HAMDEN — Quinnipiac women’s ice hockey dropped a 4-3 heartbreaker to Cornell on Saturday, rallying to a 3-3 tie late in the third period before giving up the game-winning goal with under a minute to play.

There was somewhat of an expectation coming into Saturday’s game that, no matter what happened, it couldn’t possibly be worse than Friday’s game. Less than 24 hours earlier, Colgate skated circles around the Bobcats en route to a 5-0 trouncing that marked Quinnipiac’s first home loss of the season. 

Taken at face value, a razor-thin defeat may look better than an absolute blowout. But for the No. 6 Bobcats — who trailed the No. 10 Big Red for much of the back-half of Saturday’s game — scoring back-to-back goals to come within a minute of forcing overtime made Saturday’s loss all the more bittersweet.

“That was certainly an exciting game with an exciting finish,” head coach Cass Turner said. “Unfortunate for it to finish the way it did on our end, but a lot of credit to Cornell — they fought hard.”

Unlike on Friday, it never seemed as though Quinnipiac was “out” of the game.

Admittedly, the Bobcats got off to a rocky start. By the time Big Red senior forward Izzy Daniel opened up scoring roughly six minutes into the first frame, the Bobcats had only managed to put one shot on goal. 

But when graduate student forward Alexa Hoskin drew a Cornell hooking penalty on a breakaway later in the period, the Bobcats — who have the sixth-highest power-play percentage in the nation — seemed to finally find their stride. 

Forty seconds into the power play, junior forward Maya Labad tipped freshman forward Kahlen Lamarche’s shot past Cornell goaltender Annelies Bergmann to tie the game at one.

And yet, the second period was all but devoid of this offensive momentum. In 20 minutes, Quinnipiac recorded just two shots on goal on 10 attempts. 

“We didn’t pressure the puck like we normally do,” Turner said. “I think that’s why the second period went the way it did.”

The Bobcats’ disorganization ultimately didn’t cost them on the scoreboard until Cornell’s power play took the ice. 

In a play that mirrored the penalty Hoskin had drawn earlier in the game, junior defender Mia Lopata tripped a Cornell player on a breakaway.

Although Cornell didn’t technically score until 15 seconds after Lopata’s penalty expired, the power play set the stage for the Big Red’s second goal of the night.  And in a strange twist of full-circle fate, it was sophomore forward Rory Guilday — the same player who had hooked Hoskin on her breakaway — whose high-slot shot gave Cornell the lead.

The Big Red seemed to put the game out of reach for the Bobcats when, during a delayed penalty on Quinnipiac graduate student defender Kate Reilly, sophomore forward Mckenna Van Gelder gave Cornell a 3-1.

But the Bobcats, who tend to be a third-period kind of team, began picking up the pace late in the final frame. 

As the game clock wound down under three minutes, senior forward Nina Steigauf stuffed it home to pull Quinnipiac within one. Thirty-nine seconds later, Hoskin notched her first of the season to tie the game up at three.

Overtime seemed like a given — until it didn’t. 

With 53.8 seconds left in regulation, Cornell junior forward Gabbie Rud outmaneuvered a Quinnipiac pinch play and found the net behind graduate student goaltender Logan Angers.

“They chipped it in behind us, and we didn’t get a lot of pressure on the puck,” Turner said. “Which is something we can’t have happen at that point in the game.”

Lamarche managed to put one hard shot on net before the final buzzer, but Bergmann wasn’t fooled.

“It’s not always going to just work out,” Turner said, referencing Quinnipiac’s tendency to pull off come-from-behind wins. “We needed to put more together today to be able to win and beat a strong team.”

After Friday’s game, where absolutely nothing went right for the Bobcats, it seemed unimaginable that it could get any worse. But come Saturday, it did — albeit for completely different reasons than on Friday.

Quinnipiac will look to rebound from its less-than-stellar home stand at No. 14 Yale on Jan. 26. Puck drop is set for 6 p.m.

“We’ve got to respond quickly after this weekend,” Turner said. “We’ve got a team that I think can win a championship. I don’t think we’re there yet, but I think we have the makings for it.”