The Carleton University Ravens men’s and women’s hockey teams enter the weekend in different positions, but they both know their games will go a long way toward deciding first round playoff matchups.

The men will look to regain their dominance at home with two games at the Ice House to close out the season, knowing they’ll need to win at least once to ensure a playoff spot.

On Friday, Feb. 10, UQTR pays a visit to Carleton with its sights set on wrapping up second place in the OUA East. The Ravens will have to try to slow down Felix Petit (Jonquiere, Que.), who comes into the game as the country’s sixth-ranked scorer with 37 points in 26 games.

It’ll be the fourth and final time the two teams meet this season, with the Ravens holding a 1-1-1 record against the Patriotes. The puck drops at 7 p.m.

On Saturday, Feb. 11 at 3 p.m., the Ravens will host the Concordia Stingers, who boast two of the top three point-getters in the CIS. Mike Stinziani (Lorraine, Que.) and George Lovatsis (Markham, Ont.) have 43 and 40 points respectively this season.

Despite trailing only UQTR in goals for in the OUA East with 114, Concordia sits in a similar position as Carleton, at risk of falling to as low as ninth place in the division.

With 29 points, the sixth-placed Ravens are only one point ahead of the eighth-placed Stingers, but they have a game in hand.

In a reversal of roles from last season, the Ravens women find themselves in a comfortable position heading into their final stretch of games. The Ravens sit in third place with four games remaining, holding a five-point cushion over cross-town rivals, the uOttawa Gee-Gees, and trailing second-place Montreal by five points with a game in hand.

This weekend the ladies will get a chance to put the Gee-Gees in the rear-view mirror, with hopes of chasing the Carabins for second place.

First, the Ravens host the McGill Martlets on Feb. 11 at 7 p.m., looking to avenge a 10-0 loss on home ice in their previous meeting. But they proved that they are capable of defeating the powerhouse Martlets, taking a 4-3 shootout win the week before.

On Feb. 12, Carleton travels to Concordia for a chance to win their fifth and final regular season matchup with the Stingers. Carleton is 4-0 against Concordia this season, owning their division rivals with a 15-8 edge in goals.

The puck drops on that game at 3 p.m.

There’s an old saying in hockey that only a goalie can appreciate what a goalie goes through.

Immersed as the number one goaltender for the surging Carleton Ravens women’s hockey team, Tamber Tisdale knows exactly what Jacques Plante meant by those words.

The 19-year-old has emerged as a rising star in the CIS, earning praise from opposing coaches and recognition from players around the league. Her .920 save percentage, which ranks her second in the Réseau du sport étudiant du Québec (RSEQ) behind only Olympic goaltender Charline Labonte of the McGill Martlets, has helped the Ravens clinch a playoff spot with four games still remaining.

At the height of it all, she helped her team make national headlines last month when she backstopped the Ravens to their first ever win over the number one-ranked Martlets, who previously lost only once in 117 games against divisional opponents.

It’s hard to believe that during her freshman year with the Ravens, Tisdale thought about giving up.

One of the country’s top goaltending recruits in 2010, the native of Red Deer, Alta. was injured on the second day of training camp, opening the door to fierce competition for time in the crease from Eri Kiribuchi and Victoria Powers.

Without consistent playing time, Tisdale never found a rhythm. After a loss to Carleton’s cross-town rival, the University of Ottawa Gee-Gees on Nov. 6, 2010, she began to wonder whether Carleton was the right fit.

“We played a game against uOttawa before Christmas last season, and I let in three really weak goals and I just was really overwhelmed with school and hockey and everything,” said Tisdale. “I just didn’t think I wanted to do this anymore.”

After Christmas, head coach Shelley Coolidge sat Tisdale down and they decided that it would be best for the first-year goaltender to focus on next year, all but shutting her down for the rest of her rookie season.

From there on, Victoria Powers – then a sophomore – started the rest of the way, dazzling the league with four straight wins at the end of the season to lead Carleton to a miraculous playoff berth and an eventual first-round exit.

Powers appeared to be entrenched as Carleton’s starter heading into this season. Tisdale had other plans.

There are different kinds of successful goaltenders. Some thrive on sound technical positioning; some get by on raw athleticism and natural ability; while others simply work harder than everyone else to improve. One common denominator required for any goalie to be successful is mental toughness.

With help from mental skills coach Alanna Veerman, that’s something Tisdale now focuses on more than anything else.

“I started working with our mental trainer in May, and we just started doing a lot of visualization so I could gain confidence,” said Tisdale.

Every game, Tisdale goes through the same routine to help prepare her mentally.

“I just picture myself in the net, and I literally think about everything – the sounds, how it feels having my equipment on, how it would feel to be tired while I’m taking shots,” said Tisdale. “Then when I’m on the ice, I don’t have to think about it. I just make the saves. I don’t have to think about it because I already visualized it before the game.”

Although already technically-skilled, she’s also gotten help from second-year assistant head coach Valerie Charbonneau, who still holds several team records after starting in goal for the Ravens for five seasons.

Tisdale prides herself on her technical skills, relating her butterfly-style of play to her favourite NHL goaltender, Pittsburgh Penguins star Marc-André Fleury. That makes things easier for Ravens goaltending coach Tom Dempsey, who’s worked first-hand with Fleury.

Coolidge says Tisdale’s off-season progress is clear.

“[Tisdale] knew that for her to have a chance to play, she needed to do the work to be the best that she could,” said Coolidge. “She’s always had the skill-set. She’s a great goaltender and she did all of the work over the summer to come in healthy this season. For her it was just having the mental skill side.”

The third-year head coach said Carleton’s other two goaltenders have also helped Tisdale elevate her game. Coolidge says Kiribuchi’s work ethic and attention to detail is second to none, which pushes Tisdale to work harder to improve in all aspects of her game.

Powers, meanwhile, is known for her composure – something Tisdale has struggled with in the past.

“When you look at Victoria Powers, she’s just such a calm personality and doesn’t get rattled, so on that side, Tamber can really draw from that because Victoria’s composure and calmness in the net helps settle a team down,” said Coolidge.

Started Late

Tisdale wasn’t destined to be a goaltender, at least from an early age like many others. Growing up in Red Deer, a city of 90,000 in central Alberta, she didn’t switch from ringette to hockey until close to the age of 11. Even then, she didn’t take up goaltending until she was a teenager.

“I actually didn’t start being a goalie until first-year bantam, and in my first game I let in like 20 goals, it was so bad,” recalled Tisdale. “My coach said ‘I’m never letting you be goalie again’ but I really liked it, so I just kept on going.”

Her mental toughness as a 13-year-old must’ve been impeccable.

Tisdale didn’t come from a hockey family, but much like herself, her parents were athletic. Until she started playing hockey, Tisdale was also a competitive swimmer. Still, living in Alberta, she grew up cheering for the Flames and idolizing the likes of Miikka Kiprusoff and Jarome Iginla. Most of her friends in school also played hockey, convincing her to play as well.

As her skills in net developed, Tisdale attended the Athol Murray College of Notre Dame in Wilcox, Saskatchewan in Grade 11 and 12, where she spent two years as a starter for the Notre Dame Hounds, carrying her team to an Esso Cup finals appearance in April 2010.

The Hounds fell 4-3, but Tisdale made 33 saves in a losing effort before more than 4,000 spectators – a rare accomplishment in women’s hockey.

“I felt like I accomplished so much getting that far,” recalled Tisdale, who had trouble describing what it felt like to play in front of such a large crowd. “TSN broadcasted it and having that many people there and a lot of my family there – it was a really good moment for me to see how hard I worked and to see that it was paying off.”

That summer, Tisdale had to decide where she was going to play next. She visited at least 15 different schools across Canada, eventually finding her way to Carleton to study commerce and suit up for Coolidge’s Ravens.

“I really liked the rink here and the facilities, and I liked how the campus was all centralized, it wasn’t all over the place. I thought Ottawa was a good city – it’s not too big it’s not too small.”

It was a chance to start fresh with a new city, new friends and a new team. As a top recruit, she had high expectations for her rookie season, but when early challenges arose, she had trouble keeping a level head.

“I came in as a number one-recruited goalie and I put way too much pressure on myself, then I had an injury early in training camp, so I got off to a really slow start there,” said Tisdale. “After the other two goalies were playing really well I just kind of lost all confidence in my game and never gained it back.”

Although nothing seemed to be going her way, Tisdale ultimately showed the same resiliency as when she was a teenager, back when she made her first appearance in the net.

“About a week after my lowest point I just said to myself ‘you’re going to be starting goalie next year and there’s not even a question about it’,” said Tisdale.

She held her promise. The next season, Tisdale started the first three games of the season, and by Oct. 30 – on a night when she stopped 46 of 48 shots in a 2-0 loss to McGill – she had a stronghold on the number one job.

Her success continued into November, earning RSEQ female athlete of the week honours for a 40-save win against the Montreal Carabins, and more impressively, a 34-save shutout against the Concordia Stingers – her first of the season.

On Jan. 22, Tisdale and the Ravens achieved the unthinkable: a road win over the nation’s top team, the McGill Martlets. The second-year goaltender was one of the game’s top stars, making 36 saves and stopping five of six shooters in the shootout, including the game-winning save against the country’s highest-scorer, Katia Clement-Heydra.

“I felt on top of the world for the whole week. It was a great feeling,” said Tisdale.

The win was a symbol of the kind of progress the program has made in just three short years under the watch of Coolidge. It was clear that Tisdale was becoming a major part of that success.

But the team still has a lot of growing to do, and as Coolidge asserts, so does her top goaltender.

The following week, with a chance to prove they can beat the country’s top team more than once, Carleton fell 10-0 on home ice to the Martlets. Tisdale was pulled after giving up four goals.

“I knew they were going to come out hard, they got some pretty nice goals off me right off the start so [Coolidge] and I just kind of decided after the first period that I wasn’t going to play anymore,” said Tisdale. “I was obviously really upset about it. It didn’t really take me long to get over it at all, I just thought ‘there’s nothing we can do about it, I might as well not dwell over it.’ The next day we played UdeM and I came out hard and I wanted a win even more.”

Coolidge said these setbacks are just part of a goaltender’s development.

“I think that when you look at goalies and their reactions, they’re going to grow through different life experiences,” said Coolidge. “I expect that a goalie should be upset when they get pulled from a game, everybody wants to compete and play and show that you can compete and play at your best.”

After a rough weekend, Tisdale eventually bounced back, making a combined 96 saves in back-to-back shootout wins over Concordia and Montreal on Feb. 4 and Feb. 5. After clinching a playoff spot, Tisdale now has her sights set on taking her team to the next level.

A win against Carleton’s likely first-round opponent, Montreal, and the Ravens are off to nationals.

“Our team’s goal is to go to nationals and I know we can do it because if we stay in third place then we’re playing UdeM in the first round, and I know we can beat that team – we have twice before,” said Tisdale.

Tisdale acknowledges that the key to continuing such success is the same thing that allowed her to breakout this season: mental toughness.

“I know I just need to keep on controlling what I can control, and I don’t need to worry about the rest of the team because that’s kind of what happened against McGill,” said Tisdale. “I just need to keep on playing my game and having fun and staying confident.”

Coolidge says that despite Tisdale’s success this season, there’s plenty of room for growth.

“[Tisdale} is a great young goalie, but a big part of a goaltender’s game is the mental side of the game and I think she’s only about a year into really working on that part of the game,” said Coolidge. “As she matures as an individual and a goaltender, she’s going to be tougher in the net.”

The Ravens are the defending silver medalists, having earned three individual medals and two team medals in foil and epee at last year’s championships. Though the Ravens have had an impressive roster for the past few seasons, they are now facing the challenge of a rebuilding year.

“We’ve had a pretty strong team for a number of years,” says head coach Eli Sukunda. “Now it’s time to rebuild.”

Despite a successful appearance at the Carleton Invitational in January, Sukunda says the team is “virtually made up of brand new players and will take a few years to build up.”

The team has been practicing four times a week as they prepare for the championships. Earlier in the season, they spent a lot of time getting in shape, but are now focused on making sure they have a lot of energy and movement.

Sukunda says one of their main priorities in practice has been sharpening their hand-eye coordination.  As the championship weekend approaches, the team has been given less instruction and is focused more on engaging in combat.

One of the best ways to prepare for tournaments is to hold smaller ones, says Sukunda.

“We have a chalkboard at practice and the first thing the players do is sign up and fence as many people as they can, keeping track of victories and losses.”

Though the Ravens will be without the help of the three individual medalists at last year’s championships – Scott McNeil (Calgary), Michael Dobbelsteyn (Dutch Valley, N.B.) and Ben Riley (Osgoode, Ont.) – they do have some returning veterans, including Mike Ivankovic (Kitchener, Ont.) and Evan Heyes (St. Catherines, Ont.), who can help Carleton in the battle to bring home a medal.

The championships will be hosted by the defending champion Queen’s Gaels on Feb. 11 and 12.

Come catch this on and off-ice decisive affair in what  should be the best-attended hockey game of the season!

** the beverage garden will be open for this game **

You can purchase and print your tickets online, or better yet, if you know or would like to support one of the top 10 contestants (the winner will be the one who brings the most people to the game!), find them directly for tickets.

**Varsity Passes not accepted for this game.  $2 for students**

This is your chance to join another 150 fans on an unforgettable trip to Halifax to cheer on your Ravens men’s basketball team LIVE as they attempt to win their 8th CIS championship in 10 years!

Last year, the Ravens made their ninth consecutive Final 8 appearance. They were unstoppable in the tournament, defeating Concordia 73-66 in the quarter-final and taking a 95-83 semifinal victory over Saskatchewan before dominating Trinity Western 82-59 in the final to capture Carleton’s seventh national title in nine years and solidify the Ravens dynasty. They are now only one championship away from tying the historic record of eight titles, held by Victoria.

So come to Halifax and show the rest of the country that we not only have the best team in the nation but some of the loudest and craziest fans! Your package will include:
-    Bus trip to and from Halifax
-    2 nights accommodation at the lovely Delta Barrington in downtown Halifax with 150 other crazy fans
-    Tickets to all 3 of Carleton’s games!

Packages are $145.00 for quad occupancy ($210.00 for double) and can be purchased from the Red Zone in the Atrium (must first be a member).  If you have any questions or want to book your trip and can’t find RZ on campus, please email CUatHali@gmail.com.

Don’t miss this opportunity as this will be the last time nationals are in Hali before 2015.

** The bus will be leaving from Alumni Hall on Thursday, March 8 at 5 p.m. sharp and will return mid to late afternoon on Monday, March 12.

*** Please note that the Ravens have to qualify to Nationals through the rest of the CIS season and playoffs.  If for any reason the team should fail to do so, ALL THE PAYMENTS WILL BE FULLY REFUNDED

The OUA has announced that Ravens guard Philip Scrubb is the Pioneer Energy Male Athlete of the Week.

He was the star of the game in Friday night’s matchup against the uOttawa Gee-Gees. At halftime, he had 20 of his team’s 49 points, while the Gee-Gees had 29 in total. The Richmond, B.C. native knocked down eight of 11 shots from beyond-the-arc and finished with a 30-point performance as the Ravens took an 86-57 victory. He added five rebounds and three assists in the win. Scrubb now leads the CIS with a 55.3 three-point field goal percentage.

The OUA also announced that the Carleton Ravens men’s basketball team has been named the Pizza Pizza Male Team of the Month for January 2012.

The Ravens continued to impress in January, going a perfect 9-0 to improve to 17-0 on the season and holding on to their No. 1 national ranking. During this month, the team outscored their opponents 862-483, hitting the century mark twice in league play. The Ravens also captured their fifth consecutive Capital Hoops Classic title, defeating the uOttawa Gee-Gees 74-34 in front of a crowd of 7,022 at Scotiabank Place.

Josh King (Ottawa) led the way, capturing a bronze medal in the Senior B lightweight event, followed by Matthew Fournier (Ottawa) who finished fourth.

On the women’s side Victoria Ozimkowski (Ottawa), while still nursing a shoulder injury, finished fourth in the Senior B lightweight event.

Name: Philip Scrubb
Team: Men’s Basketball
Hometown: Richmond B.C.
Major: Commerce
Year at CU: 2
Head Coach: Dave Smart

Carleton Ravens men’s basketball guard Philip Scrubb was the star of the game in Friday night’s matchup against the uOttawa Gee-Gees. At halftime, he had 20 of his team’s 49 points, while the Gee-Gees had 29 in total. The Richmond, B.C. native knocked down eight of 11 shots from beyond-the-arc and finished with a 30-point performance as the Ravens took an 86-57 victory. He added five rebounds and three assists in the win. Scrubb now leads the CIS with a 55.3 three-point field goal percentage.

Name:  Kelsey Vander Veen
Team: Women’s Hockey
Hometown: Lucknow, Ont.
Major: Criminology
Year at CU: 3
Head Coach: Shelley Coolidge

Kelsey Vander Veen’s second period hat trick helped the Carleton Ravens women’s hockey storm back from a three-goal deficit to beat the UdeM Carabins 6-5 in a shootout on Sunday. Just 30 seconds after the Ravens fell behind 4-1, Vander Veen scored the first of her scoring barrage to get Carleton back in the game. She followed that with another tally just four minutes later and completed the natural hat trick on the man-advantage with less than a minute to go in the period to tie the game. Vander Veen gave the Ravens the momentum they needed to seal the victory and pick up an important two points as they try to catch UdeM in the RSEQ standings.

*OUA athlete of the week

**RSEQ athlete of the week

The Carleton University Ravens women’s hockey team stormed back from a three-goal deficit, to beat the UdeM Carabins 6-5 in a shootout on the road Sunday afternoon.

The third-place Ravens had their sights set on moving up in the standings, trailing Montreal by six points with a game in hand entering Sunday’s game. They were also looking to avenge a 6-2 loss to the Carabins last week.

The Ravens started quick as Sadie Wegner (Pembroke, Ont.) opened the scoring four minutes in with an unassisted marker.

That seemed to trigger an offensive explosion for the Carabins.

Caroline Martin-Guay (St-Jean-sur-Richelieu, Que.) scored Montreal’s first goal before Jessica Gagne (Sherbrooke, Que.) added a second three minutes later.

The Ravens had a chance to tie it up on the power-play 60 seconds later, but instead it was Casandra Dupuis (Sherbrooke, Que.) who scooped up a puck and buried a shorthanded goal to make it 3-1 for UdeM after the first.

Six minutes into the second frame, Ariane Barker (Napierville, Que.), fresh off a hat trick performance last week against Carleton, seemed to put the nail in the coffin by adding a goal to make it a 4-1 lead.

But the Ravens didn’t quit, which set the stage for a frantic finish.

Only 30 seconds after falling behind by three, Kelsey VanderVeen (Lucknow, Ont.) scored the first of her scoring barrage to get Carleton back in the game.

She followed with another tally just four minutes later and then completed the natural hat-trick on the power play with less than a minute to go in the period to tie the score heading into the third.

Carleton kept it up early in the final period.

Wegner added her second of the game 25 seconds in to complete the comeback and give the Ravens an improbable lead.

Tamber Tisdale (Red Deer, Alta.), turned in another magical performance. After a rough start to the game, Tisdale turned away the first 23 shots she faced in the third period but it was the last one she had trouble with.

Kim Deschenes (Saint-Quinten, N.B.) scored her eighth of the year with five seconds left to force overtime.

Tisdale stopped another five pucks in the extra period, finishing the game with 52 saves.

She was brilliant again in the shootout, stopping all five shooters she faced.

With a chance to win the game, Ravens forward Sydnie MacDonald (Ottawa) made no mistake and the Ravens escaped with a critical two points.

With the win, the Ravens (7-6-3) are in third place with 17 points, five points behind Montreal with a game in hand. They return to action next weekend with two games – one against the McGill Martlets on Saturday and the other against the Concordia Stingers on Sunday.

Score by period:
Ravens: 1+3+1+0+1=6
Carabins: 3+1+1+0+0=5

Scoring:
Ravens: Wegner (2), VanderVeen (3)
Carabins: Caroline Martin-Guay, Jessica Gagne, Casandra Dupuis, Ariane Barker, Kim Deschenes

Shots:
Ravens: 10+12+6+1=29
Carabins: 12+16+24+5=57

Saves:
Ravens: Tamber Tisdale –52 saves
Carabins: Rachel Ouellette – 24 saves

Power play:
Ravens: 2/4
Carabins: 1/5

The Carleton Ravens weren’t perfect, but they battled from behind on multiple occasions and pulled out a 5-4 shootout victory against the Concordia Stingers on Saturday night at the Ice House.

With the win, the Ravens’ record improved to 6-6-3 and they booked their ticket to the playoffs as the fifth-placed Stingers will not be able to catch them in the standings.

Carleton won the first three matchups of the season against Concordia, but the Stingers came out of the gate looking like a different team early on.

Mallory Lawton (Dorval, Que.) opened the scoring for the Stingers six minutes in. Danielle Scarlett (Burlington, Ont.) capped off a beautiful odd man rush with a one-timer past Ravens goaltender Tamber Tisdale (Red Deer, Alta.), giving the Stingers a 2-0 lead midway through the first.

Kristen MacDonald (Osgoode, Ont.) got the Ravens back in it with a nasty wrist shot over Stingers netminder Marie-Pier Remillard (Laval, Que.) with less than three minutes to go.

In the second, Melanie McKnight (Barrie, Ont.) buried a tricky point shot with traffic in front of the net to tie the game at two, but Concordia fired back with a power play goal from Catherine Rancourt (Quebec City) minutes later.

Claudia Bergeron (Drummondville, Que.) tied it with a sensational backhander that beat Remillard top corner in the dying minutes of the second.

Midway through the third, Concordia stomped back into the driver’s seat with Meghan George’s (Laval, Que.) first of the season to pull ahead 4-3.

With the Ravens pressing for the equalizer as time was winding down, captain Sarah Seiler (Miesbach, Germany) banged in her own rebound at the top of the crease with just over three minutes to go, sending the game into overtime.

After five minutes of four-on-four solved nothing, the game went to a shootout where McKnight and Bergeron gave the Ravens an early 2-0 lead. Tisdale, who made 42 saves in the game, stoned all four of the Stingers she faced, and the Ravens escaped with the all-important two points.

The Ravens will try to catch UdeM in the standing when they visit the Carabins on Sunday, Feb. 5 at 2 p.m.

Score by period:
Ravens: 1+2+1+0+1=5
Stingers: 2+1+1+0+0=4

Scoring:
Ravens: K MacDonald, McKnight, Bergeron, Seiler
Stingers: Lawton, Scarlett, Rancourt, George

Shots:
Ravens: 9+16+11+5+1=42
Stingers: 12+12+18+4+0=46

Saves:
Ravens – Tisdale: 42/46
Stingers – Remillard: 37/41

Power play:
Ravens: 0/5
Stingers: 2/5