Last Friday’s game at home against Colgate’s arch nemesis Cornell was an exciting game, which unfortunately ended anti-climactically in a 3-3 tie. The following night on a game played at Lynah Rink in Ithaca had none of the drama of the previous day’s contest, as the Big Red rattled off 38 shots on their way to an easy 6-0 victory over the Raiders. Cornell is having a surprisingly good year, as they’ve improved 9-1-4 in ECAC Hockey after the series, placing them just one point behind first place Clarkson, while Colgate dropped to 3-7-4 in conference (7-15-4 overall).

     Friday’s contest at Starr Rink looked like it would be a defensive affair at first, as neither team was able to light the lamp in the first period. However, in the second period the floodgates opened. Cornell scored less than two minutes into the opening frame as junior forward Amber Overguard scored off assists from sophomore forward Kendice Ogilvie and senior forward Liz Zorn. Just over a minute later though, Colgate got even. Junior forward Jacquie Colborne dished the puck to senior forward Evan Minnick who took a hard shot that rattled off the goal post. However, senior forward Katie Stewart was there to pick up the puck, wrap around the back of the net, and hammer the puck home to knot the score up at one.

     Four minutes later, Stewart again came up big, giving the Raiders a 2-1 advantage with her second goal of the game. This time out senior forward Marissa Dombovy passed the puck up to sophomore forward Amanda Kirwan, who then passed it up to Stewart. Stewart gained possession at her own blue line, broke away from two Cornell defenders, skated in on net and snuck the puck past Big Red goalie Amanda Mazzotta. Cornell evened things up less than a minute later, as Laura Fortino made a nice pass across the crease to set up junior forward Karlee Overguard for the tying goal. First-year defender Lauriane Rougeau picked up the secondary assist on the play. Less than a minute later Cornell took back the lead with a power play goal from sophomore forward Catherine White, with Fortino and senior forward Melanie Jue picking up assists. After five goals in under seven minutes of play things settled down for a little bit and there were no more goals for the rest of the frame.

     Midway through the third period, Colgate would get on the board again. Dombovy passed the puck to Stewart, who left a nifty drop pass for senior defender Ali Edell. Edell corralled the puck and got off a slap shot from the blue line. The shot beat Mazzotta high on the glove side to knot the score up at 3. The 3-3 tie would hold up through the third period and a five minute overtime session, sending both teams out of Starr with one point to show for their efforts.

     Katie Stewart was certainly the player of the game for the Raiders. Not only did she score two goals on very nice plays, she also made a great pass to set up Edell for the game-tying goal. Despite a rough patch in the second period, starting goalie Lisa Plenderleith went on to have a solid outing, recording 33 saves for the game. Though Colgate picked up a tie, they were outshot 36-18. Unfortunately this shooting discrepancy was not lessened in the next day’s contest and this time the result was disastrous.

     Saturday’s game in Ithaca started off bad and got progressively worse for the Raiders. Laura Fortino scored just 2:22 into the contest to give the Big Red an early 1-0 lead. Before the period was out Fortino lit the lamp again to give Cornell a 2-0 advantage. Fortino picked up an assist on Cornell’s third goal of the night, passing the puck to Rougeau who put the Big Red up 3-0. Cornell would get another goal in the second period to put the game out of reach, as sophomore defender Amanda Young scored to give them a 4-0 advantage. Jue and Rougeau would each light the lamp in the third to give Cornell a definitive victory of 6-0. The shot total was similar to their first game as Cornell outshot Colgate 38-17. However, in reality the offensive output for Colgate was much worse. Colgate could only muster seven shots through the first two periods. The majority of the Raiders’ shots came in the third period when the game was already out of reach and Cornell had in many of their backups. Plenderleith was also nowhere near as solid in net as she was the day before, though she still notched 32 saves.

     Colgate will need to have more offensive potency as they travel to Clarkson and St. Lawrence this weekend. Clarkson leads the ECAC with an 11-1-1 record, while St. Lawrence is seventh in the conference. The last time these two teams squared off the Raiders they were dominated by Clarkson 4-1 and they gave up a late goal resulting in a 2-2 tie with St. Lawrence. The Raiders will not only be looking for revenge this weekend but also some much-needed points, as they enter the weekend one point out of the final playoff position in the conference.