ITHACA, N.Y. — Quinnipiac women’s ice hockey head coach Cass Turner said it best: “Logan plays great here every time.”
Even then, she’s almost underplaying it. Cornell literally cannot beat graduate student goaltender Logan Angers.
Angers proved that once again Friday, notching 26 saves in Quinnipiac’s 3-1 downing of the undefeated Big Red.
And it’s not that Cornell isn’t good — Turner knows it is.
Heading into Friday’s matchup against No. 9 Quinnipiac, a 3-3 tie in mid-October was the closest the No. 6 Big Red had come to losing all season.
“That’s a very good team,” Turner emphasized. “That’s a huge top 10 win for us.”
It’s not even that the Bobcats just have Cornell’s number. Just ask Turner — she’ll tell you they typically don’t.
“I think If we were to look back through her career, every game she played here, we usually get a little outshot,” she said.
Case in point, Cornell outshot Quinnipiac 27-19 on Friday. The Big Red also spent less time on the penalty kill, and even managed to score a short-handed goal while they were in the box.
But Angers has now faced off against the Big Red five times in her career, and she has never once given up more than a single goal in a game.
“She saves us when we need her to save us and just makes the plays we need her to,” Turner said. “She was awesome today.”
Angers has been so consistent against the Ivy that Turner said she tries not to mention it until after the final buzzer sounds.
“I never want to talk about it until we’re here, until after the game and she’s done it again,” Turner said.
So, with Angers between the pipes against a team that seemingly can’t beat her, all the Bobcats needed was a little offense.
And for the first 25 minutes, that was hard to come by — for both teams.
But Bobcats freshman forward Kahlen Lamarche broke the deadlock just under six minutes into the second frame, slipping an unassisted wrist-shot past Cornell freshman goaltender Annelies Bergmann as she fell to one knee.
Then, a few minutes after her shot rattled the post, sophomore forward Emerson Jarvis found nothing but net.
“She’s playing really well,” Turner said of Jarvis. “She has such great speed, and she has a great way of getting herself in behind defenders and creating opportunities.”
Cornell pulled within one with a little over six minutes remaining in the third period, but graduate student forward Jess Schryver sealed the game with a last-minute empty-netter.
“We played offense in a great way today,” Turner said. “And I thought that we had huge individual efforts for some battles.”
Individuals like senior forward Sophie Urban, she said, who notched an assist on Jarvis’ second-period game-winner.
Individuals like Lamarche, whose goal extended her point streak to seven.
And individuals like Angers, whose goalie gymnastics kept Quinnipiac on top.
Because, like she said, “Logan plays great here every time.”
After picking up their first ECAC road win of the season in Ithaca, the Bobcats will head an hour east to Hamilton, New York, on Saturday to face off against No. 3 Colgate. The puck drop is scheduled for 3 p.m.
