Women's Hockey to Open Regular-Season Slate This Weekend Versus Mercyhurst

Doug Derraugh '91
The Everett Family Head Coach of Cornell Women's Ice Hockey

PUCK DROP
• The Cornell women's hockey team begins its 49th season of hockey this weekend when the Big Red welcomes Mercyhurst at Lynah Rink for Cornell's season-opening series.

WELCOMING MERCYHURST
• After scoring 11 goals over its pair of exhibitions over Canadian-based McGill and Concordia, the Big Red hope to continue its scoring prowess into regular-season action.

• Cornell is opening its regular season against Mercyhurst for a second consecutive season. Last year, the Lakers won the Big Red's home opener on Oct. 22, 3-2, before Cornell's Lindsay Browning made 28 saves in a 4-0 shutout the following day.

• This weekend marks the fourth overall time and the third instance over the last six years of competition that Cornell is opening its regular season slate against the Lakers. Cornell is 5-3 all-time in season-opening series against Mercyhurst.

LYNAH FAITHFUL
• Cornell has excelled at playing in front of the fans at Lynah Rink, who are deemed the Lynah Faithful, over the last 12-plus seasons. The Big Red have had at least a .500 win percentage at home in 11 of the past 12 seasons of competition, posting an overall record of 158-39-16 in that span.

• Since the 2009-10 season, Cornell's .779 win percentage on home ice ranks as the third-highest by a Division I program in that span. The Big Red trail perennial powers Wisconsin and Minnesota.

• The Big Red's .779 win percentage is the highest by a current ECAC program, with the closest program to Cornell being Clarkson, who ranks fifth nationally with its .773 win percentage (178-43-26).

ECAC PRESEASON POLL
• During ECAC's annual media day, Cornell was picked to finish sixth in the preseason poll, the conference announced Sept. 14.

• Colgate was selected the preseason favorite after receiving six of the 11 possible first-place votes. The Raiders finished with a conference-best 115 points.

• Yale, who received three first-place votes, was picked second with 98 points, and Princeton ended with 97 points and one first-place selection. Quinnipiac had the fourth-most points (92 points), while Clarkson received the last first-place vote, finishing with 86 points, good for fifth.

• Cornell (73 points), Harvard (67), St. Lawrence (60), Brown (33), RPI (30), Dartmouth (27), and Union (14) rounded out the preseason voting.

GUILDAY NAMED TO PRESEASON TEAM
• Sophomore Rory Guilday was one of two defensemen named to the All-ECAC Hockey preseason team during the conference's annual media day on Sept. 14.

• Guilday had a strong freshman year for the Big Red last season. In 29 games, the 5-foot-11 defender logged 18 points (seven goals, 11 assists) while blocking 74 shots, which was second on the team, trailing Ashley Messier's team-high 78 blocks.

REPRESENTING ECAC WELL
• After opening the season ranked No. 12 team in both the DCU/USCHO.com and USA Today/USA Hockey Magazine polls, Cornell has remained among the top 15 in all six polls released to date.

• In the most recent iteration, Cornell holds a No. 10 ranking in the DCU/USCHO.com poll, while also coming in at No. 10 in the USA Today/USA Hockey Magazine poll.

• Cornell is currently one of seven ECAC Hockey programs ranked among the top 15 programs in both the DCU/USCHO.com and USA Today/USA Hockey Magazine polls.

• Both rankings have the Big Red being one of six consecutive ECAC teams, with No. 6 Colgate starting off the string of consecutive ECAC programs in the rankings. No. 7 Quinnipiac, No. 8 Yale, No. 9 Princeton, No. 10 Cornell, No. 11 Clarkson round out the list. Harvard is also ranked, coming in at No. 15 in USCHO.com's rankings and No. 14 in the USA Today/USA Hockey Magazine poll.

• Of the top 15 teams currently ranked in both polls, Cornell is slated to play eight of the 14 programs. Including the six other ECAC programs, the Big Red also have No. 1 Ohio State (Dec. 17-18 at Lynah Rink) and No. 3 Northeastern (Nov. 26 at Nashville, Tenn.) on the docket.

RETURNING POWER
• Cornell is returning majority of its offense from last year's team as 18 players who registered at least one game played last year are back for the Big Red.

• Just over 94 percent of the Big Red's total offense from last year is back, returning 179 of its 190 points from the 2021-22 campaign. Nearly 92 percent of Cornell's goal scoring from last year (67 of 73 goals) return, including both of the Cornell's double-digit scorers in Lily Delianedis (14) and Gillis Frechette (12).

• Frechette, who led the team with her 40 points (12 goals, 28 assists), is one of the top nine scorers from last year who are back for the Big Red in 2022-23. The others on the list include Delianedis, Izzy Daniel, Rory Guilday, Kaitlin Jockims, Ashley Messier, Leah MacSween, Gabbie Rud, and Claudia Yu.

• Every player who scored a game-winning goal for Cornell last year is back, while 14 of the Big Red's 16 goals scored on the power play are also returning.

LEADERSHIP GROUP ANNOUNCED
• Cornell will deploy tri-captains for the upcoming season, as seniors Gillis Frechette and Izzy Daniel, along with sophomore Ashley Messier, have been named the captains for the 2022-23 season.

• Frechette and Daniel were two of four alternate captains for last year's squad, which was captained by then fifth-year goaltender Lindsay Browning.

ABOUT MERCYHURST
• Mercyhurst enters this weekend's series with a 5-3-0 record and winners of its last three games.

• The Lakers opened the 2022-23 season on a high note, outscoring Saint Anselm 12-0 in its two-game series at Mercyhurst Ice Center in Erie, Pa. The series was capped off with the Lakers scoring nine goals in a 9-0 triumph over the Hawks.

• In the 9-0 victory over Saint Anselm, Mercyhurst scored seven of its goals in the third period, the first time a Lakers team accomplished that feat since Oct. 29, 2011, when defeating its CHA rival Lindenwood 14-1. They also peppered the Hawks' goaltenders, registering 57 shots on goal, the program's most since Feb. 19, 2022 (59 against Lindenwood).

• After outscoring Saint Anselm 12-0 in its season-opening series, the Lakers were held scoreless in its two-game series at home to No. 6 Colgate, as the Raiders posted 5-0 and 2-0 victories.

• In its series with No. 10 Clarkson, to close out its season-opening six-game homestand, the Golden Knights claimed victory in the first game, 2-1, before Mercyhurst salvaged a series split with a 2-1 overtime victory. Sydney Pedersen scored on a breakaway to lift the Lakers past the nationally-ranked Golden Knights.

• Offensively, the Lakers are led by Thea Johansson who has a Mercyhurst-leading seven points (three goals, four assists) over the Lakers' eight games played so far. Pedersen and Liliane Perreault each have a pair of goals and four assists to their credit early on in the campaign. Vanessa Upson has a team-leading four goals for Mercyhurst, three of which came against Saint Anselm.

• Ena Nystrøm has started in all five of her appearances entering this weekend's series, logging a 2-3-0 record with a 2.29 goals-against average and a .913 save percentage. Jada Brenon is the other Lakers goaltender to appear in games this season. Starting in three of her four appearances, Brenon has a 3-0-0 record with a stellar 0.28 goals-against average and .989 save percentage, stopping 88 of the 89 shots she has faced.

THE SERIES
• Mercyhurst enters this weekend's series with a 17-12-5 record over Cornell. The Big Red, however, is 6-1-2 over its last nine meetings with the Lakers and has outscored Mercyhurst by a 29-12 margin.

• This weekend will be the fifth and sixth consecutive meetings between the two programs at Lynah Rink. Cornell is 3-1-0 in the span.

THE LAST SERIES WITH MERCYHURST
• Cornell welcomed Mercyhurst to Lynah Rink for its season-opening series last year. Mercyhurst won the opening game, 3-2, before Lindsay Browning recorded a 28-save shutout in a 4-0 Big Red victory to salvage the series split.

• Claudia Yu, Rory Guilday, and Lily Delianedis each scored once and assisted on another Cornell goal in the series. Izzy Daniel also had a multi-point weekend, recording a pair of assists in the Big Red's 3-2 setback. Gillis Frechette, Gabbie Rud, and Bella Kang also scored for the Big Red in the series.

• Browning made 52 saves over the course of both games for the Big Red.

LAST TIME OUT
RECAP I BOX SCORE I GALLERY
• Lily Delianedis and Grace Dwyer each logged three-point days for Cornell in its 5-2 victory over Concordia in the Big Red's final exhibition of the season.

• Rory Guilday also had a multi-point day for Cornell, scoring a goal and assisting on another.

• Deanna Fraser made 12 saves to earn the victory for Cornell.

2022-23 Roster

If you’ve never been to a Big Red hockey game at Cornell’s James Lynah Rink, there are quite a few things you’ve never experienced. You’ve never camped out in line just to get season tickets and ensure your spot as one of the raucous and devoted "Lynah Faithful." But most importantly, if you’ve never been to Lynah, you’ve never really experienced all the best that college hockey has to offer.

Lynah Rink, which turned 65 years old in 2022, is the home of Big Red hockey. The rink, which was dedicated April 6, 1957, was named in honor of the late James Lynah (class of 1905), director of athletics at Cornell from 1935-43.

• Cornell opens ECAC Hockey play next weekend with a pair of contests against ranked opponents. The Big Red will head to Hamden, Conn., for a match against No. 7 Quinnipiac on Friday, Oct. 28, at 6 p.m. Following the game, Cornell heads to the Garden State to take on No. 8 Princeton at 3 p.m. from Hobey Baker Arena.

• Both games will be broadcast on ESPN+.