Melissa Kueber scored for Colgate in the Raiders game against Cornell Saturday night. (Photo by Bob Cornell)
By John Painter
(Ithaca, NY – March 2, 20
13) Colgate’s “Snakebit Weekend” saved its biggest bite for last.
The Raiders were less than a minute away from tying their best-of-3 ECAC Tournament quarterfinal series at a game apiece, and then were no worse than seconds from taking the No. 2 team in the country to overtime for the second straight night.
But Lauriane Rougeau scored with 53 seconds to play, and then Brianne Jenner’s steal and wrap-around goal with just one second remaining capped the furious 3-2 Cornell comeback and ended Colgate’s upset hopes. Jenner also scored the winner in overtime Friday night as the No. 2-ranked and top-seeded Big Red made the plays when they counted down the stretch.
“I thought Friday’s game was the peak of emotional hockey, but today trumped that somehow,” Raiders head coach Greg Fargo said. “Man, we played a phenomenal game – even better than we played Friday.
“Two nights in a row you take the No. 2 team in the country to the last minute of the game, and they (Cornell) got it done. That’s a team that knows how to win, and that’s what we’re trying to become. We’re still learning as a program how to win.”
In addition to the two women’s hockey heartbreakers, Colgate lost in the final seconds this weekend in both men’s hockey at Yale and women’s basketball against Holy Cross. Additional setbacks in men’s and women’s lacrosse and men’s basketball only added to the crazy string of hard luck.
No One-Game Wonder
Colgate had rebounded from its Game 1 anguish to take a 2-0 lead Saturday with a pair of late first-period goals. Brittany Phillips scored her second of the weekend on a power play with 2:59 showing, and then Melissa Kueber tallied short-handed with just nine seconds left in the opening stanza.
The second period was even more impressive. A five-minute boarding call against Jenna Klynstra, followed 4½ minutes into that penalty by a charging minor against Megan Wickens, meant the Raiders penalty-kill units faced a 6-minute, 36-second stretch of pure terror.
But the two-goal lead held and Fargo was estastic.
“Just the things we did to give us the two-goal lead and holding that lead for as long as we did,” Fargo said. “I think about the seven minutes we killed in the second period, the power play we had in the second period – we didn’t score on it, but it was phenomenal.
“I’m really proud of the group for just how far we’ve come.”
Caught Looking
Colgate’s 2-0 lead held until Cornell began its comeback early in the third. Taylor Woods opened by finding the net inside the opening minute, but Colgate’s defense stiffened and Cornell was forced to pull its goaltender with 1:10 remaining.
“Honestly, we came out a little bit watching them in the third,” Fargo said. “When they scored that goal, oddly enough it almost settled us down a little bit. We committed to chipping pucks off the boards and getting it out when we needed to – good simple hockey.
“And like I said Friday, for the most part we’re comfortable playing in that situation.”
A face off to the right of Colgate goalie Ashlynn Rando with less than a minute left was won by Jenner straight to the stick of Rougeau, who fired a bullet into the upper left corner for the tying score.
It didn’t appear Rando saw the shot.
“If she did it was at the last second,” Fargo said. “It was a clean win for them and a great shot; no fault of Ashlynn’s. She played great. They just got a great goal off a faceoff win.”
Colgate never recovered, and the Raiders never even made it to overtime when Jenner finished her play at the end. Fargo admitted the tying goal was just too much to overcome.
“It took the wind out of our sails,” he said. “On that last shift, we had a couple of chances to get the puck out of the zone, to chip the puck into the corner and finish the period. But I give them credit because they played until the final buzzer. They were opportunistic.
“There were just so many emotions. Basically, we played with the lead the whole game. For them to get that goal in the last minute – yeah, it’s hard not to let that one affect you.”
First Season Success
WIckens and Miriam Drubel earned assists on the Phillips goal, while Kueber’s short-handed score was unassisted. Rando finished with 42 saves in the game and 85 for the weekend.
Shots were 45-24 in favor of the hosts. A big improvement for the Raiders over Friday night was in the penalty-kill, where Colgate held Cornell to an 0-for-7 sheet. The Raiders were 1-for-5.
Colgate’s first season under Fargo closes at 11-21-3. The Raiders qualified for the ECAC Tournament as the eighth seed after winning twice to advance on the final weekend. Cornell improves to 25-5-1 and hosts the ECAC semifinals next weekend.
“There are no words for how proud I am of this group,” Fargo said. “I said to them in the locker room, ‘Think back to our trip to Minnesota, where we lost 18-0 to the No. 1 team in the country. And now we take the No. 2 team to overtime yesterday and lose with a second left today.’
“I don’t think we could have imagined a bigger growth for our program, and a lot of that falls on our senior class. Their leadership throughout the season, and especially the second half of the year, was something that as a staff made us extremely proud and thankful.”