SCHENECTADY, N.Y. and TROY, N.Y. — In another key conference weekend, the Big Red will be looking to gain some ground in the ECAC Hockey standings when it heads to the capital region to face Union on Friday and Rensselaer on Saturday. The Engineers, who beat Cornell in overtime at Lynah in October, currently sit two points ahead of the Big Red.
 
GAME 20: Cornell Big Red at Union Dutchwomen
WHEN: Friday, Jan. 29, 2016 — 7 p.m.
WHERE: Messa Rink — Schenectady, N.Y.
2015-16 RECORDS: Cornell 8-9-4 (4-6-4 ECAC Hockey), Union 0-20-6 (0-11-3 ECAC Hockey)
LIVE STATS: UnionAthletics.com
LIVE VIDEO: UnionAthletics.tv
 
GAME 21: Cornell Big Red at Rensselaer Engineers
WHEN: Saturday, Jan. 30, 2016 — 4 p.m.
WHERE: Houston Field House — Troy, N.Y.
2015-16 RECORDS: Cornell 8-9-4 (4-6-4 ECAC Hockey), Rensselaer 8-11-4 (6-5-2 ECAC Hockey)*
LIVE STATS: RPIAthletics.com
LIVE VIDEO: RPItv.org
*—records do not include Friday's games
 
GAME NOTES:
Cornell | Union (coming soon) | RPI (coming soon)
 
ABOUT THE BIG RED
Cornell stole a point from No. 5/5 Clarkson last Friday, with senior Jess Brown netting the tying goal in the third period after the Golden Knights had taken a 2-1 lead into the second intermission. St. Lawrence then used two empty-net goals to seal a 5-1 victory against the Big Red the next day. The Big Red is ninth in the ECAC Hockey standings heading into the weekend with 12 points coming on conference wins over Princeton, St. Lawrence, Dartmouth and Yale and ties with Union, Colgate, Brown and Clarkson. Of Cornell's nine losses, seven have come at the hands of teams ranked or receiving votes in the national polls, including two to now-No. 1 Boston College. Junior Hanna Bunton leads the team with 22 points (11-11–22). Brown and junior Kaitlin Doering each have 15 points.
 
ABOUT UNION
The Dutchwomen were 1:18 away from their first win of the season last Saturday when Brown tied the game at two, a score that held through overtime. Union's other two conference points also came on 2-2 draws, both on the team's trip to central New York at the end of October, tying Colgate and Cornell a day apart. In fact, all of the Dutchwomen's draws have been by a 2-2 score: Union opened the season with a tie with Minnesota State-Mankato and also posted draws with Connecticut and Maine. Senior Kathryn Tomaselli leads the team with 10 points (7-3–10). Facing an average of over 36 shots per game, freshman goaltender Melissa Black has posted a .935 save percentage and 2.59 goals-against average on the season thus far.
 
THE SERIES VS. UNION
The Dutchwomen stunned the Big Red early in the season, jumping out to a 2-0 lead on Oct. 31. Freshman Pippy Gerace's first career goal and a tally from Bunton brought the Big Red even, and an inconclusive overtime earned each team a conference point. Though not a win, the draw continued Cornell's 22-game unbeaten streak against the Dutchwomen dating back to 2004, the first season the teams met, when Union posted its only win against the Big Red in program history. Cornell won both its matchups against the Dutchwomen last season, beginning with a 8-2 win on home ice with sophomore Erin O'Connor, senior Jess Brown, junior Brianna Veerman and senior Taylor Woods all finishing the game with two points.  The Big Red took a 4-0 victory when it traveled to Union later in the season, with O'Connor and senior Anna Zorn both finding the back of the net. Zorn leads the Big Red with six points (3-3–6) against the Dutchwomen in five career matchups.
 
ABOUT RENSSELAER
The Engineers have won three of their last four heading into this weekend, posting a pair of wins over neighboring Union and a 6-2 rout of Brown, earning them the seventh-place spot in the current standings. Rensselaer's season highlights thus far have been a 2-1 upset of No. 5/5 Clarkson and shutting out No. 4/4 Quinnipiac's potent offense in a scoreless draw. The Engineers are a stingy defensive team led by freshman goaltender Lovisa Selander, who has been a bright spot this season, posting a 1.98 goals-against average and .937 save percentage. RPI has struggled to score at times though, especially on the power play with only 9.4 percent efficiency with the man-advantage. Senior Alexa Gruschow leads the team in scoring with 11 goals and five assists.
 
THE SERIES VS. RENSSELAER
In a weekend when both of Cornell's games needed overtime, the Engineers pulled off a win in the extra frame, downing the Big Red, 2-1, on Lauren Wash's game-winner. The win was just RPI's fifth over the Big Red all-time, with Cornell holding a 17-5 advantage in the series. In 2014-15, Cornell took the season series, including a 7-1 win at Lynah Rink that featured six different goal scorers for the Big Red. Junior Sydney Smith finished with a goal and two assists. Cornell also beat RPI on the road, 4-1, later in the season behind a three-point effort from Jillian Saulnier.
 
ABOUT HEAD COACH DOUG DERRAUGH '91
Entering his 11th season directing Cornell women's hockey, Derraugh has brought the program to national prominence. He amassed a 189-112-24 record in his first ten seasons with the Big Red and has led the team to four ECAC Hockey Tournament Championships, four Ivy League Championships and five NCAA tournament appearances, including three trips to the Frozen Four. From 2009-10 to 2013-14, his teams notched five consecutive 20-win seasons for the first time in program history.
 
JESS "CLUTCH" BROWN
Senior Jess Brown has had a knack for scoring goals at the right time this season. Her first goal of the year was the game-tying mark with 17.6 seconds remaining in regulation against Colgate on Nov. 17. She has also netted a pair of hat tricks, each time including the game-winner, in a 4-3 win over St. Lawrence on Dec. 4, and a 6-4 win against Yale on Jan. 15. On Jan. 22, she tallied another game-tying goal in the third period to give Cornell an important 2-2 draw with No. 5/5 Clarkson. The Big Red is 3-0-2 when Brown scores.
 
FIRSTS (AND THIRDS)
In an eight-goal weekend against Yale and Brown, several Cornellians notched career marks. Freshman Lenka Serdar scored her first career goal in the first period against Brown, while classmates Pippy Gerace (2-1–3) and Micah Hart (0-3–3) set career highs for points against Yale. The win over the Bulldogs was also Gerace's first career multi-goal game. Fellow freshman Christian Higham posted her first multi-assist game against Yale with two helpers. In addition, senior Jess Brown recorded her third career hat trick, and second of the season, against Yale.
 
HOT STREAKS
Junior Hanna Bunton (3-4–7) and senior Jess Brown (4-3–7) come into the weekend with points in five of their past six games. Bunton has posted two five-game point streaks this season (Nov. 7-21 and Jan. 8-22).
 
AT THE HART OF IT
Freshman Micah Hart has 14 points (1-13–14) in her past 13 games and ranks 13^th  nationally among rookies in points per game with 0.70 and 15^th among defenseman. The Big Red is 6-0-1 when Hart records an assist.
 
MAN DOWN
Junior Kaitlin Doering scored a shorthanded goal in back-to-back games, netting her first career man-down goal on Jan. 9 at Dartmouth before adding another on Jan. 12 at Colgate. The last Cornell women's hockey player to score a shorthanded goal in consecutive games was Rebecca Johnston on Jan. 21 and 22, 2011, both against Colgate.
 
TURNING THE CORNER
After going 1-4-1 through its first six games of the season, culminating with a 3-1 loss at Quinnipiac on Nov. 7, the Big Red has improved drastically in offensive production. Through the first six games, Cornell averaged just 1.17 goals per game. Since Nov. 7, beginning with a 5-2 win over Syracuse, the Big Red has averaged 3.21 goals per game. Once ranking near the bottom of Division I, Cornell is currently 12^th nationally in scoring offense.
 
NATIONS CUP
Senior captain Cassandra Poudrier, junior Hanna Bunton and freshman Micah Hart competed with the Canadian Women's National Development Team this week in the 2016 Nations Cup in Germany. Team Canada defeated Sweden, 2-1, in a shootout on Monday in the first game of the preliminary round. Poudrier, who was serving as one of Canada's assistant captains, assisted on the team's first goal in a 4-2 preliminary-round win over Russia on Tuesday to earn Canada a spot in the gold medal game.
 
HATS OFF
*Senior Jess Brown has a pair of hat tricks on the season, scoring three in Cornell's 4-3 win at St. Lawrence on Dec. 4 and in the team's 6-4 win over Yale on Jan. 15. Brown now has three career hat tricks.
*Junior Hanna Bunton notched her first career hat trick, part of a four-point outing, in the Big Red's 6-1 rout of Mercyhurst on Nov. 21. The final of her three goals on the afternoon was her eighth of the season, a career high just 10 games into the year.
 
WINDJAMMER WINNERS
The Big Red won the Windjammer Classic hosted by Vermont the weekend of Nov. 28-29, beating Boston University, 4-2, and Vermont, 4-0, for the team's first weekend sweep of the season. Senior captain Cassandra Poudrier was named the tournament MVP and earned All-Tournament honors after a five-point weekend. Forwards freshman Pippy Gerace and senior Taylor Woods and freshman goaltender Marlene Boissonnault were also named to the All-Tournament Team.
 
WEEKLY HONORS
Poudrier was named ECAC Hockey Player of the Week and Gerace earned Rookie of the Week honors the week of Nov. 30 for their performances in the Windjammer Classic. Poudrier posted two goals and three assists in the tournament while Gerace added two goals, including the game-winner against Boston University, and an assist.
 
BEATING THE UNBEATEN
Cornell's thrilling 2-1 win over then-No. 10/10 Princeton was the Tigers' first loss of the season, after going 4-0-0 in their first four games. Princeton was the last team in ECAC Hockey to surrender an unbeaten, untied record. In addition, the Tigers have lost just one game since.
 
SHUTOUT STREAK SNAPPERS (x3)
*Taylor Woods' first goal at Princeton snapped Tigers goalie Alysia Dasilva's shutout streak of 118 minutes, 44 seconds.
*Junior Hanna Bunton scored the Big Red's first goal of the season 4:50 into the third period on Oct. 24 against No. 2/2 Boston College, marking the first time BC goaltender Katie Burt had let a puck past her in over 150 minutes of play.
*Quinnipiac goaltender junior Sydney Rossman hadn't surrendered a goal in 81:28 when Bunton netted the first goal of the game at 12:29 of the first period on Nov. 7, an eventual 3-1 Bobcats victory.

RECORDS WATCH
*With her first goal of the game at Mercyhurst on Nov. 21, junior Hanna Bunton moved into a tie for No. 17 on the Cornell all-time list for game-winning goals with seven. Senior Taylor Woods is currently tied for the No. 23 spot with six. Bunton is two game-winners away from being tied for tenth.
*Woods is tied for 12th all-time with 12 career power-play goals. She is three power-play goals away from knocking Jeri Maerz out of 10th.
*Woods' short-handed goal against Princeton tied her for 10th all-time with three man-down tallies.
*Bunton and Kaitlin Doering are tied for 12th all-time with two short-handed goals.
*Woods has now taken over the 11^th spot all-time in shots on goal.. She needs 16 shots to surpass Lauriane Rougeau in 10^th with 333. Woods was also No. 13 for shots per game with 2.69 entering her senior season.
*With eight shots on goal against Yale and Brown on Jan. 15-16, Bunton jumped over teammate Cassandra Poudrier into 15^th.
*Cassandra Poudrier is right behind Bunton in 16^th with 245 shots on goal. She is just 12 shots away from overtaking Alyssa Gagliardi in 14th.
*Junior Paula Voorheis sits at No. 6 for most career wins in program history with 29.
*With her blanking of Vermont, Voorheis is now tied for seventh with six shutouts.
*With her next two saves, Voorheis will move into 10^th, jumping over Sanya Sandahl.
 
UP NEXT
The Big Red returns home to face a pair of nationally ranked ECAC foes in No. 4/4 Quinnipiac and No. 9/9 Princeton on Feb. 5 and 6. The Feb. 5 game will be Cornell's annual DIFD event.