Sporting purple laces on Do It For Daron fundraiser night, the Carleton Ravens women’s hockey team snapped a two-game losing streak Feb. 4 at home against the Concordia Stingers.
With the 5-4 shootout victory, the Ravens clinched a playoff spot in the five-team Réseau du sport étudiant du Québec (RSEQ).
The win was the Ravens’ first since their historic upset of the McGill Martlets Jan. 22.
“I thought we did a better job of playing a team game and sticking more with the team system than we had the weekend before,” said Ravens head coach Shelley Coolidge.
Once again, the Ravens had a great goaltending effort from Tamber Tisdale, who turned aside 42 of 46 shots, while forward Kristen MacDonald enjoyed a three-point night.
Although they came out on top, the Ravens played catch-up throughout the game. After going down 2-0 midway through the first period, MacDonald put a wrist shot top corner over the glove hand of Stingers goaltender Marie-Pier Rémillard to cut the lead in half.
Both teams traded goals in the second period before Claudia Bergeron banged home a rebound to tie the game at 3-3 heading into the second intermission.
After the Stingers took another lead, the Ravens managed to tie the game again on the power play with 3:03 remaining in the game to force overtime.
Ravens captain Sara Seiler netted her own rebound after a great set up out of the corner from MacDonald, who picked up her third point of the game.
In the shootout, Melanie McKnight and Bergeron scored for the Ravens and Tisdale stopped all four Concordia shooters she faced to secure the victory.
“I think it was a good team effort. We came back even though we were down [and] all around we played pretty steady,” said MacDonald, who led the Ravens with a goal and two assists and was named the Ravens’ player of the game. “It was good just to come back. I’m happy I was able to help out.”
The game wasn’t perfect for the Ravens, who surrendered four goals to the last-place Stingers, but they were able to rally from behind and get the victory.
“The goals Concordia got were a result of us not being as disciplined as we need to be,” Coolidge said. “It’s always nice from my perspective to get the two points.”
The victory against Concordia was a much-improved effort from the team compared to the previous weekend, which included a 10-0 defeat to McGill.
“It shows our character that we were able to come back,” MacDonald said. “We’ve put that behind us and we’re moving forward and we’ll finish up the season strong.”
The Ravens travelled to Montreal Feb. 5 where they defeated the Université de Montreal (UdeM) Carabins 6-5 in another shootout.
Kelsey Vander Veen led the Ravens with three goals and Tisdale had 52 saves in the come-from-behind win.
The victory improved the Ravens’ record to 7-6-3 on the season.
Going into the final stretch of the season, the Ravens are battling for playoff positing as they currently sit in third place, five points behind UdeM with one game in hand.
“Momentum heading into playoffs is really important,” Coolidge said. “We want to make sure we stay in the win column area and take it one game at a time.”
