Cornell Wins Game One Over Colgate
ITHACA, N.Y. -- Cornell scored a pair of first period goals and
held on for a 2-1 victory over Colgate in an ECAC Hockey women's
quarterfinal contest on Friday afternoon at Lynah Rink. Laura
Fortino and Kendice Ogilvie scored goals for the Big Red, which won
a post-season game for the first time in program history.
Amanda Mazzotta stopped 25 shots for the Big Red, which improved to
16-8-6 on the year with the victory. Colgate got its lone goal from
Evan Minnick early in the third period, but could not get the tying
goal. Lisa Plenderleith stopped 23 shots in taking the loss for the
Raiders (12-19-4).
Cornell took the early lead on an impressive individual effort by
Fortino, who took on all five Colgate defenders, fell to her knees
in between the faceoff circles and still ripped a shot over the
shoulder of Plenderleith midway through the first period for the
1-0 Cornell lead. Five minutes later, Jess Martino knocked a puck
loose in the Colgate end, with it squirting to the stick of
Ogilvie. The sophomore then fired off a shot that beat Plenderleith
for what would turn out to be the game-winning goal.
A scoreless second period followed, a period that saw the Big Red
kill off nearly six full minutes of penalties, with the first two
overlapping by 11 seconds and the second and third separated by
just two seconds. Colgate turned up the pressure in the third
period, and finally got on the board on the power play. With 4:26
gone in the third period, Colgate's Jacquie Colborne fired a shot
from the point that got through traffic in front of Mazzotta, where
Minnick was waiting on the back post to pop the puck into the net,
cutting the deficit in half. The goal, a power-play goal, was just
the fourth goal allowed by Cornell penalty killers this season.
Cornell, the tournament's top seed and playing its first-ever home
playoff game, improved to 1-14 all-time in post-season games.
Cornell and Colgate will play game two of the best-of-three series
on Saturday afternoon at 2 p.m. at Lynah Rink. A Cornell win would
send the Big Red to the semifinals of the league championship,
which would be played on Friday at Lynah Rink, while a Colgate win
would force a decisive game three on Sunday at 2 p.m.












