Box Score

ITHACA, N.Y.­ - Three different players scored and junior goaltender Jenny Niesluchowski made 43 saves en route to lead Cornell to a 3-2 win over Rensselaer on Saturday afternoon at Lynah Rink. The Big Red improve to 9-8-2 overall and 5-5-2 in ECAC Hockey, while the Engineers move to 11-9-3 and 6-4-2 in league play.

At 5:24 of the first period, sophomore Karlee Overguard shot the puck at RPI netminder Sonja van der Bliek from the just outside the crease. Van der Bliek made the initial save but the puck deflected off her pads right back to Overguard who flipped it into the right side of the Engineers' goal. Jess Martino and Chelsea Karpenko assisted on the goals.

The Big Red went on the power play at 9:26 of the first period off a hooking call to RPI. Cornell quickly set up the play with Karpenko feeding the puck to Martino on the left point. Martino slid the puck over to Karlee Overguard on the right point, who sent the it sailing through traffic in front of the net. The shot deflected off of her sister Amber's stick past the Engineers' goalie to put the Big Red up 2-0.

Early in the second period, Rensselaer's Alison Wright shot the puck through traffic from the point at the Big Red net. Niesluchowski tried to find the puck to cover it, but Alisa Harrison found it first and flipped it up into the Cornell net to score at 3:31.

Midway through the third, Cornell grabbed a 3-1 lead after defenseman Sam Wauer passed the puck to sophomore Rebecca Johnston.  She passed it off to freshman Catherine White, who raced along the left boards right through the RPI defense for the goal over van der Bliek's shoulder at 8:45.

The Engineers cut the deficit to a goal at the 16:39 mark after Jill Vandegrift converted a pass by Kendra Dunlop to make it 3-2.   

RPI pulled its goalie with 1:15 left in the game in favor of the extra attacker, but Niesluchowski remained solid in net as the Big Red fought off a number of last minute scoring chances by the Engineers to hold on to the win. 

Rensselaer is back on the ice next weekend when it hosts North Country rivals Clarkson and St. Lawrence on Friday (7pm) and Saturday (4pm), respectively at the Houston Field House. The Big Red are also in action next weekend at Yale and Brown.