LYNAH RINK -- In their first Ivy League matchup of the season, #4 Cornell Women’s Hockey took care of business at home against unranked Dartmouth on Friday, winning 5-1, with Dartmouth’s lone goal coming in garbage time from Catherine Trevors.
The Big Red got off to a bit of a slow start offensively, despite taking plenty of shots early on. That is, until junior Maddie Mills got the scoring started, with a snipe from the right side with 6:32 left in the first period.
“One of our goals is always to get the first goal,” said Mills after the game. “Going into the second period, we just felt like we were playing our hockey, so we were really able to get after it.”
It remained 1-0 until Mills scored again early in the second period, which brought her up to 23 points on the season, second on the team. Sophomore Gillis Frechette followed a few minutes later with a smooth breakaway goal.
Frechette had to leave the game temporarily after getting roughed up, and while she didn’t think that Dartmouth was playing especially physical, she did note that “Especially in the ECAC it’ll be a physical game and we prepare for that, and we play our game that way too, so we have to expect that the opponent will come out playing physical as well.”
Junior Willow Slobodzian added another second period goal, and Frechette rounded out the goal total with her second of the game as well early in the third period. Senior Jaime Bourbonnais continued her torrid pace, notching two assists to up her point total to 25, which leads the team. And junior goalie Lindsay Browning didn’t have much work to do, as Cornell’s defense held Dartmouth to only 9 shots on goal while dominating possession for most of the game.
When asked about the leadership on the team, Coach Doug Derraugh said, “The seniors have been awesome. I give them a ton of credit for our success this year and for molding the culture of this team.” Their leadership will be especially helpful in their next game against #9 Harvard, as Derraugh noted that “They’re one of the most dangerous teams offensively… so this’ll certainly be a big challenge for us.”
Cornell Women’s Hockey faces off at Lynah Rink against Harvard on Saturday, January 18, at 3pm.