Overguard's Goal Lifts Cornell to Tie at Harvard

Photo by Patrick Shanahan

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. -- Karlee Overguard's goal with four seconds remaining in regulation lifted the Cornell women's hockey team to a 4-4 tie with Harvard on Friday night at the Bright Hockey Center in Cambridge, Mass. Cornell rallied from an early 2-0 deficit to pick up the point on the road.

Laura Fortino, Lauriane Rougeau and Chelsea Karpenko each had a goal and an assist for the Big Red, while Catherine White picked up a pair of assists. Melanie Jue also had an assist for Cornell, while Amanda Mazzotta stopped 21 shots in the game for the Big Red, which moved to 8-7-3 on the year.

For Harvard, Anna McDonald had a pair of goals, while Cori Bassett and Liza Ryabinka added a goal each. Christina Kessler stopped 27 shots for Harvard (8-4-4, 6-4-2 ECAC Hockey).

Cornell went 2-for-5 on the power play while holding the Crimson scoreless in six power play chances.

Harvard struck for a pair of early goals, including McDonald's first tally of the night just 21 seconds into the game. Bassett made it 2-0 three and a half minutes later before Rougeau found the back of the net five minutes into the game to cut the deficit in half. After seeing three goals in the first 5:07, the rest of the first period passed without any further scoring.

Just 54 seconds into the second period, Karpenko drew the Big Red even with a power-play goal, but Harvard went back up on McDonald's second goal of the night at the 13:22 mark of the second period. Ryabinka added a goal two minutes later to make the score 4-2 heading into the second intermission.

Eight minutes into the third period, Fortino drew the Big Red closer again, scoring her fourth goal of the year to cut the score to 4-3. That score would stand until the final seconds of the game. Mazzotta came to the bench with 1:41 to play for the extra skater, and Cornell got a pair of shots off that Kessler stopped. Then, with time ticking down, Overguard finally got the puck past Mazzotta with four seconds left to send the game into overtime.

In the extra session, Harvard got a pair of chances on the power play, but the Big Red kept the Crimson at bay, with Mazzotta stopping four shots in overtime to preserve the tie.

Cornell returns to action on Saturday, taking on Dartmouth in a 4 p.m. contest in Hanover, N.H.