ITHACA, N.Y. — The women's ice hockey team will welcome Harvard and Dartmouth to Lynah Rink this weekend for some ECAC Hockey and Ivy League matchups. It will be the Big Red's final action before heading into a month-long break for final exams and holidays.  Friday's game against Harvard will be streamed live on ESPN3.
 
At both Friday and Saturday's games, the team will be collecting unwrapped toys for Cops, Kids and Toys of Tompkins County. Also at Friday's game, Sicilian Delights will be providing free pizza for Cornell students who present on ID.
 
GAME #12: CORNELL BIG RED vs. HARVARD CRIMSON
TIME: 3 p.m.
DATE: Friday, Dec. 2, 2016
PLACE: Lynah Rink — Ithaca, N.Y.
LIVE VIDEO: Ivy League Digital Network / ESPN3
LIVE STATS: CornellBigRed.com
LIVE UPDATES: @CUBigRedGameDay
 
GAME #13: CORNELL BIG RED vs. DARTMOUTH BIG GREEN
TIME: 3 p.m.
DATE: Saturday, Dec. 3, 2016
PLACE: Lynah Rink — Ithaca, N.Y.
LIVE VIDEO: Ivy League Digital Network
LIVE STATS: CornellBigRed.com
LIVE UPDATES: @CUBigRedGameDay
 
RECORDS: Cornell 6-4-1 (4-2-1 ECAC Hockey), Harvard 1-8-0 (1-4-0 ECAC Hockey), Dartmouth 2-6-0 (1-4-0 ECAC)*

*-records do not include Friday's results
 
GAME NOTES: Cornell | Harvard | Dartmouth

About the Big Red
Cornell traveled to Wisconsin this past weekend to take on the No. 1/1 Badgers for the first time in program history. Despite 50 minutes of scoreless play on Friday  night – thanks to a career-high 51 saves from Senior Paula Voorheis – the Big Red couldn't pull off an upset, as the Badgers netted two goals in five minutes and added an empty-net insurance goal with under a minute to go. On Saturday, the teams traded goals in the first period and entered the middle frame tied at two but the Badgers went on to add two goals in the second and one in the third to take the game 5-2. … Prior to Wisconsin, Cornell put in a three-point conference weekend with a 3-3 tie against No. 8/8 Quinnipiac on Nov. 18 and a 2-1 win over Princeton on Nov. 19. … In the ECAC Hockey opener, the Big Red dropped a tough 1-0 game to Rensselaer on Oct. 28 but earned the first conference points of the season the next day with a 3-1 win at Union. After dropping a tough 2-1 tilt to Colgate, Cornell earned four conference points with wins over Brown (4-0) and Yale (4-2).  … The team opened the season with a two-game sweep of Mercyhurst.
 
About Harvard
Harvard enters the weekend with an overall record of 1-8 and a 1-4 record in conference play. Last weekend, the Crimson welcomed No. 4/3 Minnesota-Duluth to Cambridge for a pair of games and recovered from a 4-1 loss on Friday to force overtime on Saturday before losing 2-1. … Five of Harvard's losses have been by one goal; four of those losses have come in overtime; and three have come against ranked opponents. The Crimson's lone win came in a season-opening 5-1 victory at Dartmouth. … Sydney Daniels (5g, 0a) and Lexie Laing (2g, 3a) are tied for the team lead in points with five each while Daniels leads the team in shots on goal with 36. … Molly Tissenbaum and Brianna Laing have split time between the pipes for the Crimson, with Laing going 1-3-0 and Tissenbaum 0-5-0. Tissenbaum has posted a .929 save percentage and a 2.94 goals against average while Laing has put up a .918 save percentage and 2.72 goals against average.
 
The Series with Harvard
Harvard and Cornell split last season's meetings with Harvard taking the first game, 2-0, the opening weekend of conference play. In February, Cornell won the second matchup – 3-2, on a Jess Brown goal 47 seconds into overtime – and clinched a playoff spot with the victory. Harvard holds a 56-27-4 all-time series lead.  
 
About Dartmouth
Dartmouth is coming off of a two-game series at Maine earlier this week – topping the Black Bears on Monday, 4-0, and then dropping a 3-2 game on Tuesday night. … After losing the first five games of the season, the Big Green got a huge 3-2 overtime win over Princeton on Nov. 12. The night before, the team pushed No. 8/8 Quinnipiac but ultimately lost 2-1. … Eleni Tebano leads the Big Green with five points (2g, 3a) while Christina Rombaut (2g, 2a) and Kennedy Ottenbreit (1g, 3a) have both tallied four points. … Robyn Chemago has seen the majority of the play in net for the Big Green, going 2-4-0 and posting a 9.31 save percentage and a 2.33 goals against record. … The team is converting on 15.2 percent of power-plays, which is the 15th best mark in the nation.
 
The Series with Dartmouth
In the first meeting between the team's last year, Kaitlin Doering netted a short-handed goal in the second period that would prove to be the game-winner in the 5-3 win and Brianna Veerman tallied three assists while Erin O'Connor and Micah Hart each had two helpers. In the second meeting in February at Lynah, Paula Voorheis posted a 28-save shutout and Doering once again scored a short-handed, game-winning goal to give Cornell the 1-0 win. Despite last season's series sweep, Dartmouth still holds the 42-32-7 all-time series lead.
 
About Head Coach Doug Derraugh '91
Now in his 12th season directing the Cornell women's hockey program in 2016-17, Doug Derraugh amassed a 202-126-28 record in his first 11 seasons as the head coach of the Big Red, with his 200th win coming in the form of a 4-2 win last year against Yale. Cornell has made the ECAC Hockey Tournament each of the last nine seasons, won the tournament four of the last seven years and advanced to the NCAA Tournament in five of those seasons. Derraugh guided the Big Red to the national title game in his fifth season and back-to-back-to-back NCAA Frozen Four appearances in 2010, 2011 and 2012. He led the team to five consecutive 20-win seasons for the first time in program history in 2009-10, 2010-11, 2011-12, 2012-13 and 2013-2014.
 
Blocked Out
Cornell blocked 24 shots against Wisconsin on Friday night and then blocked another 21 shots on Saturday night, making it the third and fourth time, respectively, that the Big Red has recorded at least 15 blocked shots in a game this year. On Friday, senior Sydney Smith and junior Erin O'Connor each got in front of five shots. On Saturday, sophomore co-captain Micah Hart accounted for five blocks to bring her season total – and team-leading total – to 22.
 
Saves and Shutouts
Senior goaltender Paula Voorheis has made a total of 188 saves in her six starts this season, giving her 1,855 saves in her career and placing her second all-time in program history. Alanna Hayes sits first with 2,381 saves. Voorheis, who made a career-high 51 saves against No. 1 Wisconsin on Friday night, made a total of 822 saves during the 2014-15 season, which is tops in single-season history. Voorheis also sits tied for fifth all-time with seven shutouts, two behind Hayes' who sits fourth with nine and 16 behind Amanda Mazzotta '12, who owns the record with 22.
 
Short-handed? No Problem
Freshman Kristin O'Neill tallied her third short-handed goal of the season on Nov. 18 against Quinnipiac, tying a program season record and putting her atop the national leaderboard. She is also the first freshman to record three short-handed tallies in a season since the trio of Kendall Coyne, Alex Carpenter and Kayla Tutino each had three in their 2011-12 freshman seasons.
 
Second Period Shutouts
Cornell did not allow a goal in the second period through the first six games of the season, the longest such streak in the NCAA. Though the Big Red has allowed five goals in the second period of games since Yale struck on Nov. 12, that number is still the lowest in the nation.
 
Hats off to Hanna
Senior Hanna Bunton notched her second career hat trick in the Big Red's 4-0 win over Brown on Nov. 11. She scored all three goals in the third period, including the game-winner just 2:05 into the final frame.
 
Century Club
A trio of Big Red players eclipsed the 100 career games played mark in the first nine games of the 2016-17 season. In the second game of the season against Mercyhurst on Oct. 22, senior Sydney Smith played in her 100th career game in the Cornellian red and white. Senior co-captain Kaitlin Doering skated in her 100th career game on Oct. 29 against Union. Senior forward Hanna Bunton played her 100th career game on Nov. 19 against Princeton. Alyssa Gagliardi '13 holds the all-time record for career games played in program history with 138.
 
Weekly Honors
Hanna Bunton was named the ECAC Hockey Player of the Week for Nov. 14 for her five point performance in the Big Red's wins over Brown and Yale. The senior notched a hat trick in the 4-0 win over the Bears and then assisted on two goals, including the game-winner, in a 4-2 win over the Bulldogs.
 
The 45th Season
With the start of the 2016-17 season, the women's hockey program embarked on its 45th season of intercollegiate play. The Big Red currently holds an all-time record of 543-493-63. Cornell, which began play with the 1972-73 season, is the second-oldest Division I women's program in the country still in existence. Brown began play in 1967-68.
 
Preseason Honor
Sophomore defenseman Micah Hart was named to the preseason All-ECAC team. Cornell last had a representative on the preseason all-conference team prior to the 2014-15 season when both Jill Saulnier and Brianne Jenner were selected.
 
Meet the Captains
Senior Kaitlin Doering and sophomore Micah Hart will be serving as Cornell's captains for the 2016-17 season. Doering is coming off a 2015-16 season in which she set a career high with 18 points on seven goals and 11 assists. Hart led all Big Red defensemen last year with 18 points on one goal and 17 assists, finished the season with six multi-point outings and was second on the team with 56 blocked shots. Hart is just the fourth sophomore to don a letter in program history and the second to serve as a captain.
 
The New Kids
The Class of 2020 makes up 37 percent of the Big Red roster this year and consists of six forwards and one defenseman. Grace Graham, Hanna Mutschelknaus, Valérie Audet, Paige Lewis, Kristin O'Neill and Amy Curlew will play up front, while Jaime Bourbonnais will patrol the blue line. Graham, Audet, O'Neill, Curlew and Bourbonnais all hail from Canada while Mutschelknaus and Lewis come from South Dakota and Connecticut, respectively.
 
Five Players, Six Medals
Entering the 2016-17 season, the Big Red has five players on the roster who have earned a collective six medals for Team Canada at the IIHF U-18 World Championships. Hanna Bunton assisted on the game-winning goal in overtime of the 2013 gold medal game. Micah Hart captained a 2015 squad that included Marlène Boissonnault and Kristin O'Neill to a silver medal, while O'Neill and Jaime Bourbonnais earned silver medals at the 2016 competition.
 
Nations Cup
Sophomore co-captain Micah Hart and freshmen Jaime Bourbonnais and Kristin O'Neill were selected to Canada's National Women's Development Team for the upcoming Nations Cup in January. Hart was part of the Canadian team that won gold at last year's event and also skated with O'Neill for Canada in a three-game series against the United States in August. Bourbonnais will be making her Canadian National Women's Development Team debut. The trio will be looking to help Canada retain gold at the four-day 2017 Nations Cup, which is being played Jan. 4-7 in Fussen, Germany and Telfs, Austria. Canada opens the tournament on Jan. 4 against the Czech Republic.
 
December Series Sextet
Sophomore co-captain Micah Hart will make her Canada's National Women's team debut in the inaugural two-game December Series against the United States. Joining Hart on that 22-player roster will be five former Cornellians in Laura Fortino '13, Brianne Jenner '15, Rebecca Johnston '12, Lauriane Rougeau '13 and Jillian Saulnier '15. The two-game series will open up in Plymouth, Mich. on Dec. 17 before moving to Sarnia, Ontario on Dec. 19 for the finale.
 
Big Red Rewind
Cornell finished the 2015-16 season with a 13-14-4 record, which was good enough to make the ECAC Hockey tournament for the ninth straight year, but the team bowed out in the quarterfinal round to an eventual Frozen Four team in Clarkson. Hanna Bunton led the Big Red in scoring with 13 goals and 14 assists for 27 points while Jess Brown and Kaitlin Doering finshed second and third, respectively. Paula Voorheis went 8-12-3 between the pipes and posted a 2.38 goals against average and a .915 save percentage. In six decisions, Marlène Boissonnault went 5-1 with a 3.02 goals against average and a .882 save percentage
 
Pro Pipeline
Between both the Canadian Women's Hockey League and the National Women's Hockey League, 10 Cornellians appeared on a professional opening night roster. In the CWHL, the 2016 Clarkson Cup-winning Calgary Inferno boasts five former Big Red skaters in Brianne Jenner, Hayleigh Cudmore, Jessica Campbell, and Rebecca Johnston. Emily Fulton is the lone Cornell graduate skating for the Toronto Furies. Cassandra Poudrier joins Lauriane Rougeau on the Montreal Les Canadiennes roster and Taylor Woods has reunited with former teammate Laura Fortino on the Brampton Thunder. In the NWHL, both Alyssa Gagliardi and Lauren Slebodnick are attempting to win their second-straight Isobel Cup with the Boston Pride.
 
Up Next
Cornell won't hit the ice again until after the New Year when it welcomes Providence of the Hockey East Conference for a two-game series on Jan. 6 and 7.