The fifth-ranked Cornell Big Red put up six goals to defeat the seventh-ranked St. Lawrence University women's hockey team on Friday night at Lynah Rink in Ithaca, N.Y.

The Big Red were able to take an early 1-0 lead, as a rebound caught the stick of Rory Guilday in the slot for the advantage at 12:52 of the first period.

After the first 20 minutes of play, Cornell led 8-7 in shots on goal.

Ashley Messier extended Cornell's lead to 2-0, as she collected the puck at the blue line, circled and fired a wrister that beat the glove of Saints' netminder Emma-Sofie Nordström.

Gabbie Rud tallied the third goal of the game for the Big Red, as she capitalized on a bad turnover in the slot and fired one past Nordström. Just about two minutes later, Katie Chan snuck one past a sliding Nordström to make it 4-0.

With 3:54 to play in the third, sophomore Kassidy Lawrence relieved Nordström in goal for the Scarlet and Brown.

After 40 minutes, shots on goal were evened up 16-16.

The Big Red tacked on one more, as Mckenna Van Gelder patiently waited on the doorstep for a pass from Rud and was able to beat a diving Lawrence, making it 5-0.

Messier scored her second of the game as she lofted the puck from the Cornell zone and down ice for the empty netter with 52.9 seconds to play for the 6-0 final.

"Even though the score won't reflect it, we played a pretty good game," said head coach Chris Wells. "We had good pace and chances. They capitalized on their chances and we were not able to.  

"The games the rest of the year are all going to come down to two or three plays that decide the game. Tonight Cornell made the plays and we didn't execute well enough to get some points. The good news is that it is Friday and we get to get after it again on Saturday."

Nordström finished with 11 saves, while Lawrence stopped five in a relief effort. Annelies Bergmann recorded 20 saves for Cornell.

Cornell finished with a 22-20 edge in shots on goal, while neither team was able to convert on their single power play opportunities.

St. Lawrence moved to 16-8-5 on the season and 10-4-3 in ECAC play, while Cornell improved to 16-4-4 and 12-2-3.

The Saints will head to Hamilton to take on the fourth-ranked Colgate Raiders, tomorrow afternoon at 3 p.m.