Big Red Victim of St. Lawrence Rally

Photo by Darl Zehr

ITHACA, N.Y. -- St. Lawrence's Tara Akstull scored a pair of unassisted goals as the Saints rallied from a 2-0 deficit to defeat the Cornell women's hockey team, 3-2, in an ECAC Hockey contest on Saturday afternoon at Lynah Rink. The loss was the first on the season in league play for the Big Red women, who fell to 5-3 on the year and 5-1 in league play.

Catherine White and Kelly McGinty scored goals for the Big Red, with White adding an assist. Laura Fortino and Laura Danforth both added an assist for Cornell. For St. Lawrence (5-4-4, 3-3-1 ECAC Hockey), Vanessa Emond scored a goal with Brooke Fernandez and Michelle Ng adding assists.

Cornell netminder Amanda Mazzotta stopped 19 shots in taking the loss, while St. Lawrence's Brittony Chartier stopped 15 shots for the victory. Cornell went 0-for-3 on the power play, while St. Lawrence was held scoreless in its only power play opportunity of the game.

White got the Big Red on the scoreboard first in the 4:16 mark of the first period, taking a pass from Fortino and skating around Chartier to put Cornell ahead, 1-0, at the end of the first period. At the 4:17 mark of the second period, Cornell got a fortunate bounce to take a 2-0 lead. White won a faceoff back to McGinty at the point, and her shot deflected off the traffic in front of the St. Lawrence net, bounced up in the air and over the head of Chartier, coming down into the back of the goal for the 2-0 Cornell lead.

St. Lawrence cut the deficit in half at the 9:51 mark of the period when Akstull won a faceoff and ripped a shot over the shoulder of Mazzotta, as the Big Red went to the second intermission up, 2-1.

In the third period, Cornell held St. Lawrence off the board until the 13:30 mark of the period when Emond took a pass from Fernandez and beat a screened Mazzotta from the faceoff circle to the sophomore netminder's right. The tie stood for just over a minute when the puck got caught in the skates of a Cornell defenseman with Akstull giving chase. As the puck neared the Cornell goal, Mazzotta came out to poke it away, but Akstull picked up the loose puck and slid it into the empty goal for the game-winner.

Cornell pulled Mazzotta with 1:06 to play with the extra skater, but could not get the tying goal as St. Lawrence claimed the victory.

Cornell returns to action on Friday when it travels to Princeton for a 7 p.m. contest against the Tigers.