Raygan Kirk

When Ohio State won the 2024 NCAA Division I women's ice hockey championship, the goaltender who shut out Wisconsin in the final and was named tournament MVP had grown up in Ste. Anne, Manitoba — a small town where she first put on goalie pads simply because her younger brother already had the equipment.

Raygan Kirk was born March 11, 2001, and did not commit fully to the position until roughly grades seven or eight. Before that, she split time between goaltending and defense, even carrying two hockey bags to games so she could fill whichever role her team needed. She has said that background playing defense gave her an understanding of where threats develop and how her defensemen think — a perspective she carried into her goaltending career.

Her development path ran through Eastman Selects at the triple-A level, where she worked with goalie coaches Terry Patrick and Curtis Ends, and spent summers working with Gord Woodley, who she credits as a lasting influence and who now works within the PWHL. Kirk did not attend prep school, choosing instead to stay close to home and rely on showcase performances to attract college interest. The Stoney Creek Tournament in Ontario proved pivotal: Robert Morris University assistant coaches watched her play there and reached out, leading to a visit over American Thanksgiving and eventually her only Division I offer.

At RMU, Kirk made the CHA All-Rookie Team after starting 24 games and winning 15 in her freshman year. Her sophomore season produced eight wins in 15 games with a .939 save percentage. Then the program abruptly shut down, forcing her to transfer. She landed at Ohio State, where she played sparingly in her junior year (four games) and saw limited action as a senior (11 games, eight wins), before her fifth year of eligibility changed everything. Stepping in as the Buckeyes' number-one goaltender, she went 22-2 over 24 games with a .945 save percentage, set a new Ohio State team record for wins in a season, recorded a shutout against Wisconsin in the national championship game, and was named to the Frozen Four All-Tournament Team and tournament MVP.

Kirk's national team career began earlier. At the 2019 U18 World Championship in Obihiro, Japan, she started all four games, allowed just one goal, and earned tournament MVP honors as Canada took the gold medal. She was the only Manitoba-born player on that roster. She went on to participate in Hockey Canada's under-22 and development programs across several summers, and attended her first senior national team camp in the summer of 2024.

Kirk joined the Toronto Sceptres for the PWHL's second season, wearing number 1. Her first PWHL appearance came in relief in New York — down by four goals in the third period, she said she got the nod and was ready to go. Her first start, against Montreal, carried a different weight. As she told InGoal Radio, "if anything, was more nervous for this past game, that second start, because now there's that expectation, like, oh, you can do this." ^[1]

On that same episode of InGoal Radio, Kirk spoke at length about the mental side of goaltending — the role of sports psychology, her use of a mental skills coach both in college and with the Sceptres, and a three-pillar pre-game framework she developed in her fifth year at Ohio State. She also walked through her stance development, crediting Hockey Canada's consistency of messaging across age groups for helping her narrow her base and push her knees over her toes, and discussed how video feedback — the iPad, as she put it — remains part of her regular goalie sessions with the Sceptres. ^[1]

InGoal Magazine has covered Raygan Kirk in one podcast appearance.