The No. 2/4 Quinnipiac women’s ice hockey team was all business Saturday afternoon, sinking conference-rival No. 9 Cornell in a runaway 6-1 victory. 

The Big Red were without some key names, most notably junior goaltender Deanna Fraser, who entered concussion protocol following Cornell’s win against Princeton on Friday. Head coach Doug Derraugh opted instead to send sophomore Belle Mende to the crease. 

However, it would be a quick trip to the bench for Mende, who stood no match to Quinnipiac’s powerhouse offense. 

Senior forward Shay Maloney got the party started, finding freshman forward Madison Chantler on the backhand for the game’s first score no less than a minute into the opening period. 

With one goal already under their belts, the Bobcats went to work. A little over five minutes into the game, graduate student defensemen Courtney Vorster and Zoe Boyd passed around to find senior forward Jess Schryver, who banged home the game’s second goal.

Smelling blood in the water, Quinnipiac looked to put the game out of reach in just the first period. Mende would surrender her third and final goal to sophomore forward Maya Labad with just 5:15 left to play. 

Labad’s goal was her thirteenth of the year, breaking a tie between her and the team’s leader in total points, junior forward Olivia Mobley, for the most goals on the team this season. 

With that, Derraugh had seen enough, pulling his netminder in favor of sophomore backup and usual third-stringer Brynn DuLac. DuLac would finish the period cleanly for the Big Red, as Quinnipiac entered the first intermission up 3-0.

As the second period came and went, the Bobcats continued to dominate puck possession and offensive production. Senior forward Alexa Hoskin found fellow senior forward Sadie Peart for yet another Bobcats goal 4:06 into the period. Hoskin was credited with the assist, one of two that she had on the day. 

Later in the period, Schryver would once again find the back of the net on a wrist shot from the left circle, this time on the power-play. Freshman defenseman Alyssa Regalado took the penalty for the Big Red, setting the Bobcats up easily for their fifth score of the game. 

Quinnipiac would tack on one last goal in the final period of play, with Maloney getting in on the scoring frenzy about halfway through the period. Scooping up the puck in the neutral zone, she faked to the forehand before swapping to the backhand, sliding the puck past DuLac.

Graduate goaltender Logan Angers flirted with her sixth shutout of the season for nearly the entire game, needing to survive just 45 seconds to secure it. But Cornell freshman forward Avi Adams would not be denied, stuffing in the Big Red’s first goal of the game on the power-play to cut Quinnipiac’s lead to 6-1.

It was just the third goal all year surrendered by Quinnipiac’s penalty-kill unit in 50 power-play opportunities, good for a 94% success rate – which leads the NCAA. 

The Bobcats’ performance Saturday proved once again that they are a national force to be reckoned with, bringing their overall record this season to a staggering 22-3-0, and their conference record to an equally-as-impressive 12-1-0. Cornell falls to 10-6-2 overall and 8-3-1 in conference play. 

Quinnipiac will be back in action next Friday at 6 p.m. when they take on Brown.