Raygan Kirk shines while her team struggles to score, a recurring issue for the Sceptres. On Saturday, Kirk and the team finally got a result from their strong play.
For weeks, the numbers told one story. The results told another.
Saturday afternoon at Scotiabank Arena, Toronto Sceptres goaltender Raygan Kirk finally saw those two columns align, as Toronto edged the Vancouver Goldeneyes 2–1 in overtime during the Battle on Bay Street. Kirk was excellent, calm under sustained pressure late, and finished the night with a performance that looked much like many of her starts this season — the difference being that this time, Toronto found a second goal.
The win was Kirk’s first since the season opener, despite the fact that she entered the game with some of the strongest underlying numbers among PWHL goaltenders. Excluding goalies with only a single appearance, Kirk ranked fifth in the league in both goals-against average (1.89) and save percentage (.931). Those numbers place her alongside goaltenders whose teams sit higher in the standings and provide significantly more goal support.
Toronto, meanwhile, now stands as the league’s second lowest-scoring team, with just 23 goals in 12 games, an average of 1.77 goals per game, although overall the league average is just over two goals per night.
Through eight games in which Kirk has been the primary goaltender, the Sceptres have scored 13 total goals — just 1.63 goals per game. In the five games Elaine Chuli started, Toronto has scored 10 goals, or 2.0 goals per game.
The difference may not seem dramatic on paper, but in a league defined by razor-thin margins, it has been decisive. Several of Kirk’s appearances have ended in 2–1 or 3–2 losses, games in which one mistake — or one missed scoring chance — swung the result.
After a 2–1 loss to Boston on January 14, head coach Troy Ryan was blunt in his assessment of where Toronto was falling short.
“We’re just in a bit of a spell right now where we’re struggling to score goals,” Ryan said. “You’ve got to score more than one goal to win in this league, and right now we’re not at a point where we’re able to do that.”
Ryan pointed to the league-wide reality Toronto is navigating.
“The margins for error in this league are so tight. If you don’t consistently do the good things, you’re just not going to score goals,” he said.
“I don’t think our group is necessarily full of a bunch of natural offensive people, so you have to commit to playing a team game and generating offense — and at times, finding ways to score ugly goals.”
For a team playing in so many one-goal games, that lack of scoring margin has placed a huge burden on its goaltenders — particularly Kirk, who has repeatedly been asked to keep games close with little room for error.
“You kind of have a feeling it’s going to come — we push, they push,” Kirk said after the Vancouver game. “And you have to be there to bail out your team when they’re pushing back.”
Kirk has not shied away from that reality. After the loss to Boston, she said:
“It’s frustrating. I think we’re all a bit tired of losing — me especially. In games where we’re not scoring, you try to focus on what you can control and keep it close. I think at the end there it was a rebound I could have had that gave them the two-goal margin, but we fought back. You just try to keep it simple, focus on your job, and that helps the group.”
After Saturday’s overtime win, there was relief mixed with realism.
“I haven’t won since our season opener, so yeah, it’s been a while,” Kirk said. “You can still be playing well, but it’s a different feeling, it can be frustrating. It’s a relief to finally get one, and I think it’ll push us and give us confidence going into this road trip.”
Her teammates have been consistent in how they describe her impact.
Defender Renata Fast, speaking after the team's 3–2 shootout loss to Seattle, pointed to Kirk’s steadiness as a stabilizing force.
“One thing that’s been really impressive about Kirky this season is how calm she is back there,” Fast said. “As the D-core, we’re constantly talking about how nice it is to have a goalie who’s so calm. She’s had some amazing games, and we need to play well in front of her so she can get a few more wins.”
“I’m really happy for Kirky,” Ryan said after Saturday's win. “She’s played fairly well all year, and as Blayre Turnbull said in the room, it’s nice when Kirky can have a good game and we can find a way to get at least two points. She deserves to get some of those wins, and she made some big saves late to keep us in it.”
The numbers support that statement. Kirk’s save percentage places her among the league’s best goaltenders, and her goals-against average remains well under two.
Saturday’s overtime goal didn’t suddenly change Toronto’s offensive challenges. What it did offer was a snapshot of how narrow the gap has been — and how much Kirk’s performance has mattered within it.
In a league where one goal often swings the result, Kirk has given Toronto a chance most nights. The next step for the Sceptres is converting that stability into points in the standings.