A top ten women’s ice hockey matchup between No. 7 Quinnipiac and No. 9 Cornell ended in a 3-3 tie, with the Big Red coming out on top in a shootout.
“I thought it was a pretty evenly matched game,” Quinnipiac head coach Cassandra Turner said. “One that had pushes in our direction, pushes in their direction. You can expect that from a team like them.”
The game opened up with the Big Red finding the puck in their offensive zone more often than not, striking 6:41 into the first period on an unassisted goal by junior defender Alyssa Regalado for her third of the year.
Despite trailing early, the Bobcats found the aforementioned push with a goal from first-year defender Makayla Watson and a power play goal from sophomore forward Kahlen Lamarche.
Ending the first period ahead, Quinnipiac carried the momentum into the second with graduate goalie Kalye Doyle stopping 15 of the shots she faced between the Cornell goal and the end of the period.
Pacing the period with strong defensive play, first-year forward Bryn Prier would add to the Bobcats’ lead with a deflection off of graduate captain defender Kendall Cooper’s shot in front of Cornell sophomore goalie Annelies Bergmann.
“She [Bryn Prier] had probably her strongest game so far this season,” said Turner. “It was just nice to see her step up. Our young players are ready to make plays, I think Makayla Watson has been doing that all year for us. She’s scored some timely goals and she’s composed, she’s confident and she’s taking risks at the right time.”
As a new face on campus, Prier saw herself move from the right to the left wing and climb lines from the bottom to first, even into the starting line with graduate forward Maddy Samoskevich and Lamarche. The team is 3-0 this season when the two are paired.
“Samo and Marchey do a great job of making me better and pushing the pace on all of our opportunities,” said Prier. “Obviously, teammates just make a difference in these games. We had some tough moments but just got to push through them.”
The final period of regulation saw the Big Red capitalize on their experience together against a younger and fresher Bobcat team, with two goals from senior defender Rory Guilday and junior forward Avi Adam to send the game into overtime.
Overtime saw opportunities from both teams to put a close on the night but Doyle and Bergmann stood tall for both sides with big-time saves. One opportunity arose when Quinnipiac junior forward Emerson Jarvis caused a too-many skaters on the ice minor penalty in the extra frame to put the Big Red on the power play.
On the penalty kill in overtime and the Cornell fight in the third period, there were easy opportunities for the game to spiral out of the Bobcats’ control but composed defense and nation-leading penalty kill helped keep the game within reach.
“There were a number of moments where I was like ‘oh man that was not the play we wanted to happen’ but I think we were pretty resilient,” said Turner, “You could hear them talking about being in the moment on the bench and that’s coming from them as much as the coaches. I think that shows a lot of fourth, fifth years that are excited to win games and they’re going to do whatever it takes.”
In the shootout, Cooper and Cornell sophomore defender Piper Grober exchanged goals in the first round. Cornell took the lead after Lamarche hit the post and sophomore forward Karel Prefontaine netted one past Doyle, ending with a miss by Quinnipiac senior forward Maya Labad.
Looking to bounce back, the Bobcats will host the ECAC Hockey-leading Colgate Raiders on Saturday, November 23, at 3:30 p.m.
