Syracuse shut out 5-0 by No. 4 Cornell, suffers 1st road loss
Syracuse dropped its first road game in a 5-0 blowout loss to No. 4 Cornell Tuesday. The Orange finished with an 0-for-4 mark on the power play. Eli Schwartz | Contributing Photographer
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In its second year as a program, Syracuse was dealt one of its toughest tests yet on the road against Cornell on Jan. 5, 2010 — the first-ever meeting between the two programs.
Falling behind by one in the opening frame, Syracuse’s offense struggled to gain any sort of momentum in the scoreless second period that followed. Still trailing 1-0, it seemed as though SU’s fate was sealed when it was assessed a penalty early in the final frame.
Then, Holly Carrie-Mattimoe took over. Just a freshman at the time, she evened up the contest with a shorthanded goal and then completed SU’s comeback with a second tally in overtime.
Since that dramatic victory, however, the all-time series between the two New York rivals has been dominated by Cornell. The Orange had lost 16 consecutive games to the Big Red entering Tuesday, falling by three or more goals each time. Already battle-tested by four top-10 matchups heading into its matchup against Cornell, SU hoped to snap that ugly streak and preserve its perfect road record to open the season.
Instead, history merely repeated itself. Syracuse (5-6, 3-1 Atlantic Hockey America) was shut out for the fourth time this campaign in a 5-0 blowout at No. 4 Cornell (5-0, 2-0 Eastern College Athletic Conference). The setback marked SU’s first road loss of 2025-26 and its fifth against a ranked opponent. Syracuse was hampered by a 38.6% win rate in the circle and finished the night 0-for-4 on the power play.
“The score doesn’t necessarily indicate how the game went, but overall, I’m very happy with the group in their grit and their compete,” SU associate head coach Heather Farrell said postgame.
At first glance, it appeared as though the matchup had all the makings of a goaltenders’ duel.
At one end, Cornell goalie Annelies Bergmann came into the matchup with a scintillating 95.9% save percentage and a 4-0 record, including two shutouts. On the other end, Ava Drabyk was amid one of the strongest starts to a season by an SU freshman netminder ever, securing her first AHA Rookie of the Week award just five games into her career. Both goaltenders were also named the Goalie of the Week in their respective conferences earlier on Tuesday.
But instead, Syracuse’s coaching staff decided to go in a different direction. After relying on Drabyk in its past six games, SU returned to its three-goalie rotation and gave the crease to Maïka Paquin. SU associate head coach Heather Farrell said she’d more than earned the start.
“Paquin has been really battling at practices and giving us the confidence that she was ready to go, so we wanted to give her an opportunity to play and we were happy with her outing,” Farrell said.
In her first action since the Orange’s 8-2 drubbing of Stonehill, the senior didn’t have to wait long to see a healthy amount of rubber.
While SU’s skaters came up with a handful of gutsy blocks in the opening minutes, Cornell eventually started to break through for its first shots on target. Paquin was up to the task, and settled in following a Big Red penalty midway through the opening frame.
Coming off a weekend series against RIT that saw Syracuse net a season-high three power-play tallies in a game, its player-advantage unit looked to remain hot with a quick strike.
But it never came. Hindered by the Big Red’s dominance on the draw, SU managed just one shot attempt during the two-minute span, as Cornell’s penalty kill took care of business.
Moments later, Syracuse fell into a minor penalty of its own, pinning its special teams unit in a tough position against Cornell’s power-play group — which entered with the fifth-best conversion percentage in the nation (28.6%). Still, the Orange held firm in front of Paquin to open the contest.
Despite Syracuse’s desperate efforts to get in front of shots on goal, it seemed it was only delaying the inevitable. Without any sustained offensive pressure at the other end, SU was outshot by an 11-2 margin in the opening 20 minutes. On their last shot of the period, the Big Red broke through.
After receiving a pass from Beatrice Perron-Roy, Rose Dwyer walked the blue line and fired a wrist shot on goal. Without a clear line of sight in front of her, Paquin didn’t see the puck until it was already behind her.
Out of the intermission, Syracuse started off on the right foot by corralling the opening draw at center ice. But it was only fool’s gold. Less than two minutes into the middle frame, the Big Red doubled their lead with a close-range tally from Georgia Schiff.
SU has often relied on its penalty-killing unit to keep it within striking distance this season. Through its first 10 games, its 78.4% success rate wasn’t anywhere near the top of Division I, but it had been serviceable. Yet against Cornell, the usually-solid group was simply worn down.
The Orange started strong by killing off Cornell’s first two power plays, but the Big Red’s unit continued to make life uncomfortable for SU’s penalty kill unit. Midway through the second, they lit the lamp to grow the deficit to 3-0.
“When you play a team like Cornell and you take penalties, you’re going to get scored on, no matter how good your penalty kill is,” Farrell said.
In a deep hole with plenty of hockey left, Syracuse showed some fight in the latter half of the period. Syracuse outshot Cornell narrowly in the second, but its glaring 6-for-21 mark on draws prevented it from putting sustained pressure on the Big Red.
Cornell ensured any momentum SU had heading into the final period was short-lived, piling on two more strikes in quick succession. Mckenna Van Gelder needed just seven ticks to bury Cornell’s second power-play goal of the night six minutes in. Then, an even-strength howitzer from Piper Grober put the game all but out of reach at 5-0.
Syracuse is set to take on the Big Red twice this season, a challenge it hasn’t faced since 2018-19. While SU fell in both contests that year, they helped give it a competitive edge that proved instrumental in capturing its first conference title. Now, the Orange will look to repeat history with a jam-packed conference schedule on the horizon.
“I anticipate Cornell being in the top 10 for most of this season, so it’ll be a good chance for our team to kind of see where we match up with them again later in another month,” Farrell said.
