Box Score (PDF)
 
ITHACA, N.Y. – Junior winger Jess Brown tallied a goal midway through the third period and sophomore goaltender Paula Voorheis made it stand up in a 3-1 victory Friday night at Lynah Rink. The victory gives the Big Red a 1-0 series lead in the best-of-three series of the ECAC Hockey Quarterfinals. Cornell moves within one victory of punching its ticket to the semi-finals.
 
Voorheis was quite strong in the victory, stopping 18-of-19 St. Lawrence shots to continue her strong play down the stretch. She repeatedly denied glorious Saints chances, turning the visitors away on several odd-man breaks throughout the contest.
 
"She's been playing tremendous for us, especially this last month," head coach Doug Derraugh said. "We have confidence in her to make the big save when we need it and she certainly did that tonight."
 
Junior blue-liner Cassandra Poudrier opened the scoring for the Big Red with her third goal of the season, while senior Jillian Saulnier potted an empty-netter to extend her goal scoring streak to four consecutive games.
 
Junior Morgan Richardson and sophomore Kaitlin Doering collected assists on Poudrier's goal. Sophomore Sydney Smith got the helper on Brown's decisive goal, while seniors Emily Fulton and Brianne Jenner added helpers on Saulnier's game-sealer.
 
Senior netminder Carmen MacDonald played an extremely strong game for St. Lawrence (19-11-5), stopping 30 pucks in the losing effort.
 
Cornell (17-10-3) certainly looked a bit tight in the opening 20 minutes, as the squads slogged through a physical period. The Big Red gave up a couple breakaway chances, while also found itself shorthanded twice in the period.
 
Despite the sloppy play by the home side, the Saints were not able to capitalize as the team struggled to put pucks on the cage. Although St. Lawrence decidedly had the better of the play in the opening period, Cornell finished with a 9-4 advantage in shots on goal. The Saints struggles were highlighted just three minutes into the contest when senior Ellie Williams fed a perfect lead pass to senior Jacqueline Wand for a breakaway attempt. Her backhand shot drifted wide of the cage. Just three minutes later St. Lawrence freshman Hannah Miller also found herself on a semi-break, but Voorheis stood tall to deny her with a dazzling blocker save.
 
"Their forwards were doing a great job of flying through the neutral zone and their defense was doing a good job of putting the puck behind our D's to generate chances," Derraugh said. "We like the active play of our defenders, but I think we got caught watching the puck a little bit early on."
 
The Big Red flipped the switch to begin the middle frame in a fairly dominant period by the home side. MacDonald made several strong stops as Brown and Jenner both fired strong shots on goal in the opening 12 minutes of the period.
 
Finally, Cornell's efforts in the offensive end paid off when Poudrier broke the deadlock on the scoreboard with a goal right off the faceoff with 7:48 to go in the period. Doering won a clean faceoff back to Richardson, who quickly shuffled the puck to Poudrier at the point. She hammered a one-time slapper that found its way through an excellent screen by Fulton in front of crease, beating MacDonald low on the glove side. Cornell would take the 1-0 lead to the intermission.
 
Although the Big Red felt secured by the strong play of Voorheis through 40 minutes, the squad knew one goal would likely not be enough and clearly were the aggressors in the opening minutes of the third. MacDonald denied sophomore Hanna Bunton on a pair of athletic saves just one minute into the decisive period to keep the St. Lawrence deficit at one goal. The opportunities were a very encouraging sign for the Big Red, as it will need secondary production to advance into the latter stages of tournament play.
 
"I thought Doering, Bunton, Brown and our second and third lines were very strong tonight," Derraugh continued. "Everyone talks about the top-line, but when they weren't scoring, these lines really stepped up. Obviously, the two goals were huge, and I thought Veerman's line did a nice job of creating some chances and played really strong in our own end."
 
True to form, Cornell's blue-liners remained extremely aggressive in the offensive zone, despite the tenuous hold on the 1-0 lead. St. Lawrence was finally able to exploit the aggressiveness to equalize the game with 14:58 to play. As Poudrier attempted to line up a slap shot from the point, Jacqueline Wand was able to poke check the puck into the neutral zone. Sophomore Brooke Webster raced onto the puck, flying down the left wing into the Cornell zone on a two-on-one with freshman Kennedy Marchment. With the pass being taken away by Richardson, Webster opted to shoot, snapping a perfect wrist shot into the top shelf over the glove of Voorheis to tie the game at 1-1.
 
"I thought the girls did a great job of not getting down when they tied the game," Derraugh remarked. "They kept their heads up and showed strong resolve to push back to get the next goal."
 
Brown provided that next goal just 3:50 later on her ninth of the season. Cornell stalemated a St. Lawrence rush at the blue-line and struck quickly in transition. Smith moved the puck to Brown who moved up the left wing two-on-two into the Saints zone. She stopped up and ripped a wrist shot with Smith making a hard center drive to the net. The initial shot was turned away by MacDonald, but Smith did a good job to keep the play alive for Brown, who followed her initial shot and poked the rebound past the netminder into the cage. The goal was upheld after a quick video review.
 
St. Lawrence pushed back in a desperate effort to tie the game down the stretch. The Saints were awarded a powerplay with 4:30 remaining when Richardson was whistled for tripping Marchment as she charged between the circles on a threatening rush to the Cornell net. Voorheis and the penalty kill performed heroically, as Poudrier, Saulnier and Bunton all sacrificed the body to block shots.
 
Saulnier sealed the game with 15 seconds remaining. With MacDonald pulled for the extra attacker, the Saints made one final push to send the game to overtime. Although the Saints established some solid zone time, Cornell did well to keep the visitors on the perimeter. Finally the puck worked into open space along the right half wall. Fulton raced over and lofted an arcing pass into the St. Lawrence end. Jenner won the race to the puck and unselfishly moved it to Saulnier for the tap into the vacated cage.
 
Cornell will look to seal the series tomorrow afternoon when the squads meet for game two in the best-of-three series. Opening puck drop is scheduled for 4 p.m.
 
"[St. Lawrence] is going to throw everything they have at us tomorrow," Derraugh concluded. "We'll have to step our game and play better, but it's nice to have the chance to close it out. We're halfway there."