Wearing the Carnelian and White
Oakville, ON native Hayleigh Cudmore entered the program in the 2010-11 season, contributing to the team immediately appearing in all games as a freshman.  She scored nine points as a freshman and continued contributing on both sides of the ice her sophomore season. She increased her scoring touch with goals as a sophomore.  Her junior year saw a marked improvement in her rating on the ice, ending the season as a +24.  Cudmore has a particular tendency for scoring game-winning goals against Mercyhurst. As both a sophomore and junior, she scored the game winner against the Lakers in the regular season.

What to Expect
Cudmore is part of a relatively small senior class and one of only two senior defensemen. Cudmore will have to step up in a huge way. Last year Cornell lost two of its key defensemen, Lauriane Rougeau and Laura Fortino. They both produced a lot offensively, but moreover were huge defensive presences on the ice.  Cudmore, along with fellow senior Alyssa Gagliardi, will need to be a solid presence behind the blue line as the Red return no junior defensemen.  Perhaps similarly to how Fortino and Rougeau seemed to focus more on defense last year than ever in their careers, Cudmore will have to up her defensive game to new levels. She has the potential and experience to do so, it is just a matter of staying healthy and committing to the system that Coach Derraugh outlines.

A Look Back
One of the most notable players to have worn the number 24 is Liz Zorn '10.  The Churchville, NY native played forward for the team from 2006-10.  Zorn was a co-captain as a senior.  She began as a part of the team in 2006-07 that won a total of four games.  By the team she was a senior, she helped lead the squad to their first Ivy title in fourteen years as well as the program's first-ever ECAC Tournament title.  As a freshman, Zorn's team won four games and missed the playoffs.  As a senior, she led the team to their first wins in the ECAC playoffs ever. Beyond that, she led her team to the NCAA tournament for the first time, getting as far as the national title game.  Zorn was a strong forward who played a sound defensive game. The ECAC even honored her with a nomination for the Best Defensive Forward.  A bit closer to home, she was recognized on the team as Player of the Year as well as the player with the most Senior Spirit for the entire athletic department.  Zorn ended her career with 55 points in her 121 games played, leaving a storied legacy behind for future players and captains to live up to.

Wearing the Carnelian and White
The Lynah Faithful were first introduced to Andy Iles in an exhibition game in October 2009. The Ithacan netminder stood in opposition to Ben Scrivens and the Cornell Big Red. Iles, who had committed to Cornell already at that time, deprived the home crowd of a victory as he outdueled Scrivens. Just over 12 months later, it would be Iles who donned the iconic carnelian-and-white sweater and took his first regular-season start against RIT at Lynah Rink.

Iles's freshman campaign was impressive. The season began with Mike Schafer identifying a rotation between Mike Garman and Andy Iles as the best means to fill the void left in the wake of Scrivens's graduation. Garman defended the Red's blue paint on Fridays while Iles embraced the task on Saturdays. The Big Red earned only a 4-8-1 record when it embarked on the second half of its schedule. Garman's brief illness forced Iles to make consecutive starts from January 22 through January 29. The freshman netminder dropped none of those contests and continued the momentum that had been building in early January (Cornell had gone 3-1-1 since the semester break) with stealing a game at Lynah East. Iles's performance left the Crimson stunned. This success propelled Cornell into the postseason. Iles would record a 30-save perfromance in the 2011 ECAC Quarterfinals, but faulty equipment would not allow proper reviewing and awarding of a Cornell goal that may have prevented him from recording a playoff defeat. Iles ended his first season having recorded more than half of the team's wins and fewer than half of the team's losses.

The Ithacan who dreamt of playing at Cornell at a young age finally had the opportunity to deliver on the sport's biggest stages in his sophomore year. Twice in the season Iles defended successfully a 1-0 victory. What caught headlines early was his defensemen's and his play at home. Iles did not surrender a goal at Lynah Rink from November 18, 2011 until January 20, 2012. This streak stood as the longest such streak in the history of Cornell hockey. Iles also recorded the second-longest shutout streak in program history during his phenomenal home stand. Cornell with Iles backstopping it dominated Boston University in Red Hot Hockey III. The only goal during regulation that Cornell surrendered was when the Big Red were at a two-man disadvantage. Iles turned away 25 salvos from Cornell's historic rival. Cornell's chance at a bid to the 2012 NCAA Tournament seemed in jeopardy at times. Despite Iles helping Cornell wrest a win and a tie from Colorado College in Colorado Springs, a defeat of Union all but guaranteed Cornell a trip to the national tournament. Iles outdueled Hobey Baker Finalist Troy Grosenick in one of the loudest games at Lynah Rink. The sophomore Cornellian turned away 28 shots and gave his team the chance to topple the Dutchmen. Grosenick was not the last Hobey Baker Finalist whom Iles would outcompete. Michigan had national title hopes in the 2012 NCAA Tournament before Andy Iles's 31 saves while killing off seven penalties including two-man advantages slayed it. Iles defeated soundly the best statistical goaltender in the history of Michigan hockey. Iles's poise and skill in the victory solidified his position as one of the elite goaltenders in the nation.

Schafer made it apparent that he expected Andy Iles to backstop Cornell in every contest during Iles's junior season. Schafer flatly remarked before the 2012-13 season that it was his plan. Andy Iles would start every contest. He picked up where he left off the season before with respect to his endurance. Iles catapulted Cornell into the conversation about national contenders in October 2012 with a season-opening shutout of Colorado College at Lynah Rink. Michigan met Cornell in the inaugural Frozen Apple. The Wolverines had designs on revenge, but Iles and Cornell had other things in mind. Iles posted a near-shutout performance against Michigan in a 5-1 victory. The shutouts may not have been as numerous as they had been in Iles' sophomore campaign, but the Ithaca native delivered results when his team needed them most. The 2013 ECAC Tournament began at Hobey Baker Rink for Cornell. Iles delivered his second shutout against another group of tigers. He stood tall between the Red pipes in game two. Iles would turn away 33 challenges in a series-opening contest against first-ranked Quinnipiac. Most regarded Iles as making the singular difference in that contest's outcome. The second game quickly devolved and Cornell braced for game three. Iles was ready for the third game of the series. He was flawless. It took the Bobcats nearly half an hour to solve him. He was undaunted. A series of unfortunate events conspired to allow the Bobcats to push the game into overtime. Iles recorded 60 saves in the contest before it was decided. 28 of those saves came in the 34:08 of double-overtime play. Yes, Iles was resilient and unsolvable in fatiguing double overtime even as he faced nearly one shot per minute. His performance was reminiscent of and beyond the performances of Doug Dadswell in the 1986 ECAC Semifinals and Dave McKee in the 2006 NCAA Regional Final. The game ended in defeat, but Andy Iles proved that he remained one of the best goaltenders in college hockey, especially in games with the highest stakes.

What to Expect
Iles' statistics suffered a slight setback in his junior season relative to his sophomore season. Iles's goals-against average tapered from a 2.12 to a 2.38 and his save percentage did the same from 0.919 to 0.916. It was the second season during which Andy Iles played in all contests. These minor backslides were indubitably disappointing to many, including Iles, but Iles's performance in the 2013 ECAC Tournament and the run-up thereto indicated that most of the performances that weighed down his overall statistics were long forgotten by the time the games of real value were played. The 2012-13 season provides mixed messages from which to prognosticate.

The image of Iles battling tirelessly in the crease to prevent the end of Cornell's season should be seared in the minds of many. It seems unlikely that he will tolerate being denied a championship in his final season in carnelian and white. One neglected fact remains that most have ignored entirely. Andy Iles was the sixth-best goaltender in the 2013 ECAC Tournament in terms of goals-against average. Iles recorded the third-best save percentage. The only goaltender returning with a better goals-against average in the 2013 ECAC Tournament is Jason Kasdorf. Iles is the returning goalie with the best save percentage.

Iles's playoff performance in the 2013 ECAC Tournament was to the tune of 2.44 goals-against average and a 0.927 save percentage. Those statistics include Cornell's recorded 10-0 loss in the 2013 ECAC Quarterfinals. If one controls for that game as an anomaly that would not have yielded 10 goals against had Cornell's starters remained on the ice, Iles's playoff performance last season improves to a 1.50 goals-against average and 0.959 save percentage.

It is unlikely that Iles will be able to maintain numbers at that pace during the entire 2013-14 season. If the past is any indication, however, one can expect his form to improve as the season continues and for Iles to do his part in bringing a championship to East Hill. It is likely that by season's end Iles will be regarded as the best goaltender in the ECAC.

RPI's Jason Kasdorf has gained most preseason attention. This could prove advantageous. It will provide Iles the chance to improve and hone his skills without the constant pressure of conference-wide expectations. What matters is which goaltender can deliver and Iles has proven that he can. He should be expected to do so again in his ultimate season at Cornell.

Another advantage to Cornell and Iles is that the Big Red once again have a goaltender who is skilled enough, and yet undefined in his role at Cornell, to serve in semi-regular relief of Cornell's starter. Mitch Gillam will provide Iles with some breathing room that he may not have been afforded last season with preseason expectations. Gillam has the skill and ability to back stop Cornell if for some reason Iles cannot perform to the level that the senior desires or the team needs in occasional contests. Iles will have a margin for error this season that he likely felt he did not enjoy last season.

What can be expected? A more consistent Iles who will continue to thwart Cornell's opponents with a flash of the leather and often nerve-racking challenges out of the net that stifle challenger's best opportunities. In other words, Iles will be the Iles that has brought him and Cornell much success with his often unorthodox style. One can safely assume that when the last word of the Chapter of Iles in the Annals of GoalieU is written that the greatest success that Cornell knew during his tenure will not have been in his freshman and sophomore seasons.

A Look Back
The readiest connection between current players at Cornell and the past is through roster number. Most know that Iles chose a uniform number that had not been worn previously. Iles is the first to don 33. He has done already enough to cultivate his legend on East Hill and augment the weight that subsequent Cornell wearers of 33 will bear.

Iles has distinguished himself in another way that connects him with the past. Andy Iles will wear the A of an alternate captain during the 2013-14 season. The notion of a netminder wearing a letter seems alien to many who are relatively recent initiands to Cornell fandom. When Andy Iles takes the ice in his carnelian sweater at Nebraska-Omaha in 33 days, it will be the first time in 30 years that a goaltender has worn a letter for the Big Red. The netminders who were letter wearers are among the many greats who defended Cornell's net.

At least four netminders have worn a letter at Cornell. The most recent duo was Darren Eliot and Brian Hayward. The two famous netminders were captains in consecutive season. Hayward served in an official leadership capacity during the 1981-82 season while Darren Eliot did the same in the 1982-83 season. The two were the instrumental goaltenders whose goalie competition helped fuel the success and intrigue of Cornell's sixth ECAC Championship season.

One needs to leap back nearly two decades to find Cornell's next famous netminder who served as captain. Laing Kennedy wore a letter for the Big Red  during his senior campaign in the 1962-63 season. Kennedy's skill between the pipes propelled Cornell to its first winning season at Lynah Rink and first sellout at Lynah in a spectacular defeat of Harvard in February 1962.

Many have lost to history perhaps the first netminder to wear the letter of a captain. Even though it seems an all but abandoned tradition today, Cornell chose a goaltender to serve as its captain in only its tenth season of competition. Malcolm Vail was elected to serve as Cornell's captain during the 1911-12 season, his senior year. Vail stood out as a skilled netminder during the 1910-11 season as he and the 1910-11 Cornell team won a national championship. His skill made the difference in many integral contests during Cornell's championship season his junior year.

When Andy Iles squares off against the Mavericks with an A affixed to his sweater, he will be honoring a proud tradition of captain netminders at Cornell that spans more than a century. Each of those famous netminders found ways to lift the teams of their respective eras. The iron horse of the current epoch of Cornell hockey, Iles, whose presence behind the blue line calms the entire team in ways beyond expression in cold statistics, will do as his predecessors have.

Wearing the Carnelian and White
Lauren Slebodnick, native of Manchester, NH, is Cornell's senior netminder.  As a freshman, she was called upon to back up starting goalie Amanda Mazzotta who was injured during Slebodnick's first year on the team. Slebodnick skated to a 12-1-1 record, including an amazing run of shutouts in her first starts.  She stepped up and played in her first two playoff games as a freshman en route to Cornell's second ECAC Championship.  Her second season, she skated to a 15-1-0 record, and last year she backstopped the Red to their third ECAC Championship and 12th Ivy League title.  Slebodnick owns many records for the Big Red including best career save percentage, best career GAA, second-best career number of shutouts, and second-best career wins, the lattermost of which she is only two away from tying.  Slebodnick's play allows the women to pinch and pursue pucks in net because they are confident in their netminder to stop pucks when she is called upon.  Slebodnick is also a team player above all. She does not take credit for wins, not even her 15 shutouts.  She praises her defensemen for blocking shots and her skaters for scoring goals.

What to Expect
Slebodnick looks to have another stellar year this season. As one of four seniors, she will help to lead a relatively young squad to defend their third ECAC championship and fourth consecutive Ivy Title. She is the veteran netminder and starter with a sophomore and freshman there to back her up.  Her current record of 51-8-2 as well as her experience in playing in three years of postseason games in both the ECAC playoffs as well as the NCAA playoffs will prove valuable to both Slebodnick and her teammates. Slebodnick looks to help this team bring back some more hardware to Ithaca in her final season as a member of the Big Red.

A Look Back
Lauren Slebodnick is the fourteenth women's player to tend net while wearing the number 30.  In this section we will look back at a past greats who have worn the number 30.  The number 30 from the past that we are going to look at is Chantal Toth.  Chantal Toth, a native of Kipling, Saskatchewan, played from 1989 through 1993 for the Lady Rouge.  She made her presence known very early in her career at Cornell. She garnered two Ivy League honors in an era before the NCAA sponsored women's hockey.  Her honors consisted of Ivy League Rookie of the Year as well as the goaltender on the Ivy League second team.  She also helped lead her team to their seventh Ivy League title in her freshman year, the first for the team in nine years.  Not only was it an Ivy Title, she played an integral role in maintaining their 10-0-0 record in the Ivies.  In addition to her solid work at Cornell, she also represented her country as a part of the women's national team.  Chantal Toth has the second-highest number of saves of a Cornell female netminder, clocking in at 1822 saves, with the record number of saves per game: 31.96.

I have a confession to make. I once was an enemy of the ECAC. No, not the type of enemy from the former WCHA territory that raves about the irrelevance of a once-great conference. I was an enemy in a more classical sense. The type whose specter was a contributing factor to why The Divorce occurred in 1984. It is now embarrassing to admit that I once supported the Ivy League separating from the ECAC and founding its own hockey conference.

A myriad of logical reasons drove me to that conclusion. The more recent bouts of national competitiveness and relevance of programs such as those of Cornell, Harvard, and Yale compared to the non-Ivy programs in the Conference. One must keep in mind that I held these views before the 2012 and 2013 NCAA Tournaments. Perhaps it was the announcement of the B1G Hockey Conference with the allure of the Ivy League forming another academically and socially homogenous hockey conference. Those thoughts are so alien to me now; I can scarcely understand their calculus.

Then, something happened. We launched WAFT last season. This transformed me from a loyal member of the Lynah Faithful to an active participant and observer of the ECAC. I am actually very appreciative for that. I have grown to admire, appreciate, and respect the proud history of the East’s historic college-hockey conference as well as the people who have made it and continue to make it great.

So, what effect did Yale winning the national championship have on my views? Did an Ivy winning a national championship cause me to relapse to an old mindset? Far from it. I enjoyed supporting the three ECAC programs in the NCAA Tournament. It was exhilarating to be in the building when Quinnipiac defeated St. Cloud State and Yale defeated UMass-Lowell to guarantee that the ECAC would have its first national champion in 24 years. Watching Yale end the drought formally was one of the greatest hockey games I have watched without Cornell as a participant.

In short, in the matter of a few months I grew from a position of relative indifference to love the ECAC. It is a conference with many idiosyncrasies and atypicalities, but each makes the conference great. It is the home of two engineering institutions that compete at the highest level of college hockey. It is home to some of the most elite liberal arts colleges in the nation. And yes, it is home to six august institutions of the Ivy League. It is so much more.

The ECAC is a conference that loves its hockey and history. New York State is the state of college hockey. The Empire State hosts 10 programs that compete at the Division I level of college hockey. Six of them call the ECAC home. Those six love their college hockey. Anyone who doubts the level of passion and love that these schools and fanbases have for college hockey need only analyze a few facts.

Consider that the six non-Ivies of the ECAC have a cumulative student enrollment of 24,176. That number is smaller than the individual enrollment of all universities that comprise the B1G but Northwestern. Michigan, the university with the smallest enrollment of the B1G that will sponsor hockey, enrolls 154% more students that the enrollment of the six non-Ivies combined. For further comparison, acknowledge that Boston University enrolls 33,747 while the University of North Dakota has 15,250 students in attendance (63% of the enrollment of the six non-Ivies).

These demographic disadvantages do not daunt the ECAC or their fans. Over half of ECAC programs register attendance that place them among the top half of attendance figured in terms of percent capacity. Three programs rank in the top ten by the same measure. Having three programs in the top ten in terms of percent-capacity attendance ties the ECAC with the former WCHA for most programs in the top ten in that category. Yes, enrollment disparity and use of classic college-hockey barns hurt the ECAC programs in terms of average absolute attendance. However, five of the ECAC’s 12 programs rank in the top half of attendance even when examining average absolute attendance.

The schools of the ECAC love their hockey and it shows in attendance. How about environment? Lynah Rink perennially ranks as one of the most fearsome college hockey venues for opponents. That is nearly a truism. What about the other 11 venues? I doubt many programs would find the embrace of home fans at Appleton Arena, Cheel Arena, Houston Field House, or Messa Rink a welcoming one. Each building offers its unique form of harassment from the obnoxious goal horns of Cheel and Houston to the clamor of cowbells at Messa. It is unlikely that a dedicated ECAC fan could mistake in which venue he was by aural cues alone.

I challenge a fan of any conference to find a college-hockey conference with buildings with more character. Gone is the spectacular Old Barn of North Dakota. The men’s hockey programs of Boston University and Minnesota have vacated their historic homes of Walter Brown and Williams Arena in exchange for Agganis Arena and the new Mariucci Arena respectively. These great programs have forsaken their historic barns in exchange for lavish but most often sterile homes that feel more befitting of professional hockey than its collegiate counterpart. In the place of sterility, one will find authenticity at nearly all ECAC venues.

The list of ECAC programs that do not play currently in their historic indoor homes is shorter than that describing those that do. Clarkson is the only program that does not play in its traditional home. The Golden Knights transitioned from Walker Arena to Cheel Arena in 1991. Quinnipiac gained its first home of its own in 2007. The remainder plays in buildings that have hosted their respective programs for at least 38 years. The Tigers of Princeton University have called Hobey Baker Rink home for 90 years. Historic Lynah Rink with its 56 years of unforgettable service to Cornell hockey ranks fifth in the 12-team conference in terms of number of years of use.

Longevity of use cannot be confused with neglect of modernity. Cornell, Princeton, Quinnipiac, RPI, St. Lawrence, and Yale have invested considerable sums of money to ensure that the developmental and training experiences of all student-athletes in each program remains competitive with those afforded student-athletes at other programs. Lynah Rink underwent considerable renovation in 2007 that ensured that East Hill continued to provide skaters for the Big Red the best tools in college hockey to develop and compete with the elite of college hockey. Cornell’s facilities are second to none much like most of those at other ECAC programs.

Players in the ECAC are afforded the opportunity to breathe the rarified air that legends of the college-hockey game once gasped while carving their own coveted place in the annals of their own program. No other conference can or will give its student-athletes these opportunities. Those same student-athletes will earn educations and degrees that are amongst the most valuable in higher education.

If the fact that 11 of the Conference’s 12 teams predate the formation of the NCAA Tournament in hockey by at least two decades does not intrigue you then consider the ECAC’s national competitiveness. Yes, national competitiveness. I am far from one who thinks that Yale’s first national championship somehow ushered in a new era of ECAC dominance. It might have, but that is yet unproven. What is certain, is that the ECAC was far from nationally irrelevant during the rein of a tattered and hackneyed mantra.

The ECAC has produced some of the greatest victories in the NCAA Tournament since the adoption of the current format of the national tournament. Cornell ushered in the new format in 2003 with a Frozen-Four berth. The Big Red ended that season ranked first in national polls. Cornell battled Minnesota to a regulation draw at Mariucci Arena in 2005. The Big Red’s encore included a triple-overtime, scoreless deadlock against Wisconsin in Green Bay that ended disappointingly with Cornell on the wrong side of a 1-0 decision to the eventual national champion. Yale toppled North Dakota in 2010. Union may not have upended any traditional national powers in its 2012 run to the Frozen Four, but Cornell helped carry the weight of legitimacy with upsetting a Michigan team that carried high expectations and a one seed. The 2013 NCAA Tournament witnessed two ECAC teams in the Frozen Four, Union dominating traditional and contemporary power Boston College, and Yale leaving Pittsburgh with its first national championship.

Was the ECAC snake-bitten? Yes. May it still be? Perhaps. But, any argument that the quality of hockey played in the historic conference of the East has been or is inferior to that played in other conferences is patently untrue. Cornell and Yale have proven over the last half-decade that they can compete with the most touted programs in the sport in any contest.

A cursory historical analysis and the 2013 NCAA Tournament prove that the fallacy of the national irrelevance of the ECAC is exactly that, a fallacy. Commonly there is an exception to the irrelevancy arguments about the ECAC and to a great degree they are deserved. The comments are along the lines that the ECAC is a conference of programs that cannot compete with the best in college hockey, excepting Cornell. The commentary before the 2012 NCAA Regional Semifinal between Cornell and Michigan manifested these arguments. There was the palpable glee of the Wolverines pulling an ECAC program then the tempering with the fact that they were to confront Cornell, one of the few programs in the ECAC that can compete with the Boston Universitys, Michigans, North Dakotas, and Wisconsins at any time or place. That remains true.

But with pride in the ECAC, I would direct detractors to the recent successes of Union, a program that seems to be making a bid to join Cornell and Yale as two programs that have regularly competed and defeated the best of college hockey over the last half-decade. The tradition of Cornell hockey may make the Big Red the historical default standard bearer from the ECAC since The Divorce, but what Cornell fans and the rest of the college-hockey landscape need to recognize is that there are far more able hands reaching to lift that banner. Yes, internally that means Schafer, et al. will need to reaffirm Cornell’s role as the dominant force within the league and the most formidable nationally. Yale’s winning of its first NCAA national title has made that task all the more taxing. But, great programs rise to great challenges.

The Cornell exception still is true but to be accurate it needs even more addenda. No programs, no matter how proud and successful, can sleep on Yale or Union. Quinnipiac has made a bid to join those ranks despite the absence of any out-of-conference victories over historically dominant programs. The other programs of the ECAC from Casey Jones’s and Seth Appert’s recruiting prowess at Clarkson and RPI to Greg Carvel’s revitalization of a briefly lagging St. Lawrence program to Bob Prier’s regaining of footing after Guy Gadowsky’s departure at Princeton to a Colgate program that is finding a new appreciation for its past. Lest we forget Brown, an often maligned program, that has appeared twice in the last four ECAC Championship weekends. Dartmouth is a perennially competitive program that finds itself as often on the wrong side of the bubble but seems on the verge of correcting course.

The logical next retort from detractors? If the ECAC has been nationally relevant since the adoption of the modern NCAA Tournament structure, then why does the ECAC not own as many national championships as the other dominant conferences? If you are one for historical revisionism, you may enjoy this argument. Tug at the logical threads that weave this tale and it all quickly unravels.

The first Eastern program to win an NCAA national championship was Boston College in 1949. Ned Harkness led RPI to join the Eagles on that pedestal in 1954. The ECAC crowned its first champion in 1962. Hockey East held its inaugural tournament in 1985. Boston University and Cornell combined to win five national championships between 1962 and 1984. RPI won the first national championship after the split between the ECAC and Hockey East. Harvard and Yale contributed a title each to the ECAC’s total.

Hockey East has winners in Boston College, Boston University, and Maine. The Eagles, Terriers, and Black Bears have won eight national championships while representing Hockey East’s brand of college hockey. Those keeping score at home realize what that means. The NCAA’s national-championship trophy has been handed as often to skaters wearing an ECAC patch as it has to those wearing a Hockey East patch.

Boston College gave Hockey East the lead in 2012. Keith Allain and Yale evened the score in April. The conferences of the East remain deadlocked in terms of national titles that each conference has won. That equality is far from the disparity that most perceive to exist within Eastern college hockey.

Consider the current membership of each conference that will play in the 2013-14 season. Hockey East is the only conference that has NCAA-championship-winning programs that has fewer than three such members. The B1G Hockey Conference, ECAC, NCHC, and new WCHA all count four member programs that have won NCAA titles. This is but another metric by which the current ECAC is equal to the other major conferences.

Brian Sullivan of USCHO.com champions the argument that the ECAC is the most internally competitive league in the nation. His arguments are sound. If one has not read them, they should seek them out. His conclusions are why the ECAC is the most exciting league to watch. The league is historical in ways that most other conferences can merely pretend to be. The parity of the conference and its continued stature as one of the most nationally competitive conferences makes each weekend and the ECAC Tournament exhilarating. Detractors need to consider that the 2013 NCAA Championship Final was a rematch of the 2013 ECAC Consolation Game.

The ECAC is the oldest conference in college hockey. It is time that it embraces that history. The Whitelaw Cup is a phenomenal prize and those that compete for it are of national timber.

Anyone who chafes at the notion that the ECAC is the oldest surviving collegiate hockey conference needs to consider that the branding of the new WCHA as the WCHA is essentially a naked license. None of the essential elements remain. The one founding program of the WCHA that remains is Michigan Tech. The Huskies of the Upper Peninsula left the WCHA for the CCHA in the 1980s to rejoin it later. No continuous membership connects the new WCHA to the original WCHA.

Why does this matter? Why does it matter to Cornell fans particularly? It matters because too often fans of the ECAC have withered when confronted with the criticisms of other conferences or resorted to foolhardy polemics. Any arguments that the ECAC is the next dominant force in college hockey are premature. Statements to such effect delegitimize the successes of this conference. But, Yale’s first NCAA national title and the continued competitiveness of other ECAC programs prove that the Conference deserves a place at the table of elite conferences. As a coequal.

It matters to Cornell fans because it shows that Cornell’s continued dominance in the ECAC over nearly six decades is against the odds. The ECAC is the most competitive conference in college hockey, yet the Big Red still has 50% more Whitelaw Cups than its nearest competitor. Furthermore, it shows that Cornell’s 12 Whitelaw-Cup championships have been won against some of the finest players, teams, and programs in college hockey. Yale’s national championship legitimized the accolades of all programs in the Conference and elevated the stature of each program.

As I watched the close of the 2012-13 season in Pittsburgh, I could not help but feel pride in what Yale had accomplished. Yes, it likely was somewhat greater because the Yale skaters on the ice were fellow Ivy Leaguers, but I felt pride in the ECAC. It was an accomplishment for our proud oft-maligned, but much beloved conference. When the national-championship trophy was handed to Yale it was hard not to think back to the moments at Hobey Baker, Houston, Ingalls, Lynah, Messa, and Starr that unfolded as I watched. One could smile and realize that in the 2013 NCAA Tournament the only program that proved able to eliminate an ECAC program was a fellow ECAC member. This is the home of great traditions. This is the home of great hockey.

Cornell women's hockey has a storied history, dating back to its inception in 1971. As one of the first three American schools to host women's hockey at the time, Cornell women began to make a name for themselves in spite of their inexperience. The sport began not with what one would expect: a single woman was the impetus behind creating what we now consider to be one of the most successful and historic women's hockey programs in the country.

Regina Baker '75 had always dreamed of going to Cornell and beginning a women's hockey team. After being accepted and recruiting the services of a former teacher of Baker's, Gail Murphy, Cornell women's hockey was born. Their first game was one where the Big Red found themselves on the wrong end of a 14-0 blowout against a Canadian collegiate team. The beginning of their era was not without its own bumps outside of the game as well. The women initially were charged $40 an hour for ice time at Lynah, the same price it cost at the time to rent out the rink to anyone but the men's team.  The physical education department eventually found some money and lowered the cost to $10 per hour. Helen Newman, the woman whose name now rests on a recreational center on North Campus, donated $172 to the team for equipment. That money went entirely toward goaltending equipment with each other player buying their own equipment, as much as $100 apiece.

From modest beginnings, the women began competing in the Ivy League for hockey in 1976, winning the first five titles. In 1984, the ECAC began sponsoring women's hockey. Cornell joined the conference and is a member to this day. Of the 30 championships awarded, current members own 16, with less than half of the 12 member institutions being able to claim a tournament championship. Cornell women have more history than any other women's hockey team in the country. This section is dedicated to the ECAC championship teams, with the recognition that amazing teams have come before including the eight Ivy Champion teams before the NCAA era of women's hockey.

Cornell University arose and thrived between the gorges of Cascadilla and Fall Creek in Central New York. This picturesque setting neither makes the terrain less rugged nor the winters tamer. It seems inevitable that a University whose first classes were populated with veterans, and the sons and daughters of the industrial classes would adopt hockey as a manifestation of its ideology. It took less than four decades for the organization of the first Cornell hockey team.

Cornell hockey teams have skated on East Hill and represented the University throughout the country for over one century. The Cornell hockey program exchanged its genetic home of Beebe Lake for Lynah Rink in 1957 after a decade-long hiatus. The program joined the modern era of college hockey when it helped found the ECAC, its current conference, in 1961.

The skaters of Cornell have won 42 championships. Among those championships are eight regular-season and 20 Ivy-League titles. It is the 14 remaining championships that those associated with Cornell hockey celebrate most. Tournament championships define fittingly Cornell hockey.

Cornell players relish the opportunity to prove that they can perform when in a mere moment a season of hard work could be for naught. It is the exhilaration of the deciding game or the challenge of single-elimination contests that sets the rhythmic heartbeat of Cornell hockey. Those players who led Cornell to playoff glory become immortal as banners boast of their accomplishments and generations of fans tell their tales.

The arc of Cornell hockey can be plotted finely through the stories of its tournament championships. Nearly 70% of all graduating classes have won a Whitelaw Cup or an NCAA national title since Cornell won its first tournament championship in 1967. A paltry seven graduating classes have not had the opportunity to compete for a championship in a deciding game over the same span. Cornell hockey is its championships.

These are the stories of those teams. They are stories of players, coaches, classmates, fans, and rivals. They are stories of the seemingly inevitable and the truly unexpected. They are why we never forget and why we choose to remember. Each championship tells a tale. Each is essential to the uniqueness and development of Cornell hockey. The players who claimed and the coaches who led their teams to victory will not be forgotten. These stories are theirs and ours.

After winning their first two ECAC championships back to back, 2012 was a year that everyone expected a third. The senior class included star goaltender Amanda Mazzotta, Olympian Rebecca Johnston, strong forwards Catherine White and Kendice Ogilvie, and defensemen Amanda Young and Jenna Paulson. Seven seniors were poised to lead this team to a third consecutive ECAC championship. Most believed Johnston would be the team's last chance for an ECAC championship for a few years as well as a national championship.  Neither happened.  St. Lawrence University stunned the home crowd and home players wrestling the championship from the much-favored Red by a score of 3-1. The same score haunted the women two weekends later when eventual national champion Minnesota defeated the Lady Rouge by the exact same score.

The 2012-13 began with the loss of seven seniors, huge impact players, who had been to the national tournament in three of their four years.  Most wondered if Cornell's run was over. Two ECAC championships. Would they go back to national irrelevance? This was the year they had to prove themselves as a team who could get results, not based on the past, but in the present.

Senior captain, Laura Fortino set the stage for the women's high standards. "We kind of don’t worry about what happened in the past. I think if you reflect on that and harp on that, bad things happen…It’s a new game, it’s a new year. We know that we’ve got to play our best every night. We’ve got to be consistent — whomever we’re playing. So yeah, maybe we’ve been successful in the past, but it’s a new year, a new team, so we’re just hoping to stick to our game plan and go from there."

The team started out with a tough test, playing Boston University in a series at Walter Brown Arena. After splitting the series, the women traveled back to Lynah in order to host foe and reigning ECAC champion St. Lawrence for the first of an unusual three regular-season meetings. Cornell dominated the game, walking away with an early season win before ECAC play began in earnest. They had an Ivy title to defend and an ECAC championship to attain. It began spectacularly. Junior goaltender Lauren Slebodnick picked up her first shutout of the season and looked destined for more. After her first two wins of the season, she was injured halfway into the second period, leaving the game as freshman Stefannie Moak relieved her to help preserve the win. The goaltender's injury mirrored that of her former goaltending partner, Amanda Mazzotta two years prior. Once again, the Big Red needed to rely upon underclassmen while their veteran netminder healed. The next night, Moak started again against Quinnipiac. She held the Bobcats scoreless through one as Cornell put two on the board. After Quinnipiac came back blazing in the second period, regaining the lead, sophomore goaltender Katelyn Pippy was called on. Pippy turned away all eleven shots that came her way, giving the Lady Rouge an opportunity to come back. They did just that, scoring two goals in the third to keep their perfect conference record for one more day.

No one knew how serious Slebodnick's injury was, but given a rare week off, fans were hopeful she would be back in action. However, when it came time to play regional rival Colgate, she was still healing. Katelyn Pippy this time was called on for her first career start. The result? Her first career shutout. Cornell swept Colgate that weekend with Pippy backstopping the team. Fortino had this to say, “[Pippy’s] been working hard. She’s been fighting for that spot, and we were all so proud of her the way she went in there. In a game like that, especially a close game like that, she went in and she played with confidence and I was so proud of her. We believed in her as a team and she proved us right...She really showed that she wanted to be in there and we were all so proud of her [and] the way she performed." This team proved that they were going to do whatever it took to win, with every player contributing.

Slebodnick was back the next weekend for two tough opponents, Dartmouth and Harvard. The women picked up a tight win and a tough loss, respectively. The women continued their road trip, this time to the North Country. Clarkson handed the women their second consecutive loss. This was the first time they had suffered consecutive losses since a three-game skid in January of 2010 against Syracuse and Providence.  The last time they had lost consecutive conference games was January 2009 to Colgate. The women could have given up. They could have listened to the detractors. Instead, they bounced back the next night to beat St. Lawrence for the second time this season to close out the fall semester. The spring began with a trip to Boston to play the second and third Boston-area team that year. Cornell defeated Northeastern and dropped an overtime loss to Boston College. The following weekend they returned to league play, hosting the teams from the North Country once more. In their third meeting of the season, Cornell walked away with a 6-0 win from St. Lawrence. They also got vengeance against Clarkson, beating them at Lynah. They went on to win the next five games before they suffered a road loss against Quinnipiac during a huge snowstorm. Not making any excuses, they fought back the next night to beat Princeton. The last four games of the regular season were pivotal for playoff seeding. Cornell went 3-0-1, clinching not only a home ice advantage and a fourth consecutive Ivy title but a fourth consecutive first seed in the tournament and with that the right to play at Lynah as long as they were in the playoffs.

The quarterfinal opponent Cornell was set to face was the one closest to Ithaca, Colgate. In spite of two wins and a goal differential of 18-1 the last time these two teams met, these meetings would be a lot closer. Cornell had something of an issue with road games this year. In fact, they had only lost on the road, with a single scoreless tie blemishing the otherwise perfect home record. Coach Derraugh said it had more to do with how they start a game, regardless where they play.

The opening game against Colgate at Lynah was another one of those slow starts. 15 minutes into the game and it was still scoreless. Penalties were running rampant. At 15:11, freshman Taylor Woods was called for charging. Nine seconds later, junior Jessica Campbell was called for tripping. Colgate had a rare five-on-three opportunity and they capitalized on it 33 seconds later. The Raiders went up 1-0 and the penalties kept on coming. Alternate captain and defenseman Alyssa Gagliardi was thrown out of the game with just a minute left on the clock. The hit deserved a penalty, as it was a clear body check, but most in the crowd did not believe it was a "checking from behind" penalty. The crowd went nuts at the call but to no avail. Gagliardi was out of the game and Cornell would have to play a man down for five minutes, regardless of whether goals were scored.

Colgate pressed hard but Slebodnick and the penalty-kill unit stood tall, closing out the first period trailing 1-0. As the second frame started, four more minutes of penalty needed to be served. Slowly but surely, the time ticked off. The major was killed. The momentum seemed to switch. Colgate was called for a penalty and Cornell was not going to let that go to waste. Senior forward Erin Barley-Maloney let loose a shot. It almost beat the Colgate netminder. Brianne Jenner found the rebound and threw it back on net. The puck had eyes, bouncing off a Colgate skate before it found its way into the net. The game was evened up at one apiece. It wouldn't stay that way for long. 97 seconds later, the goal light came on. Laura Fortino was in position to block the pass when her stick broke, giving the Raiders a three-on-one. Colgate scored the first even-strength goal of the night to put the Raiders back up by one, a lead which they took into the second intermission. 

The third period began just like the last two had, with a power-play goal. Colgate converted to put the Raiders up 3-1 early in the third. Not three minutes passed before Erin Barley-Maloney made for the net again, looking to capitalize again on the power play. This time, Barley-Maloney knocked in Jenner's rebound, cutting the lead in half and putting Cornell within one. Brianne Jenner scored herself at 13:16 to tie the game up yet again at three apiece. But Colgate was determined. With just two minutes and 35 seconds remaining, Colgate put another goal on the board. This time the Red did not have penalties to help them reach their goal. The seconds ticked away as Colgate looked for its first win against Cornell that season, one that mattered much more than the two losses they suffered earlier in the season. With 47 seconds left on the clock, sophomore Monika Leck put a shot on net. It wasn't pretty; it was dirty and hardworking, and just like that, the game was tied once more. Life was back in Lynah as all the air seemingly seeped back into the room. 1,500 people waited anxiously to see the result of the game. Cornell was 1-1-1 in overtime this season. Would they be able to improve on that record?

The crowd didn't have to wait long. Just 39 seconds into overtime, Brianne Jenner found the net, earning herself a hat trick and the team a win in their first game of the series.  The next night Cornell looked to come out strong and Colgate hoped to do what they hadn't the night before, hold off the  home team. The first period looked like Colgate was set on its mission. Cornell floundered. At the end of the period, within less than two minutes, Colgate scored a power-play goal and a shorthanded goal to take a two-goal lead into the first intermission. The second period was intense. 19 shots went off between the two teams. 19 saves were made. Cornell had a five-minute major against the Raiders and a short five-on-three. They still could not convert. Colgate was 20 minutes away from evening up the series. Cornell needed to get moving, and quickly. Freshman Taylor Woods showed her scoring touch and tenacity when less than a minute into the final frame, she lit the lamp to put Cornell on the board. The deficit was cut in half. Cornell pushed hard but Colgate stood tall. They needed this game. With less than a minute remaining, Cornell won the faceoff. The puck went to Lauriane Rougeau and she put her whole body into a slap shot. Her effort was rewarded as the Red finally solved Colgate's Rando once more. The game was tied, just like the night before, and seemed destined to go into overtime yet again. Brianne Jenner had other plans. With just one second on the clock, Jenner put a shot on net. The crowd watched as the puck went into the net and the Lady Rouge took their first lead against Colgate. Cornell won and sent an incredibly hardworking Colgate back to Hamilton for the season. Cornell was going to compete in its fourth consecutive semifinal matchup. They would have to wait another day to know their opponent, as Quinnipiac and St. Lawrence had each grabbed a win forcing a third game.

The next weekend at Lynah, Cornell had a chance for some revenge. St. Lawrence had advanced. The last time these two met in the postseason at Lynah, the Saints defeated the Red in the ECAC title game. This time they would spar to determine which team would advance to the title game, the defending champions, or the team hungry for their third championship in four years. Brianne Jenner, having tallied a point in all eight Big Red goals the weekend before, was looked to for another standout performance. She played an amazing game, but she was not the player of the game.

Cornell was determined not to get a slow start this game. In spite of their 3-0-0 record against the Saints, Colgate taught them once again that playoff hockey had a different level of intensity.  Taylor Woods on a breakaway crashed the net. St. Lawrence's netminder made the first save. Woods got her own rebound and buried the puck deep in the net to put Cornell up late in the first. Barely 90 seconds later, Woods came through yet again. Brianne Jenner passed to Lauriane Rougeau who put the puck on net. Woods picked up the rebound in almost the exact spot she had been for her first goal. She put the puck on net. SLU's MacDonald made the save. Woods caught the rebound again and buried it deep. Cornell left the first with something it hadn't had in either of the two previous games: a lead.

In the second, St. Lawrence came back to life. They wanted a chance to defend their title. St. Lawrence outshot Cornell by almost a 2-1 margin. Their hard work finally paid off toward the end of the period.  They scored an even-strength goal and just over five minutes later scored a shorthanded goal, Cornell's second shorthanded goal against in as many games. Just like that, the lead was wiped away. Two frames finished and two goals per side. The third frame would be the decisive one.

Play was even for for most of the period, even down to the shot count. But at 18:22, Taylor Woods scored the go-ahead goal, earning her first career hat trick. 58 seconds later Woods assisted Brianne Jenner on the empty-net goal to put the game away as Cornell skated to a victory and one step closer to its third ECAC championship.

Rival Harvard beat Clarkson in the other semifinal match to advance to the ECAC title game.  Harvard was looking for its first ECAC title since 2008, and its sixth ever title. Cornell was looking for its third ever title, having lost last year as the defending champions. Cornell and Harvard had split the season, each coming away with a 3-1 victory at home. Cornell, determined to build off its victory from the night before and the adrenaline of playing another rivalry game at home, started strong. Not five minutes into the game, Brianne Jenner lit the lamp on an assist from Jill Saulnier. The building erupted. Harvard, however, was not giving up without a fight. Their freshman goaltender was standing on her head to stop shots. After a face-off win, Harvard threw the puck on net. Slebodnick got a piece of it, but the puck was destined to meet the back of the net as Harvard tied up the game. The next period was tight, with multiple opportunities, most by the Big Red on the power play. Although unable to convert, they didn't lose their stride, even killing off a five-on-three opportunity.

The third period saw some spectacular plays, both on defense and offense. Alyssa Gagliardi dove across the ice to stop Harvard from going ahead. Even as Cornell remained scoreless, its scoring opportunities were a thing of beauty. Lauriane Rougeau and Brianne Jenner attempted to double team Harvard's netminder, but she robbed them of the opportunity to achieve the go-ahead goal. Harvard had killed off penalty after penalty, 21 in a row in fact, to lead the nation. Jessica Campbell drew a penalty late in the third, with the score still knotted at one and 3:28 left in the frame. Campbell was instrumental on the power play, sending the puck to a wide-open Emily Fulton. Fulton's pass made its way behind the goaltender but a Harvard defender dove in, sending the puck the other way barely inches before it crossed the paint. The erstwhile puck landed directly on the stick of Jessica Campbell and she shot it straight in with ease.

The partisan crowd roared. Almost 2,500 people were on their feet. Cornell took the lead with 80 seconds remaining. The Crimson net was empty as they did their damnedest trying to solve Slebodnick. She was more than equal to every challenge as the seconds ticked away and the buzzer sounded. The score remained 2-1 and Cornell had won its third ECAC championship. After the win, alternate captain Lauriane Rougeau had this to say, "Winning this title means a lot. Especially after losing last year, we really wanted to get this one back. All year we’ve been prepping for this moment...we will enjoy this win for sure because it’s a big win for us." And that it was.

Cornell outscored its opponents 14 goals to nine during the 2013 ECAC Tournament. Jessica Campbell scored the game-winning goal 18:40 into the third period, besting Harvard's Emerance Maschmeyer to bring Cornell its third ECAC championship. Lauren Slebodnick had a goals-against average of 2.25 and a save percentage of 0.899. Cornell won its third ECAC championship in Ithaca on March 10, 2013.

The 2009-10 Cornell women's hockey team achieved far greater feats than anyone could imagine. But that did not stop them. The expectations were higher than ever the next year, as the returning members of the team had tasted victory and been a breath away from a national championship. They knew what they wanted. And they were determined to get it.

Cornell returned 13 players from its ECAC championship-winning season, as well as a gold medalist who took the year off to compete for her country in the Olympics. Six freshmen entered the squad which had achieved so much and strived for so much more.

The ECAC preseason poll picked the Big Red to be tops of the league once again. The standard was set high for these women and if they had felt the pressure, they never showed it. They opened up the season at home against Robert Morris University in a two-game series. The first game was closer, a bit closer than anyone had expected. Robert Morris had already had six games under their belt, two each against Providence, Ohio State, and Northeastern. They were hoping the fourth nonconference foe from a third league would elicit a different result. After all, they had been playing games as long as Cornell had been able to practice. The Colonials gave the Big Red all they could muster in a tough 3-2 victory for the Red. The next game would be quite a different affair. The Lady Rouge allowed one goal to the nine they scored, taking home a sweep for their first games of the season. Notably, all five freshmen skaters found a way to contribute early. Each one notched at least a point, showing that they wanted to be impact players for the team from the beginning.

The next week began league play. Cornell went into the season defending their first ever championship. A target was already on their backs. But they came away from their first weekend of league play and road games with four points, beating Quinnipiac and Princeton with matching 5-1 scores.

After returning to Ithaca, Cornell faced a familiar opponent in Mercyhurst. After dropping the game in overtime, detractors began saying that it was all over. The women were inflated and not up to the challenge of repeating.

This was a chink in the armor. But Cornell was not listening to them. Coach Derraugh saw the early season booking of Mercyhurst as a good thing. He wanted the team to learn. "I always think its good to play these top teams early on in the season to see where you do stand. You always learn a lot from both winning a game like this, but you also learn a lot from the mistakes that you make in games like this, too."  And learn they did. The women would not lose another game until the middle of February. They put together 18 consecutive wins and were unbeaten in 22, with the lone blemish being a 3-3 tie against Clarkson. The women were on a tear. But it wasn't as easy as they made it seem.

Challenges plagued them at every corner. The fall semester had the women rolling, with Amanda Mazzotta backstopping the Red to win after win and a fair amount of shutouts, in addition to being named ECAC goaltender of the week numerous times. But right before the spring semester games were about to get underway, Mazzotta was injured. Relatively untested freshman goaltender Lauren Slebodnick was called on to backstop the team. Slebodnick had seen a tiny bit of relief action before, when the team was appreciably up, but never did she start a game. Her first start was a 5-0 shutout against Yale. Her second game was a 3-0 shutout against Brown. Slebodnick more than showed her preparedness to step up for this team.

During their unprecedented stretch, going undefeated in 22 games, the women not only set a new win record for the program, breaking the previous year's high of 21, but outscored their opponents 99 goals to 12 goals. The team's GAA in that span was 0.545.

A team with that much success was bound to look either too far back or too far ahead, at least commentators thought so. But the women were not fazed. Catherine White said it best, "Honestly, I think with us we're more or less focused on each game, one game at a time. We know we have a target on our backs but we try not to let that affect our play. In this league if you're off one night any team can beat you, so you need to stay focused." And they managed to keep that focus throughout the entire regular season, ending play in the ECAC with a record of 20-1-1 and brought a one seed into the ECAC tournament for the second consecutive year.

A familiar playoff opponent met the Lady Rouge in the first round. The previous year's semifinal opponent, RPI, was to be the opening opponent in a best-of-three quarterfinal series at Lynah. The Red dominated the Engineers in the regular season, by a combined score of 12-1 over two games. But as the Engineers showed the previous season, playoff hockey is anyone's game. Catherine White reminded everyone of her role the previous year in the playoffs as she once again opened scoring in the series, putting Cornell ahead. RPI, however, was there to play. They solved the freshman goaltender competing in her first playoff game of her Cornell career, just five minutes later, taking the tie into the locker room after the first frame. The second frame was no more positive for the Red. The Engineers scored, 14 minutes into the second and 20 minutes stood between them and something that hadn't happened at Lynah since November 2: a team other than Cornell walking away with a win. RPI held strong as Cornell pressed. Slebodnick made nine saves in the second, but she wouldn't be called on for the rest of the game. Cornell did not allow a single shot in the third. Seconds were ticking off the clock. Ten minutes through the period. Five minutes left. With just over a minute remaining, Rebecca Johnston appeared to have tied the game up. After video replay, the goal was overturned. Johnston on the disallowed goal, "When they disallowed the goal, we knew that we had to get it back." And get it back they did. With seven seconds remaining, Rebecca Johnston, on a play started by Chelsea Karpenko and freshman Brianne Jenner, took a shot. Finally, the puck found the back of the net and the score stayed on the scoreboard. Lynah erupted as Johnston lifted the team to a tie and another chance at winning this game. Hope was still alive. The Big Red would enter overtime for just the third time this season, with an 0-1-1 record thus far. It wouldn't take 47 minutes more for the women to score. Just 82 seconds into overtime, Johnston and Jenner assisted Karlee Overguard who found the back of the net to give the Red the lead in the series and a second chance at showing why they were the reigning champions.

Slebodnick made the start again, having been through her first playoff game ready to start anew. She stopped all but one shot on the night, but the Red gave her much more help than the night before. Rebecca Johnston opened the scoring just over two minutes into the game. She scored once per period for a hat trick. Chelsea Karpenko added two more, and Catherine White notched one of her own as the Red sent the Engineers back to Troy and set the stage for another ECAC Final Four in Ithaca.

The next week, the women hosted Quinnipiac in Cornell's second ever as well as second consecutive trip to the ECAC semifinals as Amanda Mazzotta made her return to the playoffs. Quinnipiac had defeated Clarkson to earn the right to try to knock off another top seed. The shot totals were much more equal this game, with the first period seeing seven Bobcat shots to eight Big Red shots. Only one shot found its way to the net, though. 18:13 into the first frame, after almost a period and two power-play opportunities for the Bobcats and one for the Big Red, a goal was scored. As their second power play was winding down, Laura Fortino and Catherine White assisted Chelsea Karpenko on opening the scoring as they took a 1-0 lead into the locker room. The second period was dominated by the Lady Rouge. They got off 15 shots to Quinnipiac's nine. They also scored two goals to Quinnipiac's one, as Jessica Campbell and Hayley Hughes notched a tally apiece. The third period began with Cornell up 3-1, with 20 minutes between them and their title-game defense. But Quinnipiac wasn't going to go quietly. They solved Mazzotta early in the period to cut the lead to one. Senior Hayley Hughes wasn't ready to give up so easily. She buried a shot in the net with less than 14 minutes left. Quinnipiac wasn't finished. They deflected a shot past Mazzotta on the power play with five and a half minutes remaining. Cornell was up 4-3. Quinnipiac pressed but Mazzotta stood tall. Cornell took their 4-3 victory and Quinnipiac headed to Hamden.

The next day was set to be a tougher test than before. The only team who wrestled an ECAC and Ivy win from Cornell had also advanced to the title game. Just two weeks prior, Dartmouth had defeated Cornell in Hanover. The Big Green had brought a sizable cheering squad with them, but the record-breaking crowd at Lynah Rink was decidedly partisan to the home team. The women were going to play in front of the most people ever to watch a women's hockey game at Lynah to see the women defend their first ECAC championship.

This game was nothing short of total domination. This game typified the team's record-breaking season. Mazzotta was back in goal. For the Big Red, going for something no other female hockey player at Cornell had the opportunity to strive for: a second ECAC championship. Mazzotta posted her fifth shutout of the year, as Chelsea Karpenko scored twice and Hayley Hughes ended the scoring for the 2011 ECAC Tournament. Cornell dominated Dartmouth to a 3-0 victory, earning their 30th win of the season and second consecutive ECAC championship. In addition to their Ivy championship and berth to the NCAA tournament, the team amassed a 31-3-1 record to win the most games ever won by a Cornell hockey team.

Cornell outscored its opponents 16 goals to six during the 2011 ECAC Tournament. Chelsea Karpenko scored the eventual game-winning goal to bring Cornell its second ECAC championship. Amanda Mazotta and Lauren Slebodnick each played two games and combined for a goals-against average of 1.5 and a save percentage of  0.900 during the ECAC tournament. Cornell won its second ECAC championship in Ithaca on March 5, 2011.

Cornell women's hockey is a storied program. Beginning with a first game in 1972, two years removed from the men's second national title, Cornell began their history with a record of 4-4-0 playing mainly against teams no longer in existence. Cornell women's hockey today is seen by current fans and students as a powerhouse. The trials and tribulations of teams are forgotten in the wake of recent success. Cornell's first ECAC Championship in 2010 was not something taken for granted by the team.

In 2006-07, the class of 2010 entered Cornell as freshmen. Their freshman campaign ended with four wins in the entire season. The same number the team in 1972 had, though the season was considerably longer now. After their 4-23-2 season, missing the playoffs, the class made a pledge to one another, "When we’re seniors, let’s make sure we don’t know it’s our last game, because we want to be in the playoffs, and if we’re in the playoffs, you never know when it’s going to end.”  They kept that promise to the best of their abilities, even if they did know when their last game was.

Three years later, after garnering two season of 12 wins apiece, the class of 2010 was set to begin its senior campaign, determined to keep the promise they had made to each other as freshmen. Head coach and former player Doug Derraugh had three goals for this team. Win the Ivy League, win the ECAC Championship, if you’re in the NCAA Tournament, why not win it all?

The season began with a series against Mercyhurst at Lynah. The Lakers swept Cornell in the first two games of the season, 4-1 each time. Those losses could have seemed like a bad omen for the team. But they took positives out of them. Captain Liz Zorn expressed, "Even though we lost, we thought we kept up with them and that gave us confidence. Having that experience showed us that they’re not hockey gods. They get lucky and get good bounces just like everyone else." The 2009-10 team took this attitude into their ECAC run of games, going 6-1-1 in the next games, losing their only game in the North Country by one goal.  Their Ivy games included three wins. This team set itself up for success at two of Derraugh's goals in the first six weeks of play.

Their second out-of-conference test came in the last weekend of November. The now defunct Niagara team traveled to Lynah. Cornell won its first out-of-conference game of the season, 2-1. The second game saw the Purple Eagles taking a 2-1 victory of their own out of Lynah. The final games of the first half of the season were two more Ivy contests, this time against Yale and Brown. It ended with a tie and a win, boosting their Ivy record to 4-0-1.

After the break, Cornell faced another three out-of-conference contests. During those three games, and the next seven, Cornell faced the loss of players due to injury, illness. They dropped all three out-of-conference games, including a two-game stretch at Providence, and went 2-4-3 between January and February fifth. Zorn spoke well even about that rough patch, “It was a building process. That stretch helped us come together and realize that we needed every person on this roster to be successful. It made us appreciate each other that much more and accept our roles, which can be tough to do.” And that was exactly what they did. They won the next five games, including a win against Yale which clinched the Big Red's Ivy Title, the first of the team's goals.

Now it was time to try for the second goal. The senior class had kept its pledge. They made the playoffs. The team hosted regional rival Colgate, the first time the Big Red had ever hosted a playoff game. Up to this point, Cornell had not won a playoff game, let alone a playoff series. The first game of the best-of-three series started off rougher than expected. Defenseman Lauriane Rougeau drew the first penalty of the game, putting Cornell on the defensive. They killed off their first penalty of the night and less than five minutes later, Laura Fortino on a one-on-five scored a crazy goal from her knees. Kendice Ogilvie added a tally of her own from Jess Martino before the frame was over. The second was scoreless, but not for lack of opportunities. 22 shots between the two teams were unleashed. Four and a half minutes into the third, Colgate solved Amanda Mazotta to cut the lead to one. Colgate continued to press, but Mazotta held strong. She stopped 25 shots on the night, ten in the third period, to backstop the Big Red to their first playoff win in program history. The first game had been won, but the second goal of the team was not yet achieved. In spite of the close game the night before, Cornell showed its scoring proficiency as they blasted Colgate 5-0 with a pair of goals each from Lauriane Rougeau and Catherine White and a fifth from Laura Danforth. Amanda Mazotta earned her eleventh shutout of the season, stopping all 19 shots she faced from Colgate's players. Cornell advanced, for the first time in program history, to the ECAC semifinals.

As the top remaining seed, Cornell was given the privilege of hosting the ECAC Final Four in Ithaca. RPI was the next test. Catherine White opened up scoring for Cornell just 3:26 into the first. RPI answered with a shot of their own before the period was over. The women went into the locker room with the score knotted at one. Their winning streak and their goal were on the line. They would not be stopped. The second period saw four Lady Rouge goals, two from Liz Zorn and one each from Laura Danforth and Amber Overguard to put the Big Red up 5-1 at the second intermission. It was looking like the Big Red would advance to their first ever ECAC final. But the Engineers wouldn't go down without a fight. In the last ten minutes, RPI solved Mazotta three times. Just 90 seconds remained as two desperate teams fought for their right to advance. RPI pressed hard. Cornell stood tall, trying not to watch the seconds tick down. The final buzzer rang and the score stood. Cornell advanced to the ECAC final by a score of 5-4.

Their second goal was within reach. Only Clarkson stood between Cornell and its first ECAC championship. The first period began at four pm at Lynah Rink on March 7, 2010. Both teams were fighting for their first ECAC championship. Both teams had won their semifinal matchups by a single goal, Cornell against RPI and Clarkson against Harvard. The first period began, once again with a penalty by Cornell. After killing it off and failing to score on a power play of their own, it looked like the period was going to end as it began, scoreless. Catherine White did not allow that to happen. As she had in the previous game, she opened up the scoring, with just 34 seconds remaining in the first. The second period saw the Golden Knights outshoot the Big Red 18-7. In spite of the shot differential, Cornell scored twice to Clarkson's one goal. Laura Fortino and Chelsea Karpenko scored for the Lady Rouge as they took a two-goal lead into the locker room. 20 minutes stood between them and their goal. Would they live up to their potential?

The third period was far from what they had wanted. Penalties were taken by both teams, but only one team was able to convert: Clarkson. Clarkson scored 8:48 into the third to cut the lead to one. 16:04 into the third, the Golden Knights tied the game. And that is how the game remained. Bonus hockey was to be had at Lynah that night. It would be only the seventh overtime final in the twenty-seven year history of the women's ECAC tournament. And for the first time since 2001, a new champion would be crowned. Clarkson in the first three frames, Clarkson outshot the Big Red by a differential of 35-17. But the numbers that mattered were on the scoreboard: 3-3. Cornell was no stranger to overtime. They had played seven overtime games and had not walked away with a single overtime win. Clarkson had three shots by the time Cornell took its first shot of overtime, but that didn't matter. Cornell's only shot of overtime, at 7:52, by Kendice Ogilvie off of an amazing effort by Liz Zorn, went in. Cornell had done it. These seniors who won only four games in their entire freshman year won the ECAC championship, the first in program history. They completed their second goal. And the season was still not over.

By winning the ECAC, Cornell had advanced to compete in its first ever NCAA tournament. But their first opponent was a familiar foe: Harvard. Cornell traveled to Cambridge for the second time that year, to play its biggest rival in a game on a bigger stage than it ever had before. Its dream season continued. But several things stayed the same. The first was the warmup that the Lady Rouge did before big games to stay loose: dance parties. The second was something that was present at every game: Coach Derraugh's pregame speech. Before every game, he gave the same speech. From the first loss to Mercyhurst to the championship game against Clarkson, all the way to this, their first ever NCAA tournament game, the speech remained constant.

In its previous two games against its archrival, Cornell took away a 4-3 win and a 4-4 tie. In spite of Cornell winning the ECAC, Cornell was the lower seed. Harvard had the privilege of hosting the Big Red. Bright Hockey Center was ready for the clash between the two rivals. As had become almost common, Catherine White opened up scoring in the game, pushing the Lady Rouge ahead of the Crimson just two and a half minutes into the game. The tone was set four minutes later. While killing off a penalty, the Big Red tallied a shorthanded goal as Karlee Overguard connected on a breakaway.  The second saw three more unanswered goals from Laura Fortino, Melanie Jue, and Chelsea Karpenko before Harvard finally solved Amanda Mazzotta on the power play. Kendice Ogilvie answered back to end scoring in the second with just 20 minutes between the Lady Rouge and their first NCAA win in their first appearance. In spite of another 13 shots in the third, Harvard could only solve Mazzotta with an extra attacker as the Big Red punched their ticket to their first ever Frozen Four appearance after their 6-2 win over Harvard in the national quarterfinal.

The next game was in Minneapolis, quite a ways from the friendly confines of Lynah Rink, or even the familiarity of Bright Hockey Center.  The opponent, however, was one that the Big Red had seen not too long ago, though it certainly seemed like a different time: Mercyhurst. Mercyhurst was the top seed, Cornell the lowest that remained. Their record this season was 0-2-0 in favor of the Lakers. Most other teams would have been happy to make it this far. But this team was not just any other team. Captain Liz Zorn said it best, "This wasn’t a vacation for us. We weren’t along for the ride. We were there to win it all just like the other three teams. We wanted to show everyone that we deserved to be there because we earned it, just like the other three teams.” And deserve it they did. In an incredibly evenly matched game, Mercyhurst drew the first penalty. Something that could have started the Big Red on a streak didn't. The power-play opportunity was not advanced. Special teams, however, would get the first goal of the game. Kendice Ogilvie charged Mercyhurst's goaltender, putting the Lady Rouge on the offensive. Toward the end of the penalty, Cornell took advantage of a turnover and after Karlee Overguard's shot was stopped by the netminder, Laura Fortino put in the puck to bring the Big Red to a 1-0 lead that they would still hold in the first intermission. The second period was all Mercyhurst. With thirteen shots on the period, the Lakers connected on two opportunities to lead the Big Red at the end of the second. Twenty minutes and a stalwart Cornell squad stood between Mercyhurst and the national title game. Karlee Overguard would not be denied again as she scored almost halfway into the third frame, knotting the score at two apiece. In spite of numerous opportunities, including diving saves by defensemen, the buzzer sounded with the score still even.

This was the ninth overtime game of Cornell's season. Holding a record of 1-1-6 this season and only two games removed from that sole win. In contradistinction to heavy pressure by the Lakers, Catherine White, so used to scoring game-opening goals, scored 13:14 into overtime. Cornell began celebrating, and Mercyhurst protested. The goal was under review. The net had come off but had it left its moorings before or after the puck crossed the line?

Officials reviewed and Catherine White's goal stood. The Big Red beat the Lakers in the game that mattered most and advanced to their first ever appearance in the national title game.  In spite of all the hype and all of the emotion, the women had one more goal to achieve. They were in the NCAA tournament. They had reached the national title game. As Derraugh said, why not win it all?

Surreal emotions struck the team the night before their game, "It was a crazy feeling lying in bed that night knowing that when I woke up, I was playing the biggest game of my life.” But something remained. A promise the seniors made when they were freshmen, never to know when their last game would be. But this was it. How did they feel about knowing that this game was indeed their last? Liz Zorn captured it best, “We looked at each other in the locker room, realized it was our last game and we knew it. We started cracking up. There was no better last game to have than this.”  A national title game for the team that, as freshman, had only won four games, the number of games it took them to win their ECAC championship.  Cornell faced the Bulldogs of Minnesota-Duluth, a heavy favorite to beat the Cinderella Story Cornellians.

Duluth had won four national championships going into the game and did not seem to take Cornell seriously. The first frame saw a combined twenty shots from the two teams but not a single one connected. Two penalties were killed, one per team, and the first frame ended as it began, 0-0. The Lady Rouge not only could skate with the Bulldogs. They equaled them. And in the second period, Melanie Jue scored on one of the Big Red's four power-play opportunities, putting Cornell up 1-0. Minnesota-Duluth did not like that.  "You could see them getting frustrated with each other. They were yelling at each other on the ice, which was fun for us. They expected to just run their tic-tac-toe plays and score goals. There was a point in the second period where we had a bunch of chances in a row that we didn’t capitalize on, but we really gained a lot of momentum and put them on their heels a little bit," Liz Zorn recollects.

The third period barely opened before the Bulldogs tied up the game on a power play left over from the second. The game was tied at one when, on another power play, the Bulldogs pulled ahead to lead. Melanie Jue was not done with her final game in carnelian just yet. She scored a second goal, tying the score once again, and sending the game for the second straight night into overtime.

This game would not be decided as quickly as the last few overtimes. In fact, the game would go on to be the longest title game in NCAA history. The first overtime saw 23 shots and a power-play opportunity for each team. The second overtime saw another 14 shots, with ten belonging to the Bulldogs. The third overtime was winding down. The game looked destined to continue onward. Both teams were exhausted, perhaps Cornell more so as it had only dressed 15 skaters in this game that was lasting for almost the length of two. With just 34 second remaining, Duluth made a play, and in spite of a diving Lauriane Rougeau, the puck found its way into the net. Liz Zorn reflects, "It's one of those things you can see in slow motion. I’ll probably always be able to see it. When the shot went off, I thought, ‘Oh no, here it comes.’ Then I buried my head not only out of disappointment but exhaustion.” They had beaten the odds. Won the program's first ECAC regular and postseason titles, an Ivy league championship, attained the program's first berth to the NCAA tournament, garnered the first win in the NCAA tournament, appeared in the program’s first national title game. The dream season ended just short of all their hopes and dreams. But it kick started a new wave of Cornell women's hockey.  Amanda Mazzotta set the record for most saves in an NCAA game (61) and in the tournament (123), besting the previous highs by 20 and almost 30 respectively. Mazzotta, Rougeau, and Fortino made the all-tournament team. Laura Fortino was also the first woman in Cornell hockey history to become a First-Team All-American, and not for the last time.

Cornell outscored its opponents 16 goals to eight during the 2010 ECAC Tournament. Kendice Ogilvie beat Clarkson netminder Lauren Dahm 7:52 into overtime to win Cornell's first ECAC championship. Amanda Mazotta had a goals-against average of 2.00 and garnered a save percentage of 0.918 during the ECAC tournament. Cornell won its first ECAC championship in Ithaca on March 7, 2010.

Dominance emerges from two pathways. The first is a result of a spontaneous and sudden occurrence. The second is the product of accumulated and synergistic gradualism over time. Cornell hockey had experienced the former during the era spanning from 2001 through 2003. Unbeknownst to those associated with Cornell hockey at the time, the program was on the latter path from the period that began in the 2006-07 season and ended with the 2009-10 season. The accumulated potential of several seasons that had been stored gradually would be unleashed in a manner whose kinetic might was as unstoppable and unyielding as the Pleistocene glacier that carved the lake immortalized in the University's alma mater.

Time had brought change to East Hill. Cornell had proven during the 2002-03 season and in subsequent seasons that its skaters could compete with the best in the nation. The hockey program of the Big Red had returned to the elite of college hockey, but its facilities lagged behind those of its peer hockey programs. Loyal members of the Lynah Faithful decided to keep Lynah Rink as their second home and the home of Cornell hockey while renovating it with over $8.0 million in gifts.

The facilities at Cornell after renovation were the best in college hockey. The family atmosphere of the locker rooms and Rink remained. Adding external concourses, extending seating to the walls of the concourses, and closing the open end of Lynah Rink’s bowl with a balcony of seats expanded the capacity of the arena’s bowl by 464 seats. Lynah Rink was a new and revitalized facility at the beginning of the 2007-08 season. The new building was without a championship title of its own.

Cornell had continued to compete nationally. Cornell had ended three seasons since winning its 11th Whitelaw Cup one game short of reaching the Frozen Four. The Big Red suffered this fate in 2005 against Minnesota, 2006 against Wisconsin, and 2009 against Bemidji State. The sting of four seasons without a tournament championship became particularly keen after the 2008-09 season.

Several ECAC Tournaments had left players from East Hill deeply disappointed. Cornell exited the 2007 ECAC Tournament during a quarterfinal series at home. The 2008 ECAC Championship Semifinals had Cornell enduring a loss to Harvard. Yale ended Cornell's bid for a Whitelaw Cup in the 2009 ECAC Championship Final despite the double-overtime heroics of captain Colin Greening against Princeton in the preceding semifinal contest. Cornell had inched one game closer to securing the program’s 12th ECAC Championship over four seasons.

Cornell's detractors were not satisfied. Voices of these detractors remarked during the preseason how at the end of the 2009-10 season it would have been five years since a Cornell team hung another ECAC Championship banner. These commentaries concluded often with the argument that Cornell was going to enter another period of dormancy. They could not have been more incorrect.

The players from the Class of 2009 from Cornell University graduated without bringing a Whitelaw Cup to East Hill. The senior class that followed them was determined that it would not face a similar fate. Ben Scrivens summarized this sentiment well. "Very few classes come through the Cornell hockey pipeline without experiencing a championship season. The previous senior class was one of those, and we were determined not to follow suit."

The Class of 2010 was unique. It is common for programs to resemble the demeanor of their coaches. It is even ordinary for a particular player on a team to adopt the standards and values of his coach. It is extraordinary for a group of players to internalize all three. Members of the Class of 2010 did just that. Winning an ECAC Championship was among those of Mike Schafer.

Blake Gallagher, Colin Greening, Justin Krueger, Brendon Nash, Joe Scali, and Ben Scrivens were those among the senior class who led the junior, sophomore, and freshman classes in buying into working to win a Whitelaw Cup. Blake Gallagher, Colin Greening, and Brendon Nash solidified their roles as point producers during the 2008-09 campaign. Juniors Riley Nash and Patrick Kennedy, and sophomores Joe Devin and Mike Devin completed the list of seven of Cornell's top-ten point producers from the previous season who were returning.

Leadership on the ice would have considerable consistency. Colin Greening would wear the captain's C for the second consecutive season. The import from St. John's, Newfoundland and Labrador made history as the first Cornell sophomore to wear a letter. His sweater was adorned with the A of an alternate captain during his mere second season on East Hill. Greening had become known as the epitome of a captain on the ice and had become a paragon of what was expected of a captain who wore carnelian and white. The Newfoundlander was skilled and disciplined as a skater on the ice and motivator off of it.

The history of Cornell hockey indicates that the championship hopes of the Big Red live and die between the pipes. Senior goaltender Ben Scrivens was suited to backstop a championship run. His performance at midseason during his junior season had The New York Times recognizing him as one of the best goaltenders among the collegiate ranks. Scrivens was determined to improve before his senior season. Nate Leaman, head coach of the Union Dutchmen and 2010 ECAC Tournament opponent of Cornell, had been convinced of Scrivens's improvement by season's end. He would remark then that "I’ve seen McKee and I’ve seen LeNeveu and I believe he’s better than both of them and they were both Hobey-Baker finalists."

The cast was more than talented and the stage more than set for the 2009-10 team to make an impact. Cornell confronted its usual slate of in-conference adversaries during the 2009-10 season. It was the Big Red's out-of-conference schedule that overflowed with the opportunity of challenge. Niagara, Boston University, Colorado College, New Hampshire, and North Dakota dotted Cornell's detours from intraconference play. This schedule ensured that Cornell would be tested against the best in college hockey when it began its quest for playoff glory.

Cornell would begin its season at refurbished Lynah Rink. The Purple Eagles of Niagara University would challenge the Big Red. Few thought that the Atlantic Hockey foe from Western New York would provide an insurmountable challenge for any team bound for eventual glory. Niagara scored the first goal of the season at Lynah Rink. Cornell's captain would rebut. A power-play goal from Patrick Kennedy gave the Big Red the go-ahead goal in the second period. Then, the visitors responded in kind to knot the game. The third stanza saw no scoring.

Cornell did not expect the need for an extra frame against Niagara. A slight air of despair overcame some. The Big Red would escape the game with a win. Joe Devin scored an overtime goal at 1:42 showing a knack for scoring important game-winning goals that would come to define his career on East Hill. The first week of regular-season play was somewhat unsettling. Niagara was a respectable team, but the 2009-10 squad yearned for more than respect. The next weekend of the season loomed large. Dartmouth visited on Friday. Harvard followed the Big Green on Saturday.

The Big Red made quick work of the Big Green. Dartmouth did not score its first goal until less than 15 minutes remained. Red skaters had tallied four by that time. Cornell sent Dartmouth up the road to Hamilton, NY with a 5-1 loss as a parting gift.

The annually circled game of the regular season at Lynah Rink took place early during the 2009-10 season. The clash of archrivals had both rosters ready for what would become an instant classic. The Crimson scored the lone first-period goal. Patrick Kennedy scored 4:04 of the second period. Harvard answer with two more goals. Mike Devin responded. Cornell confronted a one-goal deficit when the carnelian-and-white skaters returned to their locker room.

The seniors ensured that concern did not enter the locker room. The lesson for the intermission was confidence. The team knew what talent was on that squad. Cornell needed to be confident enough to put it into action. Blake Gallagher connected with Joe Devin for the tying goal at 2:27 of the third period. The game was knotted. Joe Devin waited just three minutes and 32 seconds to give the Big Red a go-ahead tally. The Crimson had begun to find itself mired in the defensive play of the Red.

Cornell was far from done. Gallagher decided that a helper on the evening was insufficient and tallied the fifth Red goal of the evening before ten minutes had expired in the third period. The final tally of the game belonged to freshman Greg Miller who showed a flash of his scoring abilities when he arced a shot from the left face-off circle over Harvard's Carroll. Miller's goal was the final of the evening. A four-goal third period gave Cornell a 6-3 come-from-behind win over Harvard. The confidence that was in Cornell's locker room during the second intermission of the first Harvard contest would not leave.

The Red continued to roll toward the second edition of Red Hot Hockey. Cornell suffered defeat at Ingalls Rink when the Big Red fell in a rematch of the 2009 ECAC Championship Final. An empty-net goal expanded the margin of victory to a 4-2 final score. Cornell accumulated wins against Brown, Princeton, and Colgate while suffering a loss to Quinnipiac before the Big Red traveled to the Big Apple. The Big Red had outpaced its opponents in those three wins by a margin of 15 goals to four goals.

A meeting with Boston University at Madison Square Garden for the second edition of Red Hot Hockey provided Cornell with a chance at redemption. Cornell had lost to the Terriers in a 6-3 game in the first edition. Boston University had won its fifth national title in the 2009 NCAA Tournament. The Terriers scored two goals in the last minute of regulation and capped off its rally with an overtime goal to defeat the Miami RedHawks.

Cornell did not wait long to open scoring. Sean Whitney, a sophomore defenseman who hailed from Scituate, MA, converted on a play from Blake Gallagher and Colin Greening putting Cornell ahead of the Boston-area Terriers. Locke Jillson scored to give Cornell a two-goal buffer. The first half of the second period bore ill omens for Cornell. Cornell's dominant power-play unit surrendered a shorthanded goal to Boston University. Brendon Nash and Sean Whitney waited less than 90 seconds to assist Blake Gallagher in reopening Cornell's lead to two goals.

A two-goal lead was sufficient for most Schafer-coached teams to win any contest. One can assume that the Terriers and Jack Parker were determined not to fall to their historic rival. Boston University bested Scrivens when less than five minutes had elapsed in the third period. The Terriers had a late third-period power play. They would convert. The game was tied. No goals were scored in the overtime frame. The 2009-10 Cornell team had come within 51 seconds of defeating the reigning national champion. It was not satisfied. It had raised the expectations of Cornell hockey.

Cornell closed out the first half of its season with contests in the Capital District. The Engineers fell to Cornell at Houston Field House. Nate Leaman's Dutchmen staved off the Red onslaught for a tie. Final exams and winter break followed those contests. The next games for the Big Red were those played in the Florida College Classic. Cornell's first contest was against Colorado College.

Greg Miller and Colin Greening would score for Cornell against Colorado College. Nonetheless, the woes of Cornell in Florida continued. Colorado College advanced in Cornell's holiday tournament while the Big Red fell to Princeton in the consolation game. The game against Colorado College was the first out-of-conference test that the 2009-10 team had dropped.

Schafer kept his talented team in Florida to prepare for its next challenge of the season. The team's and his efforts would be rewarded handsomely. Cornell next traveled to Durham, NH to attempt to tame the Wildcats. The Whittemore Center was a fearsome venue for most. The fans of New Hampshire hockey are known for their zeal. It was not this aspect of the game that provided Cornell with the greatest opportunity. Cornell was accustomed to the boisterousness of the Lynah Faithful. What Cornell saw in the contest on New Hampshire's Olympic sheet was the chance to refute decisively the criticism that Cornell teams remained "big and slow."

Cornell dominated the game against New Hampshire. Schafer would remark later that "we beat them badly." Cornell on even strength hemmed the Wildcats in their own end and ground them down with relentless and flawless cycling. Some commentators remarked that Cornell gave New Hampshire a clinic. Blake Gallagher, Patrick Kennedy, Sean Collins, and Riley Nash scored goals. Solid defensive play declawed the Wildcats in their own rink.

The performance of senior forward Joe Scali was particularly noteworthy. Scali appeared as a man possessed with his indefatigable efforts at blocking shots. He was rewarded with the empty-net tally for the Big Red. Cornell had dominated New Hampshire in terms of speed and physicality. Cornell was one shot in deficit of outshooting the Wildcats by a ratio of two to one. Cornell left the Granite State with a satisfying 5-2 victory.

A trip through the North Country was next on the schedule. The 2009-10 season suffered a major setback in the week between the New Hampshire contest and the trip to Clarkson and St. Lawrence. Stomach flu plagued 17 members of the roster. Schafer and his assistants at one point were fearful that the Big Red would not have enough players for the contests. The Class of 2010 had never won at Cheel or Appleton Arenas. Illness would not deny them. The Golden Knights fell to Cornell. The Saints settled for a tie. The turnaround from weakening illness was made more daunting with the test that awaited the team next at Lynah Rink: North Dakota.

Cornell had stunned 11,450 spectators at Ralph Engelstad Arena in November 2008. Schafer had coached Cornell to a 2-1 victory over the dominant Sioux at their own rink. Dave Hakstol and his Fighting Sioux squad wished to return the favor at Lynah Rink with a sweep. Cornell was still reeling from sickness. The Lynah Faithful and Ben Scrivens were up to the challenge.

North Dakota brought to Lynah Rink its typical fast-paced style. Cornell kept pace. The recovering Red slowed the Sioux and dictated the tempo of the game. Cornell did this both nights in the two-game series. High-scoring North Dakota was held without a goal the first evening. Cornell did not solve North Dakota's Dell in the first two period.

Scrivens stood tall and gave Cornell a chance to win the contest in front of the Lynah Faithful. The senior made 28 saves against one of the most storied programs in college hockey. Defenseman Mike Devin saved his brother the trouble and recorded the game-winning goal in the first two minutes of the third period. Cornell won 1-0.

North Dakota struck early the second evening. Cornell had no answer. The talented offensive might of Cornell generated more opportunities in the second game. The bounces were less favorable to the Red. The game was more evenly matched. North Dakota tallied again in the second half of the third period. Blake Gallagher scored with ten seconds remaining in the contest to make the score 2-1. The Sioux added an empty-net goal. Cornell had garnered a split.

Cornell may not have claimed the sweep that it desired, but the 2009-10 team had taken strides at retiring the already hackneyed refrain of fans leveled at Cornell. The expression went "big and slow is no way to go." The Red skaters from the 2009-10 season proved on an Olympic sheet and against a team that lives by the mantra "speed kills" that Cornell was no longer going that way.

Cornell earned a 0.500 record against the best programs in college hockey. It was ready to bring a Whitelaw Cup back to Lynah Rink. Cornell won four of its next five ECAC contests. The middle of February brought clarity as to which teams were competing for the Conference's regular-season title. Cornell and Yale were dueling atop the ECAC standings. Cornell hosted Yale in its next contest. A win would allow Cornell to overtake the Elis.

Keith Allain had taken the helm at Yale before the 2006-07 season. He told Yale's administration and his Bulldogs that the system he implemented at Yale would be designed to guarantee national competitiveness and playoff success. A system designed for a seemingly more modest goal would achieve both ends he said. His system was crafted to defeat Cornell. Allain had brought Yale its first championship in 2009 with a win over Cornell.

The Cornell-Yale clash in February 2010 was essential. It was the first rematch in front of the Lynah Faithful. Colin Greening scored at 6:49 of the first period. Cornell almost immediately retrenched into a defensive shell. The ice then slanted decidedly in the Bulldogs's favor. Cornell kept the Elis off the scoresheet until the final 6:12 of the second period. The third period witnessed no scoring. Ben Scrivens at times single-handedly controlled the game. He delivered 52 saves in a spectacular performance. However, the Bulldogs solved Scrivens when a puck found itself in the back of the net 3:17 into overtime.

The sting of the Yale loss slowly dissipated when Cornell defeated regional rival Colgate 6-2 at Starr Rink. Three days later Harvard would host Cornell at Bright Hockey Center. Lynah East was in all of its expected glory for the second meeting of the archrivals. The second game between Cornell and Harvard would be very unlike the first. Whereas the first game required a late offensive explosion for a rally, Cornell dominated the second game from the opening face-off.

Neither the Big Red nor the Crimson scored in the first frame. Cornell challenged on several occasions. Ben Scrivens noticeably got into an effortless flow. Harvard would need to do something extraordinary to best him that evening. Tyler Roeszler and Keir Ross scored within 15 seconds of each other at the midpoint of the second period to eviscerate the deadlock.

Ben Scrivens continued to answer every bid that the Cantabs unleashed in his direction. Blake Gallagher scored an empty-net goal as the final seconds of the third period ticked away. Cornell completed the sweep of the Crimson. Ben Scrivens had earned a shutout at Harvard. He became the first Cornell netminder in 43 years to accomplish that feat. Ken Dryden and Ben Scrivens stood as the only Cornell goaltenders to pitch a shutout at Harvard at the end of that evening. Each did it only once.

Cornell suffered a hangover the next evening as the 2009-10 team fell at Thompson Arena of Dartmouth College. The Big Red closed out the season with a three-point weekend against Union and RPI. Cornell ended the regular season one point behind Yale in the ECAC standings. The Bulldogs entered the 2010 ECAC Tournament as the first seed. Cornell was the second seed. Cornell would use its bye week to nurse injuries and prepare to bring a title to Lynah Rink.

No one could have expected how the playoffs would unfold. The 2010 ECAC Tournament was historic.

Brown defeated RPI at Houston Field House in three games. The Elis had earned the right to play the Bears as the lowest remaining seed. Most eyes on East Hill were anticipating a rematch with Keith Allain's Yale squad. Harvard swept Princeton at Hobey Baker Rink. The victory gave the Crimson the right to continue in the playoffs at Lynah Rink.

Cornell and the Lynah Faithful were consumed with anticipation the week before the 2010 ECAC Quarterfinals. The campus and community knew the significance of beginning the playoffs against the Crimson. The sentiments were the same from Harvard Square. Editorials in The Harvard Crimson declared that Cornell had eclipsed Yale as the most hated foe of the Crimson. When Friday March 12, 2010 arrived, nary a fish could be found at Wegmans in Ithaca.

Harvard took the ice with the ritualistic deluge of fish. Lynah Rink was buzzing. Few knew what was about to occur as Arthur Mintz announced Ben Scrivens in his distinctive bellow as "the savior from Spruce Grove." Cornell had waited all season for this moment. It was time.

Alex Biega of Harvard knew what his team would face. "We went into the game knowing what they were going to bring. They’re a very gifted team, strong size-wise, and they’re difficult to play." The Cornellians proved the Harvardians correct. The captain of the 2009-10 team opened Cornell's playoff scoring at 4:35 of the first period. Cornell would never trail in the 2010 ECAC Tournament.

Harvard answered approximately five minutes later. The Crimson's tally at 9:30 of the first period of game one of the 2010 ECAC Quarterfinals was the only goal that Cornell would allow in the Conference postseason.

The power-play unit from far above Cayuga's waters took the ice at 11:42 of the first period. Defenseman Mike Devin took a shot one minute later that freshman defenseman Nick D'Agostino would convert when he stepped up into the play. Lynah Rink erupted as it would with each successive Red tally. The crowd was raucous in hysteria. The Lynah Faithful from Sections A to E were unrelenting. Cornell carried a 2-1 lead into the locker room.

Eyes in the locker room focused on the directive affixed above the whiteboard. "Be A Champion." The team could not relent. Cornell took the ice again. The zeal of the Rink had not lessened because of a stoppage in play. Nick D'Agostino demonstrated his penchants for scoring against the Crimson when he beat Harvard's Richter once again. It was the freshman's second goal and third point of the contest. D'Agostino would go on to be a Crimson Killer in his own right scoring during his four-year career at Cornell.

Riley Nash was not to be outdone. The talented junior added two goals in the third period to tie D'Agostino's totals of goals and points in the first game against Harvard. Cornell took a one-game series lead with a commanding 5-1 victory.

The cacophonous hum did not leave Lynah Rink between the first and second game of the quarterfinal series. The Lynah Faithful returned to their sanctuary on Saturday. The carnelian-and-white-clad skaters took their positions at the blue line. Fish taunted the Crimson once more. The crowd was not going to relent.

Harvard did not establish its game. Ben Scrivens refined his poise to a near-perfect level. Cornell did not convert during the first period of game two. The chants of "safety school," "grade inflation," and "give me an A, give me another A, give me another A, give me another A, welcome to Harvard" did not recede. They began to grate on the Crimson. The game became impassioned and chippy even for a Cornell-Harvard contest.

Blake Gallagher waited for the last 7:55 of the second period to ruin Richter's bid for a shutout. Harvard killed a penalty before the second period expired. Cornell did not extend its lead in the second stanza. Harvard was completely dominated. The visiting archrival grew frustrated.

It took the Big Red nearly 14 and a half minutes of the third period for Cornell to add a second tally. The Lynah Faithful erupted with Cornell's securing a late two-goal lead. Victory was all but guaranteed. The zealous fans joined the chorus of "we want Carroll" pleading for Harvard coach Ted Donato to put in the goaltender who served in relief for Richter the previous evening. In a fitting end to the series, Colin Greening who had opened scoring tallied an empty-net goal.

Harvard's season was over. Cornell advanced. The 2009-10 team circled the rink thanking the Lynah Faithul. The second contest had seen two historic milestones crossed. Gallagher's goal was his 100th point of his career. He joined Colin Greening and Riley Nash as 100-point scorers on the team.

It was only the fourth time that a Cornell team iced three 100-point scorers at the same time. It was the first such team in 34 years. Cornell had defeated the Harvard Crimson four times in a season for the first time in the history of the rivalry. Cornell did not lose to Harvard. These euphoric waves carried Cornell into the Times Union Center in Albany, NY.

Few on East Hill paid much mind to what was happening in New Haven, CT during the 2010 ECAC Quarterfinals. Brown had upset Yale in the first game of the series. The Bulldogs forced a game three in the second contest. Late Sunday evening, the Brown Bears eliminated Yale. The match-up that most expected in the 2010 ECAC Championships would not be. Cornell was the highest remaining seed. Schafer would coach his determined team against Brown's first-year head coach Brendan Whittet in the 2010 ECAC Championship Semifinals.

Cornell was not as dominant during the first period of play at the Times Union Center as it had been in the quarterfinal series against Harvard. Three power-play opportunities helped Brown gain some control in the flow of the game that few opponents had during the 2009-10 season. Cornell was undaunted. The team's self-confidence was apparent.

Each member of the team knew that Ben Scrivens would help them weather any storm that emerged in the playoffs. Colin Greening described the mindset of the team later, "if someone was on a breakaway, you could tell everyone on our bench knew that Ben was going to stop it. If it was a two-on-one against him, he would stonewall it." Scrivens knew that the offensive might of those in front of him could not be long denied and would bail him out of any deficits he surrendered. No such deficits would be yielded.

Cornell escaped the first period in Albany without allowing a goal. The tenor of the game changed completely in the second period. Cornell regained control of the game. It was Brown who was pushed back onto its heels. The Bears were no long able to keep Cornell out of its game. Brown killed off a penalty midway though the period. It was an achievement to hold the power-play unit of the Big Red at bay. It was not enough.

Sophomore forward Locke Jillson and freshman forward John Esposito were superb all night. Their speed helped Cornell hold Brown at bay in the first period. Appropriately, the first goal of the game came as John Esposito directed the puck to Jillson. The Texan deposited the goal in the net at 15:35 of the second period. Brown had held off Cornell longer than any team would in the playoffs. Cornell was not done scoring.

The third period saw Brendon Nash whistled for a penalty at the five-minute mark. One minute and 24 seconds of the penalty were killed when Aaron Volpatti of Brown was escorted to the box. A power play for Cornell would begin in at the 7:00 mark.

The wait was too long for John Esposito. Brown was stunned on the resulting four-on-four play. Stalwart defenseman Justin Krueger connected down ice to Esposito. The speedy freshman raced down ice. His second point of the game came from a goal as he scored on the four-on-four chance to give Cornell a 2-0 lead. Greening added a helper to a goal from Riley Nash that made the final margin of the contest 3-0. The game stood as Scrivens' second blank sheet in the playoffs.

The opponent that Cornell would face in the 2010 ECAC Championship Final was Union. Nate Leaman took over the Schenectady-based program before the 2003-04 season. Leaman had taken a program that had garnered only three wins in the 1991-92 season to the 2010 ECAC Championships. Union had earned a berth to Albany with a quarterfinal series victory over Quinnipiac in a three-game series that included one of the longest games in NCAA history. The Dutchmen then defeated Joe Marsh and his Saints of St. Lawrence in a semifinal contest. Union may have been new to the Conference's championship weekend, but its team was far from a pushover.

This did not prevent neutral media from taking note of the nature of Cornell's playoff run. Brian Sullivan of U.S. College Hockey Online captured the arc of the postseason best: "The Big Red are the dream-crushers, they play in games that end streaks and crush passion. They are the soul-devouring juggernauts of the league, because they are so systematically thorough in every aspect of the game that they will completely suck every ounce of energy out of your lineup. It's not a flaw or a criticism — it's a very, very powerful attribute, and nobody does it like Cornell."

The air of foreboding inevitability affected not only those detached but some of those who would be involved in the contest. Union coach Nate Leaman lamented in a tone betraying these sentiments after the game when he cited that Cornell had one of the best power plays in the country, "they have the best penalty kill in the league, [and] they have the best goaltender in the country." There was one corner where this mindset was absent.

Schafer emphasized to his team how disciplined and methodical Union was. The seniors and he emphasized how great a team that this Union squad was. The Dutchmen had held Cornell to three points during the regular season. The strategy Schafer prescribed against Union was "to make them draw penalties" through "lean[ing] on their players down-low and bring[ing] them to the net."

The garnet-clad challengers dotted the blue line opposite the dream-crushing, soul-devouring juggernaut. Many Union students and fans had made the short trip from Schenectady to Albany. The seemingly omnipresent droves of Lynah Faithful and Cornell fans made their way to New York's capital by the Saturday contest. The Times Union Center hosted 6,505 fans who waited eagerly for the game.

The nerves of the Union squad fed Cornell. The Big Red took to challenging the Dutchmen physically early. Nate Leaman's squad showed few signs of fatigue. That began to shift. Union gave Cornell an opportunity to take the lead at 10:57 of the first period. The deadlock would remain. The two teams continued to challenge one another. The characteristic discipline of the Dutchmen began to wane.

Jeremy Welsh of Union would be called for hitting from behind just 35 seconds after the Dutchmen had killed off their first penalty. Cornell refused to be denied in quick succession. The seconds of the two-minute penalty ticked away. The Red power play established its presence in Union's zone and ground the Dutchmen down with cycling. The Big Red showed poise while waiting for an opportunity. The one that arose was unorthodox.

Mike Devin blasted a shot from the point at the blue line. The shot missed. Tyler Roeszler raced behind the net to collect the puck. Roeszler drew the attention of Keith Kinkaid, Union's goaltender, with an apparent commitment to the right. The Cornell forward changed direction and wrapped the puck around to Joe Devin who was standing on Kinkaid's doorstep. The Times Union Center roared to life after Devin's goal. Union was psychologically out of the game.

Cornell would wait over 20 minutes for its second tally. The power-play unit from East Hill went to work again in Albany after Union was whistled for a bench minor. Cornell began its seemingly effortless cycling that had worn down its opponents. Brendon Nash received a pass from Riley Nash. The former unleashed a shot from the point. A scramble in front of Kinkaid resulted.

Sean Whitney found the puck arcing out of a pile-up in front of the net. The Massachusetts native spun, corralled the puck on the blade of his stick, and slid it into Union's net just out of reach of Kinkaid and diving garnet-clad defensemen. Only 22:35 stood between Cornell and its 12th ECAC Championship.

Cornell maintained cool and levelheaded on the ice. Poor ventilation and air conditioning in the locker rooms at the Times Union Center made it difficult for the coaches and players in the locker room to remain chilled. Ed Kelly, Pedro Trindade, and other assistants to the team commandeered fans and large blocks of ice to cool the team during the breaks. One period remained. The team needed to stay focused.

Union's fans tried to reinvigorate their team. It was for naught. Cornell killed penalties successfully in the third period. Union appeared to have a gasp of life late in the game. Ben Scrivens continued to be unsolvable. Cornell defensemen including Braden Birch, Mike Devin, Nick D'Agostino, Justin Krueger, Brendon Nash, and Keir Ross ensured that few shots challenged Scrivens. Forwards and defensemen combined for eight blocked shots for Cornell in the third period. The Big Red blocked 16 over the course of the contest.

Union celebrated what it believed was a goal with less than one minute remaining. Official review of the play indicated that despite a skirmish between several Union players, Braden Birch, Justin Krueger, and Ben Scrivens the puck never crossed Cornell's goal line. The following face-off had Union defending an empty net. The Dutchmen gained the Red's zone. A puck bounced loose to Scrivens's left. Patrick Kennedy pursued it and unleashed a shot that found the empty net at the opposite end of the ice. The Class of 2010 had achieved its goal.

Ecstasy overcame players, students, alumni, and fans alike. The captain of the 2009-10 team described the moment. "Everyone was just yelling at each other and all the fans in the background were going nuts. That is the thing I will remember — just hugging the guys and knowing we finally won it." Ben Scrivens remarked that “we’ve come up short the last couple of years here. It’s exciting to see where all of the pieces fall together.”

The victory over Union at the Times Union Center allowed the 2009-10 team to bring back to East Hill Cornell's 12th Whitelaw Cup. It was the first championship won from a renovated Lynah Rink. It was Mike Schafer's fifth ECAC Championship. Schafer tied Joe Marsh of St. Lawrence for greatest number of ECAC Championships as head coach. Schafer had achieved the feat in one fewer season than had Marsh.

The 2009-10 Cornell hockey team was the most dominant team in the history of the ECAC Tournament. That Cornell squad surrendered one goal in the playoffs. No ECAC playoff contest was ever in doubt during its run. The 1969-70 and 2002-03 squads are immortalized for their consistency and uncanny abilities to find ways to win. Immortality belongs to the 2009-10 team for its unrivaled perfection and precision in pursuing a goal while claiming a new identity for Cornell hockey.

Cornell outscored its opponents 14 goals to one goal during the 2010 ECAC Tournament. Joe Devin bested Union's Keith Kinkaid during the first period for Cornell's championship-winning goal against the Union. Ben Scrivens produced a goals-against average of 0.25 and a save percentage of 0.990 during the 2010 ECAC Tournament. Cornell celebrated winning its 12th Whitelaw Cup that evening in Albany on March 20, 2010.