ITHACA, N.Y. — The #7 women's hockey team will continue its quest for the program's fifth ECAC Hockey championship when it faces off against #4 St. Lawrence in the league semifinals at Cheel Arena on the campus of Clarkson on Saturday at 4 p.m. The first semifinal earlier in the day will pit #3 Clarkson - the top seed in the conference tournament - against Princeton and the winners will advance to Sunday afternoon's championship game.

The second-seeded Saints swept Yale in the best-of-three quarterfinal round of the ECAC Hockey playoffs while the third-seeded Big Red also used two games to advance past Colgate. During the regular season, Cornell went 0-1-1 against St. Lawrence.

ECAC Hockey Semifinals
GAME #32: #7 CORNELL BIG RED vs. #4 ST. LAWRENCE SAINTS
TIME: 4 p.m.
DATE: Saturday, March 4, 2017
PLACE: Cheel Arena — Potsdam, N.Y.
LIVE VIDEO: ESPN 3 | BoxCast (available in Canada)
LIVE STATS: ECACHockey.com
LIVE UPDATES: @CUBigRedGameDay
 
ECAC Hockey Championship
TIME: 2 p.m.
DATE: Sunday, March 5
PLACE: Cheel Arena — Potsdam, N.Y.

RECORDS: Cornell 19-7-5 (13-4-5 ECAC Hockey), St. Lawrence 26-4-4 (16-3-3 ECAC Hockey)
*records do not include Saturday's results
 
GAME NOTES: Cornell


About the Big Red
• Third-seeded Cornell took on sixth-seeded Colgate this past weekend in the ECAC Hockey quarterfinals and swept the series with a 2-1 win on Friday and 1-0 win on Saturday.
• Friday's game - the third consecutive 2-1 affair between the teams – saw Colgate open the scoring just minutes into the second period only to have sophomore Diana Buckley tie it up midway through the frame. With 4:24 remaining in the game, freshman Kristin O'Neill converted a game-winning penalty-shot.
• Senior Paula Voorheis made 29 saves in Saturday's game to earn her ninth career shutout and freshman Amy Curlew scored on a second period power-play to give the Big Red the win.
• Senior Hanna Bunton is first on the team in points (10-18—28) while O'Neill is second (13-12—25) and has a team-leading 13 goals.
• Voorheis has the nation's fourth-best save percentage (.942) and the 10th best goals against average (1.66) while sophomore Marlène Boissonnault is fifth overall in goals against average (1.52) and 18th in save percentage (.925) and her 10-1-2 record, which includes an eight-game unbeaten streak, ranks her second in the nation (.846).

About St. Lawrence
• The second-seeded Saints used a 4-1 in on Friday and a 4-0 win on Saturday to sweep the Yale Bulldogs in the ECAC Hockey quarterfinal round.
• Brooke Webster (2-3—5) and Kirsten Padalis (0-5—5) each had five points in the two game series while Grace Harrison made 18 saves on Saturday for her ninth shutout of the season.
• St. Lawrence finished the regular season ECAC slate with a 16-3-3 record, dropping games to Clarkson (4-1), Colgate (4-3 OT) and Princeton (4-2)  while tying Clarkson (3-3), Quinnipiac (1-1) and Cornell (2-2). 
• Webster leads the team in points (22-34—56) and goals while Kennedy Marchment is second in points (20-35—55) and has a team-high five power-play goals.
• Harrison has played the majority of the minutes between the pipes for St. Lawrence, going 23-4-4 with a .930 save percentage, 1.47 goals against average and nine shutouts. 

The Series with St. Lawrence
• Cornell went 0-1-1 against the Saints in the regular season.
• On Jan. 21, St. Lawrence came out on the right end of a 5-2 win but freshman Kristin O'Neill scored a short-handed goal and senior goaltender Paula Voorheis made her 2,000th career save.
• Cornell overcame a two-goal, third period deficit against St. Lawrence on Feb. 17 to force overtime and eventually earn a point with the 2-2 tie.
• The all-time series is deadlocked at 34-34-7 but Cornell is 5-2-3 in the last 10 meetings, with the current senior playing in all of them.

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.

We've Been Here Before
• This is the second time that Cornell and St. Lawrence have met in the ECAC Hockey Semifinals and the fourth playoff meeting overall.
• In 2013, top-seeded Cornell hosted the Saints at Lynah Rink and came away with a 4-2 win to advance to the championship game, where it topped Harvard, 2-1.
• The squads also battled in the 2012 championship match with the Saints pulling out a 3-1 win at Lynah for the title.
• Cornell topped St. Lawrence (3-1, 3-2) in a 2015 quarterfinal series while the Saints got the better of the Big Red (4-3, 2-1) in a 2002 quarterfinal matchup.

Best of the Big Red Against St. Lawrence
• 11 of Cornell's 17 skaters have at least one career point against the Saints.
• Senior forwards Kaitlin Doering and Hanna Bunton each have two goals and four assists against St. Lawrence while junior defenseman Erin O'Connor and sophomore defenseman Micah Hart each have three assists. 
• Freshman Kristin O'Neill has one goal – a short-handed tally – and two assists while senior Brianna Veerman has two points (1-1—2).
• Freshman Amy Curlew has one goal while sophomores Diana Buckley and Lenka Serdar and freshmen Paige Lewis and Jaime Bourbonnais each have one assist. 
• Senior Paula Voorheis is 4-2-2 in her career against the Saints while sophomore Marlène Boissonnault is 0-0-1.

The Big Red in the Semifinals
• This is Cornell's seventh appearance in an ECAC Hockey semifinal game.
• The program played in six-straight semifinals from 2010 to 2015 and went 6-0 in those games with wins over Rensselaer in 2010 (5-4), Quinnipiac in 2011 (4-3), Quinnipiac in 2012 (5-1), St. Lawrence in 2013 (4-2), Harvard in 2013 (6-4) and Clarkson in 2015 (3-1). 

Another Year, Another Trip to the Playoffs
• This is the 10th consecutive year that Cornell has made the ECAC Hockey Tournament.
• The Big Red has four tournament titles (2010, 2011, 2013, 2014). 

Ivy League Champions
• Cornell clinched the program's 13th Ivy League title with a 5-1 win over Brown on Feb. 11 -- by way of its 7-0-3 record and 17 Ivy points.
• It's the first title for Cornell since the 2012-13 season, when it shared it with Harvard, and the first outright title since the 2011-12 season.
• Cornell is the first team to finish the Ivy League slate without a loss since 2009-10, when that Cornell squad also went 8-0-2 for the title. 

Awards Season
• For the seventh time in program history, Cornell swept the major Ivy League awards and also placed six players on All-Ivy squads.
• Senior Hanna Bunton was named the Player of the Year while freshman Kristin O'Neill was tabbed as the Rookie of the Year and Doug Derraugh was named the Coach of the Year.
• Bunton and sophomore Micah Hart were unanimous first-team selections while O'Neill and the goaltending tandem of senior Paula Voorheis and sophomore Marlène Boissonnault were second-team selections and freshman Jaime Bourbonnais earned honorable mention. 
• Hart is a finalist for the ECAC Hockey Defenseman of the Year award while O'Neill is a finalist for Rookie of the Year and Derraugh is a finalist for Coach of the Year.

No Such Thing As A Sophomore Slump
• The five members of Cornell's Class of 2019 have all set career-highs this season.
• Forwards Diana Buckley (7-5—12), Pippy Gerace (5-6—11) and Lenka Serdar (2-10—12) have all hit career highs in points while co-captain Micah Hart has recorded five goals compared to just one a year ago and is second in the nation amongst blueliners in  power-play goals (5).
• In goal, Marlène Boissonnault is 10-1-2 and has a 1.52 goals against average and a .925 save percentage – after going 5-1-0 and putting up a 3.02 and .882 last year in those categories – and also earned the first and second shutouts of her career.

Doering Finding the Net
• After notching just three points on one goal and two assists during the first 14 games of the season, co-captain Kaitlin Doering has scored nine goals and assisted on five others in the last 17 contests while also potting four game-winners during that span.
• The senior scored in four-straight games, which is a career long goal-streak, in those 17 games and her season total of 10 goals is a career high. 
• With a goal and an assist against Syracuse on Jan. 10, Doering earned her fourth career multi-point game and her first in 30 games – something she repeated with a goal and an assist against Union on Feb.3. 

Don't Fall Behind the Big Red
• Cornell is 11-1-2 this season when leading after one period and 14-0-2 when leading after two periods.
• The team has scored first in 19 games this season, going 15-2-2 in those contests. 

Brilliant Bourbonnais
• Cornell is 10-0-3 when freshman Jaime Bourbonnais notches a point and 8-0-1 when she has an assist. 
• She has had two multi-point games this season.
• The defenseman is currently tied for fourth on the team in points with 15 (5-10—15).

The Kids Are Alright
• The Class of 2020, which makes up 37 percent of the roster, has notched 38 percent of Cornell's 196 points this season.
• Of the team's 78 goals, 34 have come from a rookie class that has also put up 75 of the team's 196 points and 41 of the team's 118 assists. 

O'Neill Sets Program Record
• Against St. Lawrence on Jan. 21, freshman Kristin O'Neill set a program record for short-handed goals in a season with four and then added to that with her fifth of the year against Union on Feb. 3.
• O'Neill, who leads the nation in man-down goals, is the first freshman to notch five short-handed goals in a season since Monique Lamoreux recorded five during her 2008-09 freshman season at Minnesota. 

The Tallest of Teams
• The Big Red roster has an average height of 5'6.5", making it the tallest in the NCAA with Lindenwood coming in a close second at 5'6.4".
•  Cornell's two-member junior class has an average height of 5'11.5", making it both the tallest junior class of any team in the NCAA and the tallest class overall as it stands 2.5 inches over the next closest class (Ohio State's junior class).

Power-Play Prowess 
• On Feb. 18 against Clarkson, Cornell scored three-straight power-play goals in the first period and then finished the game 3-of-7 on the man-advantage. 
• Against Providence on Jan. 7, Cornell's final three goals came on the power-play and the Big Red finished the game 3-of-7 on the man-advantage. 
• The only other game on record in program history in which Cornell scored three-straight power-play goals came last year in a 4-0 win over Vermont and the Big Red went 3-of-7 on the power-play.
• Sophomore Pippy Gerace tallied the third score against both Providence and Vermont.  

Balancing Act
• Cornell had13 different players earn at least one point in its Jan. 10, 7-2 win over Syracuse, marking the first time since an Oct. 28, 2011 9-0 win over Yale that the team had at least 13 different players contribute to the scoresheet. 
• Earning her first career point in the game was senior goaltender Paula Voorheis, who tallied an assist on the Big Red's second goal of the game.
• It was the first time that a Cornell goaltender earned a point since Lauren Slebodnick '15 assisted on a goal in the last game of the 2013-14 season, a 3-2 loss to Mercyhurst in the NCAA Quarterfinal.  

Paula2K
• With her 21st save of the game on Jan. 21 against St. Lawrence, senior Paula Voorheis became the second goaltender in program history to reach 2,000 career saves.
• Alanna Hayes sits in first place all-time in program history with 2,381.
• Voorheis made a total of 822 saves during the 2014-15 season, which is tops in single-season history, and has made 483 saves this season in her 18 starts. 

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. 
• Senior Sydney Smith played in her 100th career game on Oct. 22 against Mercyhurst. 
• 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. 

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. 

Weekly Honors
• Micah Hart earned her first career ECAC Hockey Player of the Week award on Feb. 7 after scoring two goals and notching two assists in wins over Union and RPI.
• Hanna Bunton was named the ECAC Hockey Player of the Week for Jan. 16 for her heroic two-goal weekend in the Big Red's tie with Princeton and an overtime win over Quinnipiac.
• The senior also earned the honor for the week of Nov. 14 after she notched her second career 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.

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.

Up Next
•The winners of the two ECAC Hockey Tournament semifinal games on Saturday will meet in Sunday's 2 p.m. championship game.