After two wins their first weekend, the Carleton Ravens women’s hockey team lost both their games this weekend against the Université de Montréal Carabins and McGill Martlets.
Friday: 5-1 Ravens loss
Carleton’s game against the Carabins started and ended poorly. Just two minutes into the first period, goaltender Marie-Eve Cote attempted a play behind her net but lost the puck to a Montreal player who centred it for a tap-in goal.
Despite the error, Cote was unphased, making save after save as the Ravens faced heavy pressure from Montreal. Nearly halfway through the game, Montreal was outshooting Carleton 17-5 and pinning the Ravens in their end.
Defensively, Carleton was playing a strong side strategy where they overloaded all their players on the side of the ice with the puck. A breakdown of this system led to Montreal’s second goal.
Montreal had the puck at the far-side half wall, which Carleton defended with three players. The puck went from Montreal’s right to left defender and Carleton was slow to switch strong sides, allowing the Carabins to walk in unguarded and score.
Three of Montreal’s goals were scored with similar defensive errors while Carleton’s strong side switched.
Montreal was up 5-0 but with a minute left to play, Ravens rookie Sydney Berta scored her first goal of the year to prevent the shutout.
Head coach Pierre Alain said his team got a sense of how hockey is at the Réseau du sport étudiant (RSEQ) level.
“Welcome to the RSEQ division,” he said. “You can’t let down one night at this level and especially in this division.”
RSEQ is the smallest conference in U Sports hockey, meaning the Ravens play the same five teams five times each. RSEQ is also home to some of the nation’s strongest competition. Of all Canadian university women’s hockey, just four schools have won multiple national championships—three of which play in RSEQ.
Alain said he wanted to see more hustle, better execution and more contribution from Carleton’s top players.
“That’s the way those teams that win nationals will play every night,” Alain said.
Sunday: 7-2 Ravens loss
After Friday’s loss, it didn’t get any easier for Carleton on Sunday. They faced McGill, who was ranked as the best team in the nation and had outscored opponents 11-2 entering Sunday.
Still, Carleton began the game stronger than it did against Montreal.
Five minutes into the first period, Sandrine Hachez took the first of Carleton’s seven penalties and 40 seconds into their power play, McGill converted.
Carleton played hard for the next 10 minutes, killing off a penalty and drawing a power play of their own. Twenty seconds into their power play, defenseman Rhys Cole-Ashbury floated a shot on net that made it through traffic and tied the game 1-1.
It seemed Carleton would leave the first period holding steady with McGill but with 12 seconds left in the frame, Carleton got caught again pressing on the strong side. It left two McGill players completely unguarded for the go-ahead goal.
The Martlets scored 54 seconds into the second period, but Carleton kept it close for a few more minutes. When McGill made a mistake, Berta seized the opportunity and scored, making it 3-2.
The game went back and forth until Carleton took another penalty. Like clockwork, McGill scored on the power play; when Carleton took a fourth penalty, McGill scored again.
Late in the second, Carleton was behind by three goals.
Penalties cost the Ravens again in the third period. Even though McGill didn’t score on its power plays, it used the opportunity to possess the pick and kill time. Carleton also failed to convert on their own power play chances, making a comeback near impossible.
McGill scored two more goals in the final five minutes to end the game 7-2.
Alain said the game was a learning experience for the team.
“We scored our first power play goal,” Alain said. “We are the only team to have scored more than one goal on [McGill].”
Alain said defence and penalty killing are two clear areas where the team needs to improve, but overall, a 2-2 start to the season is a positive.
“Considering the young team we have, .500 is good for us,” Alain said.
Featured image by Isaac Phan Nay.
