The Carleton Ravens women’s hockey team lost both games this weekend in a tight race for the final playoff spot, knocking them out of the RSEQ playoffs.
On Jan. 31, the team visited cross-town rival the University of Ottawa Gee-Gee’s to lose by a score of 4-0. It was followed by a 4-1 loss in a matinee against the University of Montreal Carabins in Montreal on Feb. 2.
The ferocity of the first game against the Gee-Gee’s was felt due to that final playoff spot which the Gee-Gee’s have taken control over, and the win put them seven points in front of last-placed Carleton.
The game however, meant more to the University of Ottawa and the rest of the RSEQ community. It remembered the passing of former Gee-Gee Mélisa Kingsley who lost her battle with Sarcoma in 2018. The night also had an impact on the Ravens.
“It’s tough to get your head in the game after something like that, like having her family come out,” Ravens captain Leah Scott said. “It really shows what the hockey community can be like and how supportive it can be and that it really is a family.”
After an emotional warm-up where the Gee-Gee’s wore yellow and her family was brought on the ice for puck-drop, the game was underway.
The Ravens dealt with a hot start from University of Ottawa, but kept their zone tight. A penalty call against the hosts balanced the game, but there was no connection on the power play for the Ravens.
With just under five minutes left in the first, Meagan McGaughey scored to put the Gee-Gee’s up 1-0.
In the second period, the Ravens’ big chance came from a 5-on-3 advantage, but Gee-Gee’s goaltender Aurélie Dubuc finished it off with an impressive save with her glove. After the penalty expired, Carleton’s Marie-Eve Cote flashed her own glove for a save on Mélodie Bouchard.
But just as the Raven’s began to feel their stride again, Jade Todd went end-to-end to finish with a backhanded shot past Cote and put the Gee-Gee’s up 2-0 heading into the third.
Mélina Roy then put an end to Carleton’s hopes of a comeback early in the third by getting another goal on the power play as the University of Ottawa looked to kill the rest of the game off.
With just under six minutes left of the third period, Ravens head coach Pierre Alain made the decision to pull his goaltender for a final effort to make a comeback and collect the crucial points. But it ended with a creeping empty-netter by Christine Deaudelin shot from the other end of the ice, resulting in a 4-0 loss.
Cote returned to her crease as the clock wined down and Dubuc earned the shutout against the Ravens.
“We knew it was a big game for us so we just tried to keep that out of our minds and play the game that we know,” said Scott on the performance.
“That’s obviously not how we wanted it to go, but we’ve got four games left and we’ll keep pushing to the end,” said Scott.
The loss put Carleton in a do-or-die situation heading into the match against Montreal. Carleton had lots of ground to make up, with only eight points up for grabs in their last four games.
Sunday’s game against the Montreal Carabins started rocky for the Ravens. Not even a minute into the game, Kaleigh Quennec put a rebound behind Alexandra Lehmann to bring the hosts up 1-0.
Halfway through the first period Montreal’s Éloise Dubé put a high wrist shot past the glove of Lehmann, forcing the struggling Ravens to dig themselves out of a 2-0 hole early in the game.
Scoring has been an issue for Carleton throughout the season, netting only five goals since the beginning of the second half of the season.
“We need to be a little more creative, especially in the neutral zone. It gives ourselves time and space to enter the zone, the offensive zone with more speed and space,” Alain said.
“This is something that we’ve been working on a lot and that we’re still going to work on.”
The second period saw penalties against Carleton start to pile up, making the deficit much more difficult to overcome. However, Lehmann and the penalty killers kept the score at 2-0 to keep them in the game going into the third.
Early in the third, Montreal wanted to make this game unreachable. Carabins captain Catherine Dubois put in a goal on the far side of Lehmann, putting the Carabins up 3-0.
But the Ravens, weren’t giving up and it was Bethan Wilson who breathed new life into the team as she shot one deep from the point to sneak past Maude Trevisan.
Like the night earlier, Alain once again made the decision to pull his goaltender early on in order to spark a comeback, but another empty-netter put a dagger into Carleton’s hopes of a comeback and a playoff spot.
After the game, Alain didn’t regret his decision.
“We were pushing hard, we were on Montreal’s end for four or five minutes, so we told ourselves why don’t we take a time-out and pull the goalie because we had a momentum … losing 4-1 or losing 3-1, if you don’t try then you will never win,” said Alain.
With the Ravens out of the playoff race, the work for next season can begin early.
“We have to bring our effort to another level, execution during practices as well. We’re going to work a lot on skills: passing, receiving, shooting, stick handling,” Alain said.
The Ravens’ next game is against the McGill University Martlets in Montreal on Feb. 9 at 3 p.m.
Feature image from file.
