell picked up its 499th program win Feb. 8 against Colgate and will look to hit the 500-win milestone in one of the four remaining regular-season games.

NATIONAL POLLS
Cornell continued to regain its footing in the national polls, moving up to No. 3 after handing Colgate two consecutive losses on the weekend. The Big Red is currently third, behind No. 1 Minnesota and No. 2 Wisconsin.

LAST TIME OUT
The Big Red had seven goals on the weekend, and six different players scored as Cornell beat Colgate, 4-3, in overtime on Feb. 7 and again, 3-1, on Feb. 8. During the first game against the Raiders, Caroline DeBruin scored on a penalty shot and later in OT, Jillian Saulnier netted the game-winner with 19 seconds left to play. The next night at Lynah Rink, Saulnier opened up scoring for the Big Red and later assisted on Hayleigh Cudmore's short-handed goal to assure the 3-1 win. Saulnier led the team with two goals and two assists while Emily Fulton netted one goal and three assists on the weekend.

BIG RED SPECIAL TEAMS
The Big Red sits behind No. 1 Minnesota and No. 2 Wisconsin on the national leaderboard at 25.2 percent with the man-advantage. The combined special teams' average of 58.9 percent is good for second in the country, behind ECAC Hockey and Ivy League rival Harvard.

NUMBERS TO WATCH
NATIONAL NUMBERS
*Jillian Saulnier is fifth in the nation for points per game (1.52) and goals per game (0.72).
*Emily Fulton is seventh in the nation for points per game (1.40) and tenth in goals per game (0.61).
*Cassandra Poudrier is tied for 10th in power-play goals with five.
*Lauren Slebodnick is ranked third for winning percentage with .861 and a record of 14-1-3.
*As a team, Cornell has the number three scoring offense averaging 3.68 goals per game.
CAREER NUMBERS
*Saulnier has 50 goals, is tenth on the all-time career record list for assists (82) and is two points away from the top ten in Cornell history for points (133).
*Fulton has 75 points and is five games short of 90.
*Jessica Campbell has 90 points, is one assist short of 50, and is eight games shy of 130.
*Alyssa Gagliardi has 80 points, is fifth on the all-time list for plus/minus (+80) and is one game shy of 130.
*Hayleigh Cudmore has70 points and is three games shy of 130.
*Slebodnick has 65 total wins.
*The Big Red is one game shy of 500 program wins.

65 & 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 series, Slebodnick has a career record of 65-9-5.

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 (50-83--133). Saulnier is two points shy of making the Big Red's top ten list.

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.

PLAYERS OF THE WEEK
Throughout this season, several Cornell players have earned the ECAC Hockey Player of the Week, Rookie of the Week, and Goaltender of the Week honors.  Most recently, junior forward Jillian Saulnier received Player of the Week (Feb. 10). Others include junior forward Emily Fulton as both Player of the Week (Oct. 29) and the October Player of the Month, freshman forward Hanna Bunton as Rookie of the Week (Nov. 19), freshman goaltender Paula Voorheis as Rookie of the Week (Jan. 7), and senior goaltender Lauren Slebodnick received Goaltender of the Week (Feb.3),

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.

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 entered her senior campaign as Cornell's program leader in both categories and is currently the program leader in wins (65).

CORNELL IN THE OLYMPICS
The last time the Winter Olympics were held in 2010 in Vancouver, one member of the Cornell women's hockey team won a gold medal with Team Canada. But in 2014 in Sochi, there could be as many as four members of the Big Red with Olympic medals around their necks with Rebecca Johnston '12, Laura Fortino '13, Lauriane Rougeau '13 and senior Brianne Jenner. All four were on Canada's centralization roster, which was trimmed from 27 to the final 21 who made the trip to Sochi, Russia. Olympic play began Feb. 8 with a win against Switzerland, 5-0, followed by a Feb. 10 victory against Finland, 3-0. Team Canada finished off group play with a 3-2 win on Feb. 12 agaisnt the U.S. Rebecca Johnston '12 scored two goals in round-robin play, one against Finland and one against Switzerland.

THE NEWCOMERS
The class of 2017 is forward heavy, as four of the six have made 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
The Big Red returns to Lynah Rink next weekend playing host to Quinnipiac at 7 p.m. Friday, Feb. 21, followed by a matchup with Princeton at 4 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 22.