Ravens topple top-ranked Martlets on road
Photo by: Murray McComb
Story by: Eric Balnar
The Carleton University Ravens women’s hockey team pulled off one of the biggest upsets of the hockey season by defeating the top-ranked McGill University Martlets 4-3 in a shootout on the road.
Heading into this game, the mighty Martlets had outscored their opponents 23-2 in the first period and had won 116 of their last 117 regular season games.
Today was a different story. Instead, it was the Ravens that provided a scoring jolt in the early going against the heavily-favoured McGill squad as Erin Beaver (Oakville, Ont.) got Carleton on the board less than two minutes into the contest.
After Kim Ton-That (Vaudreuil-Dorion, Que.) tallied her fourth of the year for McGill, Carleton’s leading goal scorer, Claudia Bergeron (Drummondville, Que.), beat Olympic goalie Charline Labonte (Boisbriand, Que.) to restore the lead midway through the period.
Tamber Tisdale (Red Deer, Alta.) was fantastic in net for the Ravens, stopping 10 of 11 shots in the first period to give Carleton a 2-1 lead.
Carleton held its own in the second period, despite being outshot 13-6. However, with only 15 seconds left in the frame, Stacie Tardif (Ste. Anne de Bellevue, Que.) beat Tisdale to tie the game up at two.
Tardif would strike again in the early third period, when she blasted a shot from the point to give McGill its first lead of the game.
But the Ravens showed their true character and got themselves right back in the game.
While on the power play, captain Sara Seiler (Miesbach, Germany) blasted home a hard wrist shot to knot things back up.
Carleton kept the score tied the rest of the way and forced overtime to steal a valuable point on the road. The Ravens rode the hot play of Tisdale in net, who stopped 32 of 35 shots in regulation and arguably outdueled her Olympian counterpart.
Tisdale continued to thwart the Martlets in the extra frame as she stopped another four shots while her team wasn’t able muster a scoring opportunity.
The shootout was just as thrilling as the game. Melanie McKnight (Barrie, Ont.) scored the first goal for the Ravens to put them up 1-0. The score held until the final shooter, but Ann-Sophie Bettez (Sept Iles, Que.) fooled Tisdale to send the shootout to an extra round.
However, Carleton would complete the upset when Sydnie MacDonald (Ottawa) screeched down the rink on the extra round and buried a winner to pull off the colossal upset.
McGill will come to Carleton next Saturday afternoon for a shot at redemption.
Score by period:
Ravens: 2+0+1+0+1=4(2)
Martlets: 1+1+1+0+0=3(1)
Scoring:
Ravens: Erin Beaver, Claudia Bergeron, Sara Seiler
Martlets: Kim Ton-That, Stacie Tardif (2)
Shots:
Ravens: 5+6+8+0=19
Martlets: 11+13+11+4=39
Saves:
Ravens: Tamber Tisdale – 36 saves
Martlets: Charline Labonte – 16 saves
Power play:
Ravens: 1/4
Martlets: 0/5
