No. 3 Women’s Hockey Wins Marathon ECAC Semifinal in Third Overtime Behind Bergmann’s 54 Saves
After a grueling four-hour, triple-overtime contest, women’s hockey is headed to the ECAC championship game. Senior forward Lily Delianedis scored twice in the 2-1 win, her second goal coming 85:54 minutes of ice time after her first.
In real time? Between Delianedis’ goals, three hours and 31 minutes passed.
2:50 into the third overtime period, Clarkson was called for the game’s first penalty in since the games opening period. 43 seconds later, Delianedis lined up a wrist shot from the left faceoff circle.
“I was shocked,” Delianedis said when asked what was going through her mind after scoring the game winning goal. “I think I just hugged the first person next to me. [Scoring the goal] was just so exciting because the game was so competitive, the atmosphere was just crazy electric, and I think we were ready to win that period and the triple overtime.”
The Red defeated Clarkson 2-1 on two power play goals by Delianedis. While the game will be remembered in Ithaca for the senior’s pair of tallies, sophomore goaltender Annelies Bergmann’s performance will also live on in the history of Cornell hockey.
The ECAC Goaltender of the Year made 54 saves over the course of the contest, including 22 in overtime. Despite the pressure, Bergmann was unphased.
“There was never a doubt in my mind we were gonna win that game,” Bergmann said. “I knew that if I took care of my job and did my job that our team was going to pull through in the end.”
While regular games end with a shootout if the score is tied after a five minute three-on-three overtime period, in the postseason teams play 20 minute five-on-five overtime periods until a goal is scored. Friday afternoon’s contest was Cornell’s second-longest in program history, behind a 8-7, triple-overtime 2012 NCAA quarterfinal win over Boston University.
Of the three regulation periods, the first was the best for the Red and the only one in which Cornell outshot Clarkson. Part of the reason for the advantage came from the fact Clarkson was called for both a major and minor penalty.
The first penalty — which came 7:49 into the opening frame — was called against Clarkson for boarding. The Red challenged for a major penalty, and after an extended review the challenge was ruled successful and All-ECAC first teamer Anne Cherkowski was sent to the penalty box for a five minute major.
Junior defender Grace Dwyer rang the goal post 55 seconds into the power play, but despite multiple high-percentage changes, Clarkson’s 12th in the nation penalty kill ultimately stymied the Red.
The contest’s physicality — which from puck drop more closely resembled a Professional Women’s Hockey League game than a pre-pandemic NCAA one — soon gained an added element of added chippiness. That intensity boiled over with 3:29 remaining in the first period, resulting in matching Clarkson and Cornell penalties.
“We knew what we were getting ourselves into. We knew coming into their home rink there would be a lot of energy with the bands and the fans,” said Clarkson’s Hailey Winn. “So we were expecting the speed and the physicality.”
45 seconds into the four-on-four play, junior forward Avi Adam was pushed hard into the side window of the Clarkson bench before collapsing on the ice. After a few seconds, she arose and skated off the ice, much to the relief of the Lynah Rink crowd. For the hit, star Clarkson defender Nicole Gosling was given a two minute penalty for body checking, after the second video review of the period.
With a four-on-three skater advantage, Cornell passed the puck around the outside of the Golden Knights defense before senior forward Lily Delianedis unloaded on a one-time slap shot from the right faceoff dot.
The goal was Delianedis’s 10th of the season, and gave Dwyer her 14th assist of the season, the most of any Cornell defender.
In the second period, Bergmann would finally be beaten. After a sustained period of offensive zone pressure, Bergmann’s blocker and stick were knocked out of her left hand. As the Cornell netminder waved her bare hand in the air, a rebounding puck was pushed by her pads. Despite a Cornell challenge for goaltender interference the call on the ice of a goal was upheld.
After tying the game at 1-1, the Golden Knights did not let up. A Clarkson skater slipped through the Cornell defense to face Bergmann alone, but the Golden Knight shot went straight down off the crossbar and rolled away from the goal. While the Golden Knights continued to threaten for the rest of the period, the teams entered the second intermission tied at 1.
An electric crowd of 1,463 hit 90 decibels as they readied for what they thought would be the season’s most important period got underway. While the collective blood pressure of Lynah Rink continued to rise for all 20 minutes of the final frame, the score remained 1-1.
“I feel like [the fans] help us win: the football team coming out and supporting, all of the Ithaca locals coming, it just creates an atmosphere that you want to win for them, not only for your teammates,” said Bergmann. “It’s not every school or opportunity you get to play in front of a crowd like this.”
Just like in the second period, Cornell spent much of the third struggling against an impressive Clarkson forecheck. While the Golden Knights controlled the puck for much of the period in Cornell’s defensive zone — putting up 12 shots on Bergmann — the best chance of the frame came for the Red with just 29.3 seconds left in regulation. After a Holly Gruber save, a scrum in front of the Clarkson net ended with the puck bouncing off the goal post and away from the net to the dismay of the Lynah Faithful.
After a delay to wait for water on the ice to freeze, the first of three 20 minute five-on-five overtime periods got underway.
For the first time since the opening frame, Cornell controlled play in the opening minutes of overtime. Clear shots on net from sophomore forward Karel Prefontaine and senior defender Ashley Messier made it to the frame of Gruber, but were sent away.
Then, seven minutes into the period, the Bergmann show returned — and never relented. The Detrioit-native made a series of incredible saves in rapid succession, and entered the game’s fourth intermission with 43 saves, almost single handedly keeping Cornell in the game.
In all, Clarkson mustered 11 shots on Bergmann in the first extra-time stanza, many of them grade-A chances off of rebounds that the sophomore netminder smothered.
Cornell once again dominated the start of the second extra frame, but this time took hold of the momentum. Cornell’s nine shots in the period were the most for the Red since the opening period’s 12.
The best chance of the frame came with 1:48 remaining, when Adam hit the left crossbar from the low slot, coming agonizingly close to ending the contest.
The third and final overtime nearly started with a Clarkson goal. A minute in, Bergmann overcommitted trying to stop a Clarkson shot, leaving the left side of the goal vulnerable to a wrap-around attempt. Luckily for the Red, Adam — who played the rest of the game after the hard hit laid on her in the first period — made a game-saving diving stop by stretching her body across the goal line.
“Annelies made a lot of great saves, but there [were] also a couple of times where she got out of position and we made some great stick lifts, or we made great blocks to save ourselves too,” said Cornell head coach Doug Derraugh ’91.
While the referees had swallowed their whistles ever since the first period, it seemed inevitable that a penalty would be needed to break the deadlock. That penalty came 2:50 into the period, when Clarkson was called for tripping. Derraugh, who is looking for his first ECAC title since 2014, recognized the importance of the power play.
“To get through the playoffs your special teams have got to be great,” Derraugh said. “You work on it all year long and you hope that you go out and execute it when the time comes and we did.”
Cornell will face the winner of the other ECAC semifinal, either No. 5 Colgate or No. 7 St. Lawrence, Saturday at 3:30 p.m. in the ECAC championship game at Lynah Rink. The contest will be streamed live on ESPN+.