For 57 minutes, No. 11 women’s hockey looked like a top-four ECAC team, one which deserves a first-round bye and home-ice in the quarterfinals. Cornell came out with confidence — scoring three goals in the first period — before hunkering down defensively for all of the second and most of the third frame. Then, St. Lawrence pulled its netminder for an extra forward.
After saving 24 of the first 25 shots she faced, junior goaltender Annelies Bergmann allowed goals with 2:17 and 1:04 remaining in regulation, sending the 3-3 game to overtime.
After a back-and-forth four minutes of three-on-three play, senior defender Grace Dwyer collected a pass alone in front of St. Lawrence goaltender Kassidy Lawrence, and deposited the puck in the back of the net to salvage an overtime win for the Red.
“We let points slip out of our hands tonight,” said head coach Doug Derraugh ’91. “I wasn’t overly pleased with our second and third periods.”
Moments before Dwyer’s game-winning strike, Princeton’s 2-0 loss to Yale went final, clinching Cornell its third consecutive Ivy League championship and 18th in program history.
“The Ivy League is always tough, but it was really tough this year,” Derraugh said. “We needed some help in the last week and a bit, but we did our part.”
The Red’s (17-10-2, 13-7-1 ECAC) late collapse to St. Lawrence (11-19-3, 8-12-1 ECAC) seemingly came out of nowhere. While the first period was Cornell’s best — it was the only frame in which Cornell outshot the Saints — its second and third periods didn’t signal an impending collapse.
Sure, the ice had begun to tilt against the Red and St. Lawrence was beginning to get more quality chances against Bergmann, but Cornell entered Friday night 3-3 in games in which the Red were outshot and had limited the Saints to two goals on 20 shots when the two teams met in January.
However, when a heavily screened wrist shot slipped by Bergmann to bring the score to 3-2, the Red were officially on the back foot. Cornell took its timeout with 1:31 remaining in the game, hoping to rest its skaters for one final defensive shift.
“One of the things that happens sometimes when you’re down six-on-five is players try to do too much, instead of just doing their jobs,” Derraugh said. “We haven’t had much of that lately — where we play five-[versus]-six — so, maybe that was good experience going into the playoffs.”
Despite winning the ensuing defensive zone faceoff, Cornell turned the puck over in the neutral zone. Then, a tipped shot ricocheted to an open Saints skater, who took advantage of a half-open net to tie the game with 64 seconds in regulation.
If the last three minutes of the third period were the Red’s worst, the middle of the first frame was its best.
After outshooting the Saints 8-2 in the game’s opening five minutes, Cornell’s pressure paid off in rapid succession.
The Red’s first strike came courtesy of freshman forward Riley Scorgie and its all freshman third line 8:36 into the period. Just under halfway through the stanza, a pair of close-range shots caused Lawrence to sprawl out on the ice in hopes of grabbing the loose puck. Instead, the puck bounced to Scorgie who flicked it past Lawrence.
The goal — Scorgie’s first as a Cornellian and her second point of the season — came after the Edmonton, Alberta native was promoted off the Red’s fourth line for the first time this season.
“I’ve been liking the way she’s been competing. She’s a really good skater,” Derraugh said. “That line has created a lot of momentum for us in games, so we’ve stuck with it.”
With Derraugh’s confirmation that sophomore forward Lindzi Avar will miss Saturday’s game, the freshman trio will remain together on the third line.
Two minutes after Scorgies goal, senior defender Alyssa Regalado doubled Cornell’s lead when she grabbed her own rebound and barreled towards the net, eventually tripping and falling into the net with the puck following her body past the goal line.
Barely 40 seconds later, Cornell forced a St. Lawrence turnover — a theme throughout the game — deep in the Saints defensive zone. Senior forward Georgia Schiff fired a shot which was saved by Lawrence, but with the St. Lawrence defense still recovering after the turnover, senior forward Mckenna Van Gelder collected the puck in front of the net and flipped it by the Saints’ netminder.
The Red continued to pepper Lawrence with shots after its stretch of three goals in under three minutes, but with the solid early lead, Cornell’s intensity waned.
“We got out to the quick start… and then we played to the score a little bit,” Derraugh said. “Some details kind of let us down and cost us a point in the [game’s] last couple minutes.”
The Saints got a goal back late in the first period, before the game entered an over 40 minute stretch of goalless action leading up to the late St. Lawrence game-tying comeback.
In overtime each team earned Grade-A chances, but Bergmann (who ended the night with 32 saves) and Lawrence stood tall. Then, with under a minute left, the Red worked the puck to an open Dwyer in front of the St. Lawrence net. The forward took her time, eventually bringing the puck to her backhand and bouncing it bar-down and in.
“She was like a forward goal scorer who scores 50 a year,” Derraugh joked. “It shows her experience right there. It shows a lot of poise.”
With the overtime win, Cornell moved up to fifth in the ECAC Hockey standings. Sitting one seed ahead of Cornell and a first-round bye is Clarkson, the Red’s Saturday night opponent. With a win, Cornell will move straight to the quarterfinals, which would be hosted at Lynah Rink on Feb. 27-28. With a loss, Cornell will host a yet-to-be-determined opponent next weekend in the playoffs’ opening round, also at Lynah Rink.
The Red’s matchup with Clarkson will take place at 3:00 p.m. at Cheel Arena, with action streaming live on ESPN+.
Eli Fastiff is a senior editor on the 143rd editorial board and a member of the class of 2026 in the College of Arts and Sciences. You can follow him on X @Eli_Fastiff and reach him at efastiff@cornellsun.com.
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