The Carleton Ravens women’s hockey team had a tough home opener on Sept. 14th, losing 6-3 to the Université de Montréal Carabins.
The Carabins took advantage of the penalties and mistakes made by the Ravens, leading to the first loss of the season for the women.
“They capitalized on our mistakes,” head coach Shelley Coolidge said post-game.
Two out of the six goals for the Carabins were power play goals, as there were 14 penalty minutes served by the Ravens throughout the game, the majority coming in the first period.
The Ravens’ first goal came from first-year defence Julianne Bruce midway through the second period. That seemed to motivate the team, as the game grew faster and tougher later in the game while staying clean.
There was even a moment before the end of the third frame when fourth-year Ravens goaltender Eri Kiribuchi needed to take a minute to recover from what looked like an injury to the neck.
Despite the score not being in their favour, the team was very optimistic following the heavy loss.
“I thought we went really hard, even though a few breakdowns led to goals for them,” veteran forward Victoria Gouge said. “We battled really hard, we just have to go all 60 minutes and we should be okay.”
Fourth-year Kelsey Vander Veen and third-year Sadie Wegner rounded out the scoring for the Ravens, with assists from Vander Veen, Sadie Wegner and Gouge.
The team is optimistic about the remainder of the season.
“The team has really turned into something great,” Gouge said. “The atmosphere in the dressing room is great and I’m really impressed with how we are starting the season.”
“We are excited to get [rookie defender] Hedda Gjerde back, who looked great during training camp but suffered an injury,” Coolidge said.
Despite the loss, the team was aggressive in the corners and on face-offs, and never seemed to slow down.
“We are focusing on our offence and winning battles for the puck this season,” Coolidge said.
“Our next game is against Concordia, so we are going to keep improving our offence.”
The team encourages fans to come out to the games this season.
“We will play our hearts out for them,” Gouge said. “We love to see fans out there, it gets us pumped, so all the support we can get would be great.”
The Ravens take to the ice again Oct. 20 against the Concordia Stingers in Montreal.
