The Ravens women’s hockey team has added 10 new players for this upcoming season.
The team will be hoping to snap their four-year-long playoff drought and to improve on its disappointing 4-14-2 record from the 2016 season.
On the offensive side the Ravens have added five new players to the team. Carleton finished last season in last place in goals per game in the Réseau du Sport Étudiant du Québec (RSEQ) and 26th in the U Sports rankings with 1.95 goals per game.
The five new acquisitions up front are meant to address the weakness that was their scoring.
The Ravens are adding Taylor Killip, a forward for the Pacific Steelers of the Junior Women’s Hockey League last season. In that time, Killip played 24 games, scoring four goals and two assists for a total of six points.
Halle Bodnarchuk played her last two years as a forward in the Canadian Sport School Hockey League for the Edge School and is the latest Raven to be acquired.
During Bodnarchuk’s time with the Edge School, she played 24 games, collecting three goals and three assists for a total of six points.
Samantha Jones was also recently acquired by the Ravens. Before joining the Ravens, Jones played as a forward for the Toronto Leaside Junior Wildcats of the Provincial Women’s Hockey League (PWHL). In 75 games, Jones scored 13 goals and notched 17 assists for a total of 30 points.
Carly Wouters is another asset the Ravens have added for this upcoming season. Wouters was the captain of the Bluewater Hawks of the PWHL last season and played as a forward for 101 games in three seasons. Wouters recorded 10 goals and 21 assists for 31 points in those games.
Danae Guay is another one of the five forwards that have been added to the Ravens’ roster. Guay played for the Cégep Saint-Laurent Patriotes last season and collected nine goals and four assists in 24 games for 13 points.
Another area that the team hopes to address is their defensive play. Allowing 3.45 goals per game landed them last in RSEQ and second-last in U Sports for goals against per game.
Three new players have been added to address the gaps in the Ravens defense.
Alex Bond is one of many new faces on the Ravens roster for this upcoming year. Bond played defense for Bemidji State University (BSU) in Minnesota, prior to joining the Ravens.
During her time at BSU, Bond played in five games in 2014-15, three games in 2015-16 and did not play last season.
Further growing their depth, the Ravens have also signed defenseman Cassey Corriveau. Corriveau played 39 games for the Cégep Saint-Laurent Patriotes of the Quebec College Hockey League and collected two goals and seven assists in that time for nine career points.
The final player the Ravens have added is defenseman Dallas Dawson of the Brampton Jr. Canadettes (PWHL). During her time with the Canadettes, Dawson scored one goal and five assists in 37 games for a total of six points.
The Ravens also improved their goaltending in hopes of solidifying their net presence by adding Nieve Seeley of the Lady Ottawa Jr. Sens.
Seeley played seven games for the Sens last year posting a stellar 1.57 goals against average and three shutouts in that span.
“The new players on the team will push all the returning players to be better and compete at the same time” Pierre Alain said.
Last season, the team failed to make the playoffs but Alain said he does not intend on maintaining that trend.
“We want to make the playoffs, score more goals and allow less . . . We need to be faster, focus on the team system and execute the little things required to win games,” Alain said.
The women’s hockey team will play their home opener on Oct. 13 against the Université de Montréal Carabins.
Photo by Trevor Swann
