A tight start that stayed scoreless
Meeting in Hamden on Friday evening, the sixth-ranked Bobcats and the 14th-ranked Big Red opened as a defensive contest between conference foes. Quinnipiac's clearest early look belonged to sophomore forward Peyton Cormier, who narrowly failed to push the puck past the pad of senior Cornell goaltender Annelies Bergmann. A penalty on Cornell senior forward Delaney Fleming then gave the Bobcats their first power play, and the chippy play that had been building produced a scramble and shoving in front of the Quinnipiac crease.[S1]
Head coach Cass Turner said such friction is typical of Division I hockey and praised her team's composure in playing through it. Quinnipiac outshot Cornell 11-4 across the opening frame, including a 5-1 run late in the period, yet the game reached the first intermission still tied at 0-0.[S1]
Power plays break the deadlock
The physical tone carried into the second period, when senior forward Alex Law absorbed a boarding hit about five minutes in and put Quinnipiac back on the man advantage. Law said she is willing to take such hits if it produces a power play. The Bobcats converted quickly: junior forward Avery Bairos scored from close range, then nearly added another before Bergmann jammed her skate against the post to keep the margin at one.[S1]
With roughly three minutes left in the middle frame, captain and junior defender Makayla Watson broke in and drew the Cornell defense; her shot missed, but the rebound off Bergmann's pads reached Law, who scored. Seconds later a hooking call on senior forward Kahlen Lamarche sent Quinnipiac a skater down, and the Bobcats' penalty kill, which Turner's squad has operated at 93.8% this season, survived it, helped when Cornell junior forward Lindzi Avar was penalized and the Big Red lost its extra skater.[S1]
Lamarche, who chatted with the penalty-box attendant while serving her minor, left the box instead of heading to the bench and raced to the Cornell blue line. She slapped her stick on the stripe, Anysley D'Ottavio, a junior defender, fed her, and Lamarche beat sophomore forward London McDavid's attempt to cut off the pass to score Quinnipiac's second power-play goal with 25 seconds on the clock. Lamarche said she saw an open lane and would have been upset with herself had she missed it.[S1]
Cornell pulls its goalie, Law seals it
Trailing by three with under eight minutes remaining, Cornell pulled Bergmann after freshman defender Rosalie Breton was called for hooking. The goaltender stayed out even after the power play expired, returning only briefly when a Cornell high-stick forced a defensive-zone face-off, then left again once possession changed. Quinnipiac finally capitalized, with Law scoring her second of the night to match Bairos for the team lead at eight goals.[S1]
Freshman goaltender Natalia Dilbone, a South Lyon, Michigan, native, recorded her second shutout of the season, stopping all 24 Cornell shots. It was the fewest shots the Big Red have managed in a game this season; they had entered the matchup averaging 38.2 shots on goal. Quinnipiac next hosts No. 8 Colgate in Hamden on Saturday, Nov. 7, with puck drop scheduled for 3 p.m.[S1][S2]
