The Carleton Ravens women’s hockey team may have had their injury-plagued season end early in the playoffs, but both players and coaches admit they were impressed with how they dealt with adversity throughout the year.
“I thought we had a group of girls who competed really hard throughout the season, and we can only be proud of their effort,” Ravens head coach Shelley Coolidge said.
However, she said that it was a struggle even getting through the season due to the seemingly constant stream of injuries her team faced.
“I look back at the number of injuries we had this year, and out of all the years I’ve ever coached, this was the shortest bench I’ve ever had to work with,” she said. “We had significant injuries to a number of key players for long periods of time.”
Carleton finished with a 6-13-1 record and received the fourth and final playoff spot in the Réseau du sport étudiant du Québec (RSEQ) division, where they took on the top-ranked McGill Martlets in the semi-finals.
The Ravens, who lost all five regular season games to McGill, wound up being swept by the superior side, and despite a blowout 9-0 loss in Game 1, Carleton rebounded and only lost Game 2 by a score of 3-1.
“We had a fairly good share of adversity during the whole season, and even though we lost our last game, I think it was a statement game for our program because it proved that we can compete with the best there is in the country,” third-year forward Alexandra Yallouz said.
Coolidge added that her team were quite often playing with a short lineup, and at one time during a regular season game against McGill, she remembers looking down on the bench during a shift and only seeing one substitute player.
While Coolidge jokingly admitted she could not keep track of every injury her team had to overcome this season, Yallouz was one of the few players who remained healthy for the entire year.
Yallouz, who coincidentally finished her first completely healthy season at Carleton, said that even though it was unfortunate for the team to deal with so many injuries, she did not want their bad luck with injuries to be an excuse for their season.
“As a player, you can only control what you do on the ice. So, if there are injuries, yes, they are a problem, but you still have to make the most of what you’ve got as a team,” she said.
The roster holes at every position also provided many players with the opportunity to capitalize on more ice time, and Coolidge said those experiences will bode well for the rookies and veterans who were the beneficiaries of additional playing time.
One of the most difficult positions to fill was in net, where Carleton only began the year with two goalies on their roster.
Jessica Thompson, who did not begin the year with the Ravens, said she was thrilled with the amazing opportunity to join the team after both of their main goalies, Tamber Tisdale and Eri Kiribuchi, were battling injuries during the year.
“It was scary at first because I went from being a normal student to varsity athlete in just a few days, but being a part of the team was awesome because it’s like having a family away from home,” she said.
Despite horrible luck with injuries playing a significant factor in the Ravens not achieving the success they wanted this year, Coolidge refuses to be disappointed with her team’s results.
“It gave us a really good opportunity to build character as a staff and as a team,” she said. “It was challenging in many respects, but also very beneficial for the future of the program.”
She said the only real disappointment will be the loss of however many graduating veterans, whose final chapter at Carleton surely did not end as they would have hoped.
With so many players getting opportunities to develop last season and several formerly-injured players who will be returning at full health in the fall, Yallouz said her team has a lot to look forward to in their upcoming year.
“Hopefully, all the girls who persevered through the injuries we dealt with will take that competitiveness and drive to compete from this season and harness it for a healthy season next year.”
