Kristina Bahl tied the game late in the third period, and Julia Gosling's highlight-reel game winner in overtime completed the St. Lawrence University women's hockey team's comeback victory over the No. 12/13 Cornell University Big Red on Saturday afternoon in Canton, New York.
 
Cornell had an early power-play opportunity to grab the game's first goal, but a combination of Big Red's Izzy Daniels hitting a crossbar on a wide-open net and strong penalty killing by the Saints negated the chance. However, the Big Red would strike halfway through the period.
 
Daniels made a nice Gretzky-move on the half boards and fed a cutting Gillis Frechette. The reigning ECAC Player of the Year to beat Saints' goaltender Lucy Morgan to give Cornell the 1-0 lead.
 
St. Lawrence had a late power-play opportunity to tie the game before the intermission but were unable to generate any dangerous chances.
 
Shots on goal were all even at six all after the first period.
 
Cornell had the better of opportunities in the first half of the second period. Frechette had a breakaway shot go wide and Morgan came up big in multiple instances. The Big Red would then capitalize on another scoring chance just over eight minutes into the period.
 
Mckenna Van Gelder entered the Saints' defensive-zone on a 2-on-1. She waited out Morgan and beat her over her glove side to extend the Cornell lead to two.
 
The Saints would start to gain momentum after the Van Gelder goal. The Abby Hustler, Julia Gosling, and Shailynn Snow line had a strong shift at the end of the period that resulted in a Gosling shot ringing off the crossbar.
 
Cornell led 2-0 after two periods, and shots-on-goal were even at 12.
 
Morgan and the Saints' defense kept the Big Red off the scoreboard in the beginning of the third to set up the offense with an opportunity to cut the lead to one.
 
That opportunity came seven minutes into the period when Cornell was tagged for too many players on the ice. The Saints were unable to capitalize on the power-play but kept possession in Cornell's defensive zone for almost all its entirety.
 
Gosling carried the puck across the top-right circle as the power-play expired. She sent a shot off Cornell goaltender Brynn Dulac's pad, and the rebound popped to Chloé Puddifant. She slapped home the rebound to get SLU on the board.
 
The Puddifant goal gave St. Lawrence momentum, and the Saints were swarming in their offensive zone. Dulac made multiple big saves to preserve Cornell's one-goal lead.
 
The Saints had possession in the offensive zone when Aly McLeod passed to Puddifant at the blueline. She then fed her Bahl, whose slapshot beat Dulac over her blocker-side pad. Bahl's goal was her twenty-first point of the season on her twenty-first birthday. This milestone is the most points scored by a defenseman in a season since Skylar Podvey '21 in 2017-18. Bahl is two points from passing Kristen Padalis '16.
 
The Saints outplayed Cornell in the third period, outshooting them 14-4 in the period and 26-16 overall through regulation.
 
These two teams went to overtime last year in Appleton, with Cornell leaving victorious 3-2, but Gosling ensured history would not repeat itself.
 
Gosling regrouped in her own defensive-zone, gearing up for a full-ice rush. She carried the puck through the neutral-zone and into the offensive-zone. She brought the puck to her forward and pushed it over the Big Red defender's stick. Gosling quickly sent a shot five-hole beating Dulac. This is Gosling's second career game-winning overtime goal, with her first coming against Clarkson in a 4-3 victory on February 26^th, 2021.
 
"What a great finish for our players," said head coach Chris Wells. "They have worked so hard all year and we have been on the wrong side of things a number of times. Tonight, they found a way to bring it the last period to get the tie and the finish was exactly what we needed."


 
St. Lawrence outshot Cornell 29-16 in shots-on-goal and 68-36 in attempts.
 
Morgan did not see a high quantity of shots but made 14 quality saves in the victory. Dulac finished with 27 saves.
 
"We have continued to grow as a team and this week's games have been great for us," said Wells.
 
St. Lawrence improved to 13-17-3 overall and 7-9-2 in conference play with the win, while Cornell dropped to 12-11-2 and 9-7-1.
 
"You always want your teams to feel what they feel tonight after that win. It's what makes us all do this!" added Wells.
 
The ECAC playoff push is in full swing. The Scarlet and Brown sit in sixth place, a half of point behind Princeton and five points behind Cornell. The Saints return to action next Friday when they visit Dartmouth at 3:00 p.m.