The Red Dragons experienced an unfortunate loss against their well-known rivals, SUNY Plattsburgh, in the NEWHL (Northeast Women’s Hockey League) Finals Saturday afternoon. The nationally second-ranked Plattsburgh team scored goals in the second and third periods to declare a 2-0 win against Cortland.
The Red Dragons season has come to an end. Although this loss was unexpected, they ended their season with a 20-0-7 record, which is their highest win total in Cortland history, and finished in second place in their NEWHL conference.
Cortland was close to leading the game with a 1-0 score on a powerplay midway through the first period. Senior Dany Donegan sent a pass out to graduate-student Jayden Kelley in the slot, Kelley one-timed it towards the net, but was denied by Plattsburgh graduate-student goaltender, Ashley Davis.
Plattsburgh also had a powerplay near the end of first period but failed to execute with four shots on Cortland’s goaltender Molly Goergen.
Entering second period, the Cardinals came into the period with a lot of momentum to score. Within just two minutes and 23 seconds into the period, Junior Ciara Wall scored Plattsburgh’s first goal of the night from an assist from first-year Taya Balfour. Balfour found Wall in the slot, Wall received the puck and scored over Goergen’s blocker.
Powerplays were not in Cortland’s favor on Saturday, so much as though Kelley believes that is what caused them the loss.
“The game was frustrating. We definitely didn’t play our best, but the refs were no help,” Kelley said. “They called penalties on us which we didn’t deserve and those both helped Plattsburgh score their goals. If we didn’t have those penalties, I don’t think we would have been scored on and then we would have had more momentum not being down.”
Entering the third period with nine shots on goal for Cortland, and five shots on goal for Plattsburgh, Plattsburgh had yet another powerplay where graduate-student Sara Krauseneck added an insurance goal for the Cardinals four minutes into the third. With her 19th goal of the year, Krauseneck one-timed a feed from senior Ivy Boric past Goergens glove.
Down 2-0, with one minute and 39 seconds left of the game, the Red Dragons decided to pull Goergen to add an additional skater. Cortland managed two shots on goal, but Davis turned both aside to protect the shutout and the 2-0 win.
Goergen made 29 saves for the Red Dragons and finished the season with a program record 1.24 goals-against average and tied the single-season record with a .947 save percentage.
Plattsburgh will now advance to the NCAA Tournament to play either Middlebury or Suffolk in the quarterfinals on Saturday, March 11.
Following the game, Cortland players Goergen and junior Jillian Hlasnick, were awarded All-Tournament Team and Kelley received the Elite Academic Award as the student-athlete with the highest cumulative grade-point average.
Sophomore Mia Hlasnick was named to all-league first team, while Goergen and freshman Ainsley Delacourt were chosen to the all-league second time. Delacourt was also voted as the NEWHL Rookie of the Year, and both Delacourt and freshman Fanny Aneborn were chosen as the NEWHL All-Rookie Team.
Regardless of the unfortunate end to the season, the Red Dragons have performed and thrived in many ways and will continue to impress and work towards their goal of winning the NEWHL Final next year. Multiple seniors plan on returning for another year to help the Red Dragons earn that championship. Kelley, Donegan, Elena Eichmann, and Molly McCabe will be seen in a Red Dragon jersey for one more go-around.