The St. Lawrence Women’s Hockey team played against Cornell Friday night at Appleton Arena. It was a tough loss for the Saints, ending at 3-1.  Cornell scored on two power plays and one open net opportunity at the end of the game. The two teams were evenly matched and shared equal possession of the puck until the end of the first period. As the clock ran out in the period, SLU began to appear tired and Cornell applied a lot of pressure.  However, the Saints held on, and the period ended with no score.

The first goal of the game came during the second period from Cornell on a power play, after a two-minute penalty on SLU for hooking.  Shortly after Cornell’s goal, Kayla Vespa ’20 netted the puck for the Saints’ only goal of the game, tying the game up at one.  Vespa, being quick as a cat, slipped behind the defense and managed to slide the puck through to the back of the net on an assist by Hannah Miller ’18. Late in the second period, head coach, Chris Wells, argued for a goaltender interference call, but the referees decided that the call was unreviewable.

Madlynne Mills scored the game-winning goal for Cornell on a second power play with 6:42 left to play in the third period.  She managed to score on a one-timer, fed to her from Veerman in the slot.  With two minutes to play, SLU pulled their goaltender, Grace Harrison, from the net to put another player on the ice.  They had a number of chances to tie the game, but lost control of the puck, allowing Cornell to score on the empty net.

The final score was ultimately decided by power plays. Two of the three goals scored by Cornell were off powerplays, and the final goal was an empty netter.  SLU’s defense did not give up any even-strength goals. In fact, their offense managed to score the only even-strength goal throughout the entire game.  It was a tough defeat for the Saints against Cornell, who is ranked ninth, but the Saints came back the next day to defeat Colgate, who was undefeated with seven wins and ranked fifth nationally before they faced SLU.

After playing Colgate, Vespa told reporters she thought Cornell skated faster than Colgate, which is a major contributing factor to their loss against Cornell.  She revealed to reporters that after their game against Cornell, the Saints, “started figuring things out.” She noted that her team worked together for the win, and they built from their loss against Cornell for the victory against Colgate.  Vespa’s final note to reporters was that, “we just thought it was a very well-played game and everyone contributed even though they do always. I thought Cornell was a tough game to lose but we built from that to be better and onto Colgate to get that win.”  Hopefully, the Saints can bring that same energy to their next game against Brown on Friday, November 3 at 6!