White’s OT goal gives Cornell 3-2 victory over Mercyhurst in NCAA women’s semifinal

Cornell beats Mercyhurst 3-2 in NCAA semifinal

MINNEAPOLIS — Catherine White scored the game-winner 13:14 into overtime as Cornell beat top-seeded Mercyhurst 3-2 in Friday night’s first semifinal to advance to the NCAA women’s hockey championship game for the first time in school history.

White poked home a loose puck during a scramble in front of Mercyhurst goaltender Hillary Pattenden after Amber Overguard created a turnover at the Mercyhurst blue line and put a shot on net.

Laura Fortino and Karlee Overguard also scored for the Big Red, who will face the winner of Friday’s second semifinal between No. 3 Minnesota and No. 2 Minnesota-Duluth. Amanda Mazzotta made 28 saves in net for Cornell (21-8-6).

The Big Red’s unexpected run of upsets continued, this time coming against the nation’s No. 1-ranked team. Cornell beat No. 4 Harvard in the quarterfinals and has won 11 games in a row after starting the season 10-8-6.

“Nobody in our league wanted to give us credit, and obviously here I feel nobody wanted to give us credit,” White said. “I think we came out and we earned it. I think we’re starting to turn heads now.”

The victory came on the same day that Cornell’s men’s basketball team upset Temple 78-65 in the first round of the NCAA tournament.

The highest scoring team in the nation, Mercyhurst became the first team in NCAA women’s hockey history with five 20-goal scorers. Yet, Cornell’s defense held the quintet to 12 shots on goal.

Patty Kazmaier award finalist Vicki Bendus finished with two shots and was a minus-1.

The Lakers did receive some scoring from two unlikely sources. Kylie Rossler and Meghan Corbett scored for Mercyhurst (30-3-3), which was looking to advance to the title game for the second straight year. Rossler connected for her fifth of the season and Corbett’s goal was just her third.

The Lakers beat Cornell twice to open the regular season, but those games proved to Big Red coach Doug Derraugh just what his team needed to do as they turned around their season.

“I honestly think that helped our team a lot to play a team of that caliber early on,” Derraugh said of the opening series. “I think we learned a big lesson in those two games, in that Mercyhurst came and played very physical. They were very aggressive. I don’t think we were quite ready for it and we made some mental mistakes. We knew that we were going to have to get better in our defensive zone if we were going to beat them at the end of the season.”

The Lakers had worried coach Michael Sisti after a poor practice on Thursday.

“The differences with this team, they kind of fly by the seat of their pants,” Sisti said. “They’ve had a great year and we’re really proud of them, but they’ve been sloppy from time to time. We usually get it going and figure it out and things work out. Tonight, they didn’t and I think there was a bit of a carry-over from that.”

Pattenden finished with 27 saves.