ITHACA, N.Y. - After falling behind 3-0 in the first 10 minutes of the game, the Northeastern women's ice hockey team (3-2-0) brought it back to within one before No. 5/4 Cornell added three more tallies to skate away with a 6-2 win on Saturday afternoon at Lynah Rink.
Sonia St. Martin and Katie MacSorley both scored for the Huskies, while Chloe Desjardins made five saves in goal before being pulled in favor of freshman Sarah Foss (16 saves).
The Big Red outshot the Huskies 27-23 in the game, while NU won 34-of-55 face-offs. The Huskies were 0-of-6 on the power play while Cornell converted on three of its six man advantages.
The Big Red came out of the gates flying, potting three straight goals in the first 9:12 of the contest, the first coming 3:02 in when Monika Leck took a feed from Hayleigh Cudmore and beat Desjardins for an early Cornell lead. They would add to it just 35 seconds later on a goal from Emily Fulton.
Cornell made it a 3-0 game near the midway mark of the frame when the Big Red cashed in with its first power play tally of the afternoon, this one coming from Taylor Woods off a dish from Cassandra Poudrier. Following the goal, head coach Dave Flint inserted Foss into the game.
The Huskies seemed to respond to the change in goaltenders, and cut the deficit to two with 1:14 left in the first period when St. Martin received a pass from Paige Savage and beat Cornell goalie Lauren Slebodnick (21 saves) for the score. Hayley Masters was also credited with an assist on the goal
MacSorley would bring Northeastern within one with the Huskies shorthanded early in the second period. After taking a feed from Lucie Povova, MacSorley flew in and tucked it past Slebodnick for her first goal of the season 64 seconds into the middle frame.
The Cornell power play, however, would strike again with 5:10 to play in the period on a goal from Cudmore with assists credited to Poudrier and Woods before Emily Fulton gave the Big Red a commanding three-goal edge with 2:02 left in the stanza.
Cornell would limit the Huskies to six shots in the final 20 minutes, and added an insurance marker two minutes into the third on a power play goal from Cudmore, her second of the afternoon.
The teams will meet again in the series finale on Sunday afternoon at 2 p.m.