The Carleton Ravens women’s hockey fell to the University of Montreal Carabins 5-0 in their home opener at the Ice House, on Oct. 18.
Montreal started strong out of the gate, as defenceman Alexandra Paradis snuck in from the left point and scored with a low wrist shot past Ravens goalie Katelyn Steele just 52 seconds into the first period.
“We wanted to win, we wanted to play, because we lost our first game, so we were going for the win, we were going hard,” said Montreal forward Rika Pilon-Robert. “We wanted to do everything to just win and do our best, from the first second of the game to the last.”
The Carabins continued to control the puck, sustaining offensive zone pressure until an interference penalty to Casandra Dupuis sent the Ravens on a powerplay. However, while killing the penalty, Carabins forward Laurie Mercier was able to pick up the puck in the Montreal zone and speed down the wing. She ended up on a breakaway and putting a backhand shot past Steele, over the glove and just under the crossbar to put Montreal up 2-0. The Carabins would add one more goal to finish the first period up 3-0.
After the period, Ravens head coach Pierre Alain said he wanted his team to not worry about the score.
“Just keep going. Relax and play, have fun. Just work on the process, don’t look at the outcome, work on what we should do to be successful,” Alain said.
Montreal started the second period with a few minutes of puck possession in the Ravens zone, capping it off when Alexandra Labelle scored during a scramble. After this, Carleton was pressing hard, almost scoring off a scramble of their own, but Carabins goalie Marie-Pier Chabot was able to make a save. By the end of the second period the game was starting to get more physical, with boarding penalties going each way.
Despite the physicality, Steele said her team didn’t let it get out of hand.
“We stayed calm through it, we didn’t let it get to us, we just kept going,” Steele said.
The third period started with Pilon-Robert getting hurt. But this didn’t affect the Carabins’ play; they kept the pressure going, and scored one more goal as Labelle spun and scored her second off a backhand. Despite 49 saves for Steele, the final score was 5-0 for Montreal.
“Our first period, we need to change our first period, we need to pick it up then, and start from the very beginning. Montreal is definitely one of the best teams out there. They’re probably one of the top teams we’ve played, including the pre-season,” Steele said.
The game resulted in Carleton’s overall score falling to 0-2 and Montreal improving to 1-1. Carleton’s next game is Oct. 25 against Concordia University, and they will return home to play their crosstown rivals, the University of Ottawa Gee-Gees on Nov. 7.
