UTICA, N.Y. - The Wilkes University women's ice hockey team finished runner-up in the Utica University Kick Off Tournament after a 4-4 tie and shootout defeat to the SUNY Cortland Red Dragons Sunday evening at the Utica University Nexus Center.

The tie moves the Colonels to 9-1-1 on the season and snaps a six-game win streak, while the Red Dragons move to 5-5-2.

Much like their last game with the Red Dragons, the Colonels were in for a tough battle from start to finish and early on the Red Dragons had the upper hand. Cortland outshot Wilkes 18-6 in the first period and got on the board after six minutes of action. After the Colonels turned the puck over in their own territory, Hayley Hunter took advantage of it with a breakaway goal to make it 1-0 Red Dragons.

That score held midway through the period until Wilkes went on the power play following a tripping penalty by Cortland. With 14 seconds left on the power play, Jordan Ferry (Bohemia, NY/) delivered with her third goal of the season off an assist from Lily Zingaro (Collingwood, ON) to tie the game with 7:40 left in the first.

The Colonels took their first lead of the game early in the second period when Haylee Bouchard (Sioux Lookout, ON/) set up Abby Bush (Ottawa, ON) for a goal that made it 2-1 at the 13:21 mark, and the team kept the lead for next six minutes of game time. 

The Red Dragons tied the game with a power play goal from Katie Mahoney with 7:59 left in the second period, and both sides went into the third period tied 2-2.

In the third period, Cortland took the lead back with 13:05 remaining in regulation after Mahoney struck again for her second goal of the game to make it 3-2, and got a huge insurance goal just a minute later from Kira Cook to make it 4-2 Red Dragons.

The Colonels were staring down a tough regulation loss as it remained a two-goal game heading into the final three minutes of the period, but a Nina Hudakova (Košice, Slovakia/Hoosac Prep School) goal cut the deficit in half with 2:43 left, giving another assist to Bouchard and Drew Hayhurst (Breckenridge, CO/New Hampton School).

After the goal Wilkes took a timeout to regroup, and it paid off as Ferry tied the game 4-4 with her second goal of the game with 1:47 remaining to force overtime. In overtime each team took three shots but none went in the net thanks to terrific play from Audrey Milne (London, ON) for Wilkes and Eline Gillodes for Cortland. As a result the game went down as a tie, but a shootout was still needed to crown a champion of the tournament.

In the shootout the Red Dragons went 1-3 on their three attempts, while the Colonels went 0-3 to give Cortland the shootout win and the championship.

Thanks to the avalanche of the shots in the first period, Cortland outshot Wilkes 44-30 and won the faceoff battle 30-24. Both teams finished with a power play goal as the Colonels went 1-1 and the Red Dragons went 1-2. 

Individually, Ferry led Wilkes with two goals, followed by Bush and Hudakova who each had one. Bush also finished with an assist, but Bouchard led the team in assists with two. On the Cortland side, Mahoney led the Red Dragons with two goals, followed by Cook and Hunter with one each. Meanwhile, Carlen Bertrand led the Red Dragons in assists with two, followed by Fanny Aneborn (1) and Sophie Hart (1). Between the pipes, Milne recorded a career-high 40 saves for Wilkes and Gillodes finished with 21 saves for Cortland.

For their play throughout the tournament, Bouchard and Ferry each made the All-Tournament team. Across the two games Ferry totaled three goals, while Bouchard finished the tournament with three assists.

The Colonels return to the ice on Saturday, Jan. 10 at 3:30 p.m. for a Middle Atlantic Conference matchup with Arcadia at the Toyota SportsPlex.