The Carleton Ravens women’s hockey team snapped a lengthy losing streak on Feb. 14 when they defeated the Concordia Stingers 2-0 at the Ice House.
“What I liked the most today was we played a good first [period], we played a better second, and an even better third,” said Ravens head coach Pierre Alain. “We were better and better as the game went on.”
“I would say our second and third, and especially our third was our best of the year. But the whole game, we were consistent for 60 minutes,” he said.
Heading into the game, the rested Ravens were hoping to capitalize against a Stingers squad that had seen action the day before.
Despite this, Concordia controlled the flow of play through the first period. They generated 10 shots on goal while Carleton could only muster three shots.
As the second period wore on, momentum began to shift in the Ravens’ favour, as they evened up the shot count at 17 through 40 minutes and saw several opportunities on the power play.
The game seemed destined to head to overtime before forward Kaylie Welk deked and dangled her way through a pair of Concordia defenders and buried a power play marker past goaltender Katherine Purchase to give the Ravens the lead with only six minutes left in regulation.
“It’s been a while since I’ve had a goal like that,” Welk said. “But it felt really good and I felt like I had a hot stick today.”
Ravens goaltender Katelyn Steele made several key saves to hold the lead, then Shannon Pearson put a puck in the empty net in the final 10 seconds to secure the victory for Carleton.
The win ended several weeks of frustration for the Ravens squad. Despite sitting at 3-7 after the first half of the season, the playoffs remained within reach. However, Carleton stumbled to start the second half of the year and were unable to recover in the standings.
Welk said she was pleased to finally see the efforts of the Ravens be rewarded in the win column.
“Honestly, we worked together as a team all semester, all year and it finally showed through our hard work, and we definitely collectively capitalized on our opportunities today.”
The win improved the Ravens’ record to 4-15, which guarantees they will improve on their record from last year when they finished 3-17. With the win, Carleton also won the season series against Concordia, going 3-2 in their five meetings.
Despite the win, Carleton was eliminated from post-season contention earlier in the year and will conclude their season on Feb. 21 at the Ice House against the University of Ottawa Gee-Gees.
