ITHACA, N.Y. – For the first time in nearly two full months, the Big Red women's hockey team returns to Lynah Rink on Tuesday night for a showdown with local rival Syracuse. The teams are set for a 7 p.m. puck drop in Cornell's first midweek game since Oct. 23.
GAME INFORMATION
GAME #15: No. 4 Cornell vs. Syracuse
GAME TIME: Tuesday, January 15, 7 p.m.
GAME SITE: Lynah Rink (Ithaca, N.Y.)
SERIES RECORD: Cornell leads 3-1
LAST MEETING: Cornell won 6-3 on Jan. 17, 2012
2012-13 RECORDS: Cornell (11-4); Syracuse (10-10-1)
LIVE STATS:
Cornell
LIVE VIDEO:
Redcast
ABOUT THE BIG RED
Cornell began the spring portion of its schedule last weekend with a very tough test against two top-10 teams in Boston. Cornell opened the weekend at No. 9 Northeastern, coming from behind twice to top the Huskies 4-2 in Matthews Arena.
Jessica Campbell had two goals while
Brianne Jenner had two assists and a goal.
Alyssa Gagliardi earned the game-winner. The next afternoon, Cornell took a 3-2 lead into the third period at No. 3 Boston College, but an Eagles goal with 43.3 seconds left sent the contest to overtime. There, Boston College prevailed by a 4-3 tally to hand Cornell its first overtime road loss since November 2007. Cornell, which has made the Frozen Four each of the last three seasons, is sitting tied for fourth place in the ECAC Hockey Standings but with games in hand over two of the three teams in front of it.
HEAD COACH DOUG DERRAUGH
Now in his eighth season directing the Cornell women's hockey program,
Doug Derraugh has quickly brought the Big Red women to their current place among the nation's elite. Taking a program that won just four games in the season prior to his arrival, Derraugh guided the Big Red to the national title game in his fifth season and back-to-back-to-back NCAA Frozen Four appearances in 2010, 2011 and 2012, completely turning around the culture of the women's hockey program at Cornell. Derraugh, a 1991 graduate of Cornell, was the last Big Red men's hockey player to score 30 goals in a season. He earned his 120th career win at Boston University on Oct. 20 and is five wins away from tying the school record for victories as a women's hockey coach (Bill Duthie, 135).
ABOUT SYRACUSE
The Orange, based in nearby Syracuse, is 10-10-1 on the season in just their fifth year of existence. Syracuse sits in fourth place in the College Hockey America standings, seven points behind first-place Mercyhurst. The Orange has lost four of its last five games, though those four losses all came against opposition in the top 10 national rankings. Syracuse's offensive leader so far this season is Holly Carrie-Mattimoe with nine goals and seven assists for 16 points, while Shiann Darkangelo is not far behind with 15 points on 11 goals and four assists. In goal, Kallie Billadeau leads the way with a 1.49 goals against average and 766 minutes played. Syracuse has the nation's 17th-best offense and eighth-best defense.
Syracuse is coached by Paul Flanagan who has been with the team since its beginning.
THE SERIES WITH SYRACUSE
Cornell holds a slight 3-1 edge over Syracuse in the teams' four lifetime meetings. Cornell won both meetings last season. In November 2011, Cornell claimed a 9-2 victory as seven different players scored. But when the two teams squared off last year in January 2012, though, Cornell came away with a 6-3 victory thanks to a four-point effort from
Rebecca Johnston, three points from
Brianne Jenner and two goals by
Chelsea Karpenko. The Orange was much tougher in that contest, forcing Cornell to come from behind twice for the win.
A WIN AGAINST SYRACUSE WOULD…
…give Cornell a 12-4 record overall this season…keep Cornell a perfect 7-0 at Lynah Rink…give the Big Red a 4-1 lead in the all-time series against Syracuse…be Cornell's 98th consecutive game with a goal.
CORNELL VS. CHA
Since the start of the 2009-2010 season, the Big Red has faced opponents in College Hockey America 18 times. Cornell holds a 12-6 record in those games including a 3-1 mark against the Orange. Cornell is also 4-4 against national powerhouse Mercyhurst in that time frame, 2-0 against Robert Morris and 3-1 against the now-defunct Niagara women's hockey team.
HOMECOMING GAME
The Big Red will be playing in Lynah Rink on Tuesday for the first time since a Nov. 16 contest against Colgate. Cornell is very strong at home, posting a 6-0 record in Lynah this season. The team is on a seven-game undefeated run in Ithaca dating back to last season's NCAA Tournament win against Boston University. On the road, the Big Red is just 5-4. After this weekend, Cornell will alternate home and road series for the rest of the regular season. Cornell has not lost a regular-season home game since Nov. 11, 2011.
TUESDAY SUCCESS
With the victory against St. Lawrence on Oct. 23, Cornell has now claimed eight consecutive contests on Tuesday nights. Cornell's last loss Tuesday night came on Nov. 2, 2010 against Mercyhurst in a 4-3 overtime defeat.
NATIONAL POLLS
The Big Red held still in this week's USCHO.com national poll, remaining at No. 4 after splitting its weekend games. Boston College jumped over Harvard to the No. 2 spot, while undefeated Minnesota, at 22-0, has a lock on first place. Other ECAC Hockey teams in the picture are Clarkson (No. 5), St. Lawrence (RV) and Dartmouth (RV).
LONG LAYOFF
The Big Red's game on Saturday against Northeastern was its first since Dec. 1, a span of 42 days. No Division 1 team in the country went longer than the Big Red without playing a game. Cornell did not play in Dec. 7-8 because of Cornell's exams, and the team did not resume play last weekend as it was missing a third of its roster to the Canadian Under-22 Meco Cup team.
BUSY STRETCH
Cornell is in the middle of five games in eight days, its second such stretch of the season. The Big Red opened the year going 4-1 in its first eight days, downing Boston University once, St. Lawrence, Brown and Yale while losing to Boston University in a second game. This time around, Cornell split a series in Boston, will host Syracuse Tuesday and then play Clarkson and St. Lawrence on Friday and Saturday.
HOLDING A LEAD
The Big Red was undefeated in its last 62 games when holding a lead after two periods entering the weekend. The Big Red extended the streak to 63 games with the victory at Northeastern, but Boston College broke that long streak when it came from behind in the final minute of play to force overtime and win. Before Sunday, Cornell had not lost a game when leading after two periods since the national title game in 2010.
MECO CUP
Seven Big Red players won the Gold with the Canada Under-22 roster for the Meco Cup earlier this month.
Laura Fortino,
Lauriane Rougeau,
Hayleigh Cudmore,
Cassandra Poudrier,
Jillian Saulnier,
Brianne Jenner and
Jessica Campbell all traveled Germany to compete for their country and came away with Canada's ninth gold in 11 years.
USA CAMP
Cornell junior alternate captain
Alyssa Gagliardi spent some of her winter break participating in the 2012 U.S. Women's National Team Winter Camp in Blaine, Minn. Thirty-six total players were selected for the Winter Camp, and they were divided into two teams of 18 for three intrasquad scrimmages. Gagliardi was on the camp's White Team with three other current ECAC Hockey rivals.
DO IT FOR DARON SERIES
Cornell's games on Feb. 1-2 against Rensselaer and Union will be played as the “Do It For Daron Series.” Do It For Daron is a charity founded by friends and family of Daron Richardson to raise awareness and inspire conversations about youth mental health. To show support for the Big Red and freshman
Morgan Richardson – the sister of Daron Richardson – the team asks that fans wear purple to the Do It For Daron Series games.
MARKERS FOR MADISON
Brianne Jenner is participating in a goal drive this year for a young girl with brain cancer, Madison Primeau. For every goal Jenner scores, Jenner's sponsors will donate money to a charity to help pay Madison's medical bills. Jenner, now with 10 goals on the season, has raised close to $1,000 already for Primeau. To sponsor Jenner's charity, e-mail her at
bj72@cornell.edu.
NO SHUTOUTS
The Big Red's streak of scoring at least one goal in a game is now 97 games long, dating back all the way to a 0-0 tie against Quinnipiac on Feb. 5, 2010. Cornell scored a goal in every game last year, something only it can say. Cornell was also the only team playing a full Division I schedule to not have a tie last year.
NATIONAL NUMBERS
Cornell has multiple players near the top of the country in many categories.
Brianne Jenner has the nation's 10th-best points per game total with 1.77, while
Jillian Saulnier is at No. 24 with her 1.27 points per game. Jenner's 0.77 goals per game also puts her 10th in the country while she is tied for ninth with 1.00 assist per game. Freshman Saulnier is tied for 14th in the country with three game-winners, and
Lauriane Rougeau is ninth in points per game by defenseman (0.87).
As a team, the Big Red's 3.80 goals per game ranks it fifth in the country, and its 1.93 goals allowed per game is also seventh-best. Cornell has the nation's third-best penalty kill (90.1 percent).
CAREER NUMBERS WATCH
Approaching career numbers:
PLAYERS OF THE WEEK
Brianne Jenner, who racked up a career-high six points on Nov. 16 and added three more on Nov. 17 was named the ECAC Hockey Player of the Week on Nov. 20. Freshman
Taylor Woods, who had five points in those two games against Colgate, was named the league's Rookie of the Week. Jenner is the first Cornell Player of the Week this season while Woods is the second Rookie of the Week (
Cassandra Poudrier, Nov. 6).
REPRESENTING HER COUNTRY
Brianne Jenner missed the Princeton and Quinnipiac games in November as she competed with the Canadian National Women's Team at the 4 Nations Cup in Finland. Jenner and
Rebecca Johnston '12 each had an assist in Canada's four games as the Canadians wound up losing 3-0 to the United States in the gold medal game. Jenner returns to Ithaca with a silver medal from one of the top women's hockey competitions in the world.
OUTRANKING THE COMPETITION
In its last 28 games against ranked opponents from the start of the 2009-10 season until now, the Big Red holds a 17-11 record. Cornell was a very impressive 9-3 against ranked opponents in 2011-12.
UP NEXT
Cornell continues its three-game home stand with a key ECAC Hockey series against North Country rivals Clarkson and St. Lawrence. The Saints visit Friday at 7 p.m., and Clarkson comes to town on Saturday at 4 p.m.
