No. 7 QU Women’s Ice Hockey Rebounds With 3-1 Home Win Over Cornell

Saturday, November 7

Hamden, Conn.

4:00 PM

Quinnipiac University

6-1-2, 2-1-1ECAC

Cornell University

1-4-1, 1-2-1ECAC

Team	1	2	3	F
Cornell	1	0	0	1
Quinnipiac	0	3	0	3

Photo by: Rob Rasmussen / P8Photos.com

No. 7 QU Women’s Ice Hockey Rebounds With 3-1 Home Win Over Cornell

11/7/2015 6:56:00 PM | Women's Ice Hockey

Box Score

By: QU Sports Information

HAMDEN, Connecticut – Trailing 1-0 after four consecutive scoreless frames, the No. 7 nationally-ranked Quinnipiac women's ice hockey team was in danger of coming away without a win in their opening home ECAC Hockey weekend. Luckily the adversity was just a minor bump in the road as the Bobcats used three second period goals and stormed past Cornell on the way to a 3-1 victory.

Quinnipiac picks up a big win, just their second in 12 all-time meetings against the Big Red at home (2-6-4 record), that moves the Bobcats to 6-1-2 in 2015-16 and 2-1-1 in conference play. Cornell continues their early season struggles as the Big Red fall to 1-4-1 overall and 1-2-1 in ECAC Hockey.

Nicole Kosta (Mississauga, Ontario) broke the longest scoreless streak for the Bobcats this season with her second period goal. Meghan Turner (Bedford, New Hampshire) pumped in the game-winner just 2:05 later while Taylar Cianfarano (Oswego, New York) netted her eighth goal of the season to ice the game away for the Bobcats. Kosta added an assist for her second multi-point game of the season while Melissa Samoskevich (Sandy Hook, Connecticut) and Emma Woods (Burford, Ontario) each tallied a helper in the win.

After allowing four goals in a 1-1 week last weekend, Sydney Rossman (Excelsior, Minnesota) was solid for the second straight night as she posted 19 saves on 20 shots (95 save percentage) to record her sixth win of the season. For the two-game weekend, Rossman combined for 41 saves on 42 shots (97.6 SV %) for her best two-game run of the season.

Coming off a big 2-1 win over No. 10 Princeton on Friday, Cornell carried their momentum into Saturday's contest as the Big Red jumped on Quinnipiac in the opening period. Hanna Bunton was the recipient of a great saucer pass from Kaitlin Doering. Just feet from the crease and with Rossman attempting to get in position, Bunton made no mistake as her backhander beat the Bobcat goalie low-blocker to put the Big Red ahead, 1-0.

Cornell goalie Paula Voorheis was the best player on the ice for the first 30+ minutes of play as she stopped the first 19 shots she faced (including 11 in the first period alone) before Kosta broke through with a rocket shot. Coming out of the box after a penalty, Kosta was gifted a clear breakaway on Voorheis as she picked up a loose puck at the blue line and skated in on the Cornell goalie. With the puck on her forehand, she roofed a wrist shot to the opposite post to break the Bobcats' scoreless streak and even the score at 1-1.

The eventual game-winner came off the stick of Turner as she made something out of nothing from behind the Cornell net. Kosta won the faceoff and Nicole Brown (Oshawa, Ontario) lifted the stick of a Cornell defender to allow Turner to grab the puck behind the net. Trying to find Kosta at the far post, Turner's centering attempt hit the skate of a Big Red player and went five-hole on Voorheis to put QU ahead 2-1.

The highlight-reel goal of the game came just 2:42 later with the Bobcats on the power play. With the Bobcats on a breakout, Samoskevich found Woods crossing the Cornell blue line. With a defender committing to Woods, the junior forward flicked a backhanded saucer pass over the Big Red defender in the slot to Cianfarano on the opposite faceoff dot. Cianfarano then made no mistake as she wristed one bar-down above Voorheis' left shoulder to bring the home faithful to their feet and make it 3-1 Bobcats.

Quinnipiac went into a defensive shell throughout much of the third period as the Big Red outshot the Bobcats, 9-5, but Rossman stood up to the task as she made all nine saves to pick up the victory.

The three-goal outburst for Quinnipiac was the most goals scored in a single-period this season by the Bobcats. The last time QU scored three-plus times in one frame came back on Feb. 27, 2015 when the Bobcats put four on the board in the ECAC Hockey Quarterfinals against Princeton.

Today's game also marked the 2^nd annual "Do It For Daron" (DIFD) weekend for the Bobcats. DIFD was founded in memory of Daron Richardson, who committed suicide in Nov. 2010. Daron was the younger sister of Cornell women's ice hockey junior Morgan Richardson. The family and friends of Daron created DIFD to encourage young people to talk openly about mental illness and to ask for help when needed. The Richardson's chose purple as the color for the organization as it was Daron's favorite color, and the purple DIFD heart has become the youth-driven symbol for the movement. For even more information about DIFD, visit www.difd.com.

Quinnipiac looks to let the momentum roll into next weekend with a home-and-home series against travel partner No. 10 Princeton. The Bobcats are home on Friday with play set to begin at 3 PM.