The Carleton Ravens women’s hockey team played a home-and-home series against McGill in two games that displayed stellar goaltending from both sides.
On Friday night, Ravens goaltender Katelyn Steele led the way, stopping all 35 shots she faced to earn a shutout.
“She’s Katelyn Steele, she stops the puck,” said Ravens head coach Pierre Alain of the second-year goaltender. “She works as hard or harder than everybody else, and she’s a wall. She deserves all the credit.”
Despite the Ravens only mustering three shots on goal in the opening frame, while surrendering 11 shots, the game was tied at zeros after one.
Late in the second period, Becky Davidson’s shot was able to find the back of the net and give the Ravens the lead. Steele’s stellar play continued throughout the game, never allowing a goal and leading the Ravens to their first home win of the season.
“Everyone bought into the systems and came prepared to play,” Davidson said. “We played hard for all three periods and that’s the work ethic you need to be successful.”
“We kept them to the outside, made sure they couldn’t shoot, and we won the important battles,” Alain said.
On Sunday, the Ravens travelled to McGill in hopes of defeating the Redmen for the second time in three nights.
Similarly to the previous contest, scoring continued to be difficult for both sides.
Steele stopped 25 of 26 shots through two periods before leaving the game with a lower body injury. Alain said after the game that he doesn’t expect the injury to keep her out for the long term.
Hailey Perreault took over in net during the third period, stopping 17 of 18 shots along the way.
The Ravens were unable to score in the game, and went home with a 2-0 loss.
“We battled hard, we kept up the pace and our defensive zone play was very good but we need to find ways to score goals and avoid unnecessary penalties,” said Ravens captain Tawnya Guindon.
“It could have gone either way but we will learn from it and continue to move in the right direction . . . This weekend has given us a confidence booster that we needed and it has made us realize that we are capable of competing in this league.”
Nov. 20, the Ravens will host the Montreal Carabins at 7 p.m. at the Carleton Ice House, and look to avenge their two previous losses at the hands of the Carabins this season.
