Raygan Kirk

When Ohio State shut out Wisconsin to win the 2024 NCAA Division I women's ice hockey championship, the goaltender backstopping the Buckeyes was Raygan Kirk — a Manitoba kid who had started in net for her local women's team partly because her younger brother's equipment was already in the car. Kirk was named tournament MVP and earned a spot on the Frozen Four All-Tournament Team that night, capping a fifth year of eligibility in which she went 22-0 over 24 games with a .945 save percentage, setting a new Ohio State record for wins in a season.

Kirk grew up in Ste. Anne, Manitoba, a small community southeast of Winnipeg. She started playing hockey as a defender before gradually shifting toward the net — in part because of her brother, who was already a goaltender. She has described the transition as gradual, telling InGoal Radio that she was doing both for years, with both bags in the car depending on which position her team needed that day. By roughly grade seven or eight, she had committed fully to goaltending. She did not attend a prep school, instead playing with the Eastman Selects in the Triple-A stream while sending recruiting emails to college programs and attending showcases — including the Stoney Creek Tournament in Ontario, where Robert Morris University assistant coach Logan Biddle first approached her.

Kirk spent her first two college seasons at RMU, where she won 15 games as a freshman and earned a spot on the CHA All-Rookie Team. Her sophomore year produced eight wins in 15 games with a .939 save percentage. When the Robert Morris women's hockey program abruptly shuttered, Kirk transferred to Ohio State. Her junior year there saw limited ice time — four games — and her senior year brought 11 appearances with eight wins. Her fifth and final collegiate season, the one that ended with the national championship, was the culmination of a five-year arc she has described as the fastest of her life.

Before arriving in Columbus for that final run, Kirk had already represented Canada internationally. At the 2019 U18 World Championship in Obihiro, Japan, she started all four games, allowed just one goal on the way to a gold medal, and was named tournament MVP — the only player from Manitoba on that roster. She later participated in Canada's Under-22 and development programs through several summers, with a COVID-affected gap in between, before attending her first senior national team camp in the summer prior to her PWHL debut.

Kirk joined the Toronto Sceptres ahead of the 2024-25 PWHL season as a rookie. Her first PWHL appearance came in relief in New York, entering midway through a game the Sceptres were trailing. Her first professional start came in Montreal, and she described the pressure of that second game — the one where expectations had formed — as distinct from the nerves of her relief debut.

InGoal Magazine has covered Raygan Kirk in one podcast appearance.

On episode 285 of InGoal Radio ^[1], Kirk spoke with host Kevin Woodley about the mental side of goaltending at every level — from her first Hockey Canada camp to the national championship game to her earliest PWHL starts. She discussed the three mental pillars she ran through before each game in her final college season, the role of mental skills coaches and goalie coaches in her development, her use of video feedback, and the technical work on her stance that began when she first attended a Hockey Canada summer camp. On the podcast, Kirk described that initial camp as a turning point: "I was still pretty wide and probably not, you know, playing how I am now," she said of her stance at the time. "But just — I was attempting it and I brought kind of that feedback to my... to the season going forward." ^[1]

The episode also covers Kirk's path from Ste. Anne to Eastman Selects to RMU and Ohio State, her memories of the 2019 U18 tournament in Japan, and the experience of playing the national championship game in her final collegiate outing — a conversation worth hearing in full ^[1].