ITHACA, N.Y. — Lindsay Browning made 37 saves for her third shutout, and the Cornell women's hockey team used first-period goals from junior forward Gillis Frechette and senior forward Sam Burke to fuel a 2-0 victory over ECAC Hockey and Ivy League rival Princeton on Saturday afternoon at Lynah Rink.

At the heart of Cornell's success in staving off Princeton was five successful penalty kills that included a pair of five-of-three disadvantages and a five-minute major.

"Our penalty kill is something I trust in more than any other system on our team," said Browning. "Its nice to know you can always trust your defense and know that people can do their jobs. (The five on three) looks like chaos, but its organized chaos." 

Frechette opened the scoring just 30 seconds into the game on a surprise strike that found its way through Tigers goalkeeper Rachel McQuigge from a sharp angle near the right corner. Lily Delianedis and Ashley Messier were credited with the assists.

"Everyone was working really hard out there," said Delianedis after recording her ninth point of the season. "We were winning our battles and our P.K. did an amazing job getting pucks out and the rest of the team just kept it rolling— it was the best energy I felt all season."

The Big Red earned the only three power-play opportunities of the opening frame to keep momentum, then it doubled its lead on Burke's goal 57 seconds before the intermission. Frechette cut past a penalty-killer and fired off a shot from the top of the left circle that was deflected on target by sophomore forward Kaitlin Jockims. McQuigge  (22 saves) made the stop on that chance, but couldn't track down the rebound before Burke found it and converted from the side of the crease.

While the Big Red had the game's first five power plays, the next five all went to Princeton. It was on that wave of penalty kills that Browning was at her best, accounting for 19 of her 37 total saves. Among her best stops was at the 3:38 mark of the third, when she snagged a redirection from Sharon Frankel in the slot that was otherwise bound for a top corner of the net. It was Browning's 16th career shutout.

"We played a full 60 minutes today," said associate head coach Edith Racine. "We played for each other and just took it shift by shift... I'm most proud of how we stayed together and worked as a team." 

The Big Red have next week off before playing at Northeastern Saturday and Sunday Dec. 5 and 6.