The Carleton Ravens women’s hockey team made history on the road Jan. 22, defeating the top-ranked McGill Martlets 4-3 in a six-round shootout.
Coming off a disappointing loss to the University of Ottawa Gee-Gees the previous week, the Ravens recorded their first ever win over the Martlets in 65 attempts — a feat made even more impressive by the fact that the Martlets are the top ranked team in the country.
“The atmosphere was unreal. Our team was so happy and just motivating each other,” said second-year Ravens goaltender Tamber Tisdale. “It was the best game we’ve played all season.”
Coming into the game, the Martlets had won 116 of their last 117 regular season games. They’ve also won three of the last four Canadian Interuniversity Sport championships.
Tisdale was once again superb in net, making 36 saves in the monumental victory. In the process, she outplayed her counterpart Charline Labonte, who has won two Olympic gold medals as the goaltender for Canada’s national women’s team.
“[Tisdale] has been playing very confidently in net,” said Ravens head coach Shelley Coolidge. “She is challenging the shooters and remains calm and composed under pressure.”
“She controlled the shootout today.”
Before a shootout was needed to decide the victor, the game went back and forth, with both teams holding a lead during the game.
The Ravens jumped to an early lead when defenceman Erin Beaver scored less than two minutes into the game. But the Martlets replied with Kim Ton-That’s fourth goal of the season just a few minutes later, tying things up at one.
Midway through the opening period, the Ravens’ leading goal scorer Claudia Bergeron got her team back in front and it stayed that way until the dying seconds of the middle frame. A hard-fought second period ended with the Martlets equalizing through Stacie Tardif with just 15 seconds remaining in the period.
With the game tied at two and on a knife’s edge, the Martlets took momentum into the final period, and were rewarded early on with Tardif’s second goal of the game. She snapped home a bullet from the point to give the Martlets their first lead of the night.
Playing catch-up for the first time, the Ravens knew they had to come up with something fast if they wanted to avoid becoming yet another casualty of the dominant Martlets.
It was only fitting that Ravens captain Sara Seiler, who had been buzzing all night, wired home a wicked wrist shot on the power play to tie things up at three with seven minutes left in regulation.
When the final buzzer sounded, the Ravens had secured a precious point on the road — something they had done only once before against McGill in their program’s history.
Overtime saw Tisdale standing tall as she had done all game long, making a series of saves to send the game into a shootout.
In the shootout, it all came down to the stick of Sydnie MacDonald to complete the historic upset. After five rounds solved nothing, the third-year Ottawa native beat Labonte to gift the Ravens their first-ever win over the Martlets.
“We played a great team game today,” Coolidge said. “The players played our systems in a very disciplined way — [it] was a total team effort.”
Coolidge also praised Tisdale, crediting her for working hard and leading the team.
“On-ice and off, [Tisdale’s] training, effort and competitive drive are paying off in the confidence she is showing in her play and leading this team,” she said.
“I thought I played really good,” Tisdale said. “I know I can play better, I know that they’re going to bring it [Jan. 28] and I’m going to try and bring it even better than I did [last weekend].”
The Martlets will surely be itching to avenge this loss, and they will have a chance to do that when they visit Carleton Jan. 28.
— with files from Callum Micucci
