The Carleton Ravens women's hockey team begin their hunt for an RSEQ playoff spot Saturday evening when they travel to the Ed Meaghar Arena to face Concordia. Carleton begin the second half of their final RSEQ season one point behind the Ottawa Gee-Gees for the fourth and final playoff spot.
The 5-8 Ravens sit middle of the standings in most statistical categories including being fourth in goals scored and goals against. After finding her footing in the Ravens' goal, transfer Caitlin Whitehead has been fantastic for the Ravens in 2023-24 posting a sparkling 1.63 goals against average and 0.948 save percentage since the calendar turned to November.
The Ravens will need more than just solid goaltending if they're going to be the first team to knock off Concordia this season. The 13-0 Stingers have been nearly flawless. Their +38 goal differential is the best in the league by 33, while their 33.3% power play and 94.92% penalty kill have also set the standard in the league.
Emilie Loussier, Emilie Lavoie and Jessymaude Drapeau all sit in the top five in RSEQ scoring with three more teammates tied for spots in the top 10. The Ravens are led offensively by Cecilia Lopez, the Winnipeg product heated up in the second half of the fall scoring 9 points for the Ravens over 11 games. Jenna Morais is in a four-way tie for second on the team in scoring, the veteran contributed 4 goals in the first half to go along with 2 assists. Hayden Serniuk, Payton Miller and Lanie Guimond all round out the group at six points. The trio each wrapped the first half of the year with outputs of 2 and 4.
Special teams will need to be a big focus for the Ravens if they want to make the playoffs, currently the black birds are last in the league on the penalty kill at 77.2% and second last on the power play at 8.9%.
The Ravens drive for an RSEQ playoff spot starts Saturday night when they face Concordia at 5:30 p.m.
