The Carleton Ravens women’s hockey team is still finding ways to win as their regular season nears an end.
The Ravens lost to the Concordia Stingers by a score 3-2 on Feb. 10 at Ed Meagher Arena. But two days later, Carleton was able to defeat the Stingers for the first time this season in a 3-1 victory at the Ice House.
“We have improved every week, every game,” said Ravens head coach Pierre Alain following the second game against Concordia. “We’re young and we can tell the young team is very promising and I really like the way we have improved this year, and we’ll be ready for our last regular season game.”
Seven minutes into the first period game against the Stingers, Concordia forward Stephanie Lalancette opened the scoring.
Five minutes later, Stingers forward Audrey Belzile scored on the power play to double Concordia’s lead through 20 minutes.
Midway through the second period, Carleton cut the lead in half when Ravens forward Delaney Ross passed the puck to Nicole Miners, and Miners found the back of the net for her third goal of the season.
Halfway into the third period, Stingers forward Alexandria D’Onofrio scored to restore the two-goal lead.
The Ravens wasted no time, as forward Guindon scored on a power play moments later to pull within one once again.
Carleton was unable to tie up the game, however, and ultimately fell short.
The Ravens’ home game against the Stingers two days later marked the final home game for Guindon, along with Ravens forwards Kaylie Welk, Audrey-Ann Boutour, and defender Sam Tayler.
“It was awesome, obviously. We played a hard-fought game on Friday, but this one was huge because we know it was for the four graduating players and everyone was ready to go and the energy was up,” Guidon said following the game. “I think the big difference is that everyone had fun and we just went along with it.”
Nine minutes into the game, Stingers forward Tracy-Ann Lavigne fired the puck past Ravens goaltender Katelyn Steele to open the scoring.
Four minutes later, Guindon pounced on a rebound and sent it past Stingers goaltender Katherine Purchase to tie the game.
The Ravens then gained the lead on the power play when Katia Boulianne scored her third goal of the season.
Carleton was able to hang onto the lead, and Ravens forward Shannon Pearson scored an empty net goal to give the Ravens a 3-1 victory.
The Ravens will wrap up their season on the road when they take on the McGill Martlets on Feb. 19.
“We’ve allowed seven goals against McGill, so we need to be better on defence and we need to take care of the puck like we did this weekend. We took care way more of the puck this weekend and next week we need to be good on defence and take care of the puck,” Alain said.
– Photo by Cameron Penney
