By John Painter
(Ithaca, NY – March 1, 2013) A lot appears to have changed for Colgate in the last 104 days, but the Raiders couldn’t quite change the outcome here Friday against No. 2-ranked and top-seeded Cornell.
A 5-4 overtime loss means the Raiders trail 1-0 in this best-of-3 ECAC Tournament quarterfinal series.
Colgate was pummeled 18-2 over a two-game set when these teams played in mid-November. But the Lynah Rink fans certainly didn’t get the same casual experience this time around if they were expecting another 9-0 blowout.
“I don’t know if there are any words to describe tonight,” Raiders head coach Greg Fargo said of his eighth-seeded squad. ““It was an emotional roller-coaster, that third period.
“We got some great efforts throughout our lineup, and gave the No. 2 team in the country a really tough game.”
Pair of Late Rallies
The Big Red came from behind twice to tie it in the last seven minutes of regulation, the latter coming with an extra attacker and just 46.4 ticks left. Cornell’s only lead of the night then came when Brianne Jenner scored her hat-trick goal 39 seconds into overtime.
Colgate, on the other hand, posted leads of 1-0, 3-1 and 4-3. It was Fargo’s perfect recipe for an upset – play from ahead. When senior winger Brittany Phillips scored with 2:35 remaining, the Raiders seemed poised for the shocker.
“To get the lead with just over two minutes to go – the good thing was we’ve been in that situation the last couple of weeks,” Fargo said. “We’ve been scoring late and having to hold the lead, so we were comfortable in that position.
“They just got a bounce there that they cashed in on.”
Cornell’s Monika Leck scored the tying goal, lifting the puck just over Colgate goalie Ashlynne Rando and just under the crossbar. Officials initially ruled no goal, but replay verified the score.
“We regrouped a little bit,” Fargo said of the locker room during the third intermission. “Our thought was we had the chance to go into overtime against the No. 2 team in the country. Unfortunately, it didn’t last too long.”
Colgate never got the puck out of its own zone in the extra period, and Jenner converted on Cornell’s third quick shot on goal to lift the Big Red’s record to 24-5-1. They are 13-1-1 since mid-January.
Sophomore Scores Twice
“It definitely was an emotional battle as well as physical, but we tried our hardest and we’re excited to come back tomorrow,” said Miriam Drubel, who scored Colgate’s first two goals. “We proved to everyone that we’re a better team than our stats show.
“Cornell now knows that and we’ll give them another good game Saturday.”
Drubel scored her first late in the first thanks to Colgate’s initial big break of the game. Cornell committed two penalties within nine seconds of each other – Taylor Woods ticketed for charging and Jessica Campbell caught tripping – to hand the Raiders a 5-on-3.
And it took only 33 seconds for Colgate to make their hosts pay. Megan Wickens found Jenna Klynstra behind the net, and Klynstra slipped it across the goal crease to a wide open Drubel, who back-handed it past Big Red goalie Lauren Slebodnick for the 1-0 advantage with 4:07 showing.
After Cornell tied it early in the second, Drubel’s scored her second off a nice dish from Jocelyn Simpson with 12:52 showing. The play started when Cornell’s Laura Fortino tried to stop a cross-ice pass and her stick snapped in two. The puck fell to Simpson and she started the break.
Drubel’s shot into the upper right corner was true.
“It was a 3-on-1, just like in practice,” Drubel said. “Taylor Volpe drove the net, Jocelyn Simpson drove wide and gave me a great pass and it worked out well. It was a good line goal.”
An early Cornell penalty to start third gave the Raiders another opportunity, and Klynstra did the damage this time. After taking a pass from Phillips, Klynstra glided around goal and fired a wrister over Slebodnick’s left shoulder to make it 3-1 Colgate with 18:14 left in the game.
Cornell climbed off the mat with a pair of power play goals. Erin Barley-Maloney scored a rebound tally to make it 3-2 with 15:37 left, and then Jenner tied it with 6:44 showing on a shot into the upper right corner.
Colgate’s final power-play goal of the night came off the stick of Phillips, who somehow scored from in front off a corner pass by Drubel to make it 4-3. But the Raiders couldn’t kill off the final 2:35.
Six Power-Play Goals
Power plays were the story, with both teams scoring three times. Cornell had eight chances with an extra attacker to Colgate’s six.
“As it has been the past few weeks, our power play was good,” Fargo said. “It got three of our goals for us tonight. They weren’t all pretty, but the fact is our power play has been getting it done for us at key times in the game.
“We just need our PK to come through for us a little bit. You can’t give a team like that eight power-play chances and expect to keep them off the board for too long.”
Shots were 48-19 in favor of Cornell, including 3-0 in overtime. Rando finished with 43 saves.
“It’s easy to look at the shot chart and see that Rando played a phenomenal game tonight, but you go right down our lineup and I can pinpoint just about anybody who played their tails off,” Fargo said. “Our D did a great job tonight.
“Our game plan was to really slow them down a little bit. They have some players off the rush who can really hurt you with some speed, but our D did a great job keeping them outside and keeping their shots to the outside. I applaud the effort tonight.”
Drubel added two assists for four points, while Klynstra chipped in two assists for three points. Nicole Gass also earned an assist for the Raiders, now 11-20-3.
Game 2 was Saturday at 4 p.m. (More to follow).
“We like being the underdogs; we’re comfortable with that,” Drubel said. “We’re OK with that label. We really had nothing to lose and we came out here knowing that.
“Zero-zero, we’re ready to go. We’re ready to give them another good game and hopefully advance to Sunday.”