The Carleton Ravens women’s hockey team ended their weekend at home with a nail-biting 3-2 loss to the Queen’s Gaels on Saturday night.
Coming off a Friday shootout win against the Windsor Lancers, the Ravens (5-13) were looking to put on a strong showing against the Gaels (14-5), who are at the top of the OUA East Division.
Carleton held their opponents until late in the first period, when forward Mikayla Cranney scored a pair of goals just two minutes apart to put Queen’s ahead.
The Ravens responded in the second period with a goal from forward Hayden Serniuk, assisted by forwards Victoria Kay and Abigail Robinson, to cut the lead in half.
“I think we knew Queen’s was going to be a tough battle,” Serniuk said after the game. “But we wanted to bring the energy that we had in the second period when we scored lots in yesterday’s game.”
Serniuk added that her team did just that.
“We came out strong, and even though we were down, we came right back,” she said. “I thought we played a full 60 minutes.”
Kay recorded another point later in the period, forcing a turnover at the Gaels’ blue line and scoring off a breakaway to tie the game.
Throughout the game, the Ravens sought to challenge the division leaders, the goalscorer said.
“We were thinking to keep the pressure on them, keep forechecking hard and capitalize on our scoring chances,” Kay said.
Serniuk echoed the team’s focus on maintaining pressure in the offensive end.
“We all had the mentality of just trying to keep it in their zone,” she said. “We had a few unlucky bounces that were almost in. It just didn’t go our way today.”
Early in the third period, Queen’s forward Sophy Aldred sniped a shot past Carleton goalie Kaitlyn Langille and scored the goal that ultimately won the game.
In a last-ditch attempt to put another goal on the board, the Ravens pulled Langille in the final minutes of the game. Langille has the second-highest number of saves in the league this season (436).
Kay added that the Ravens’ timing in their defensive zone led to their undoing.
“We gave up some good scoring chances for them,” she said. “They got the puck right in front of our goalie while she was down a lot of the time, so I think we need to clear up our rebounds.”
She added that Carleton’s losing record has hurt confidence on the ice.
“We haven’t won in regulation yet, so I think we put a lot of pressure on ourselves to score quickly in the third period,” Kay said. “We were a bit panicky.”
Still, Kay noted the Ravens have improved in the neutral zone.
“That’s something we’ve been working on in practice a lot: Watching their eyes, [anticipating] where they’re going to pass and jumping on it to get a scoring chance.”
Although they only scored twice, Serniuk said she enjoyed that the team was able to showcase physicality against their visitors.
“Usually we get a lot of penalties playing in the OUA,” she said. “But it was a nice change to just be able to go out.”
There were three penalties total: two on Carleton for delay of game and one on Queen’s for hooking. Neither team scored on their respective power plays.
Serniuk said the final score doesn’t diminish the team’s performance and acts as fuel going forward.
“I think we played really well today,” Serniuk said. “We’re going to bring that into next weekend and be angry and come out with a [win].”
The Ravens will head to Kingston on Saturday for a rematch against the Gaels before travelling to Waterloo for a divisional crossover against the Waterloo Warriors next Sunday.
Puck drop is 11:30 a.m. on Saturday and 4 p.m. on Sunday.
Featured image by Murray Oliver/the Charlatan
