Raygan Kirk

Raygan Kirk's collegiate career ended the way few do: with a shutout in a national championship game, a tournament MVP award, and a record-setting 22nd win of the season for the Ohio State Buckeyes. That final game in New Hampshire — a tight, low-scoring affair against Wisconsin — capped a fifth year of eligibility that Kirk herself described on InGoal Radio as one defined by emotion as much as competition. "That was the funniest game I've ever played," she told host Kevin Woodley ^[1], recalling how the weight of "lasts" — last pregame skate, last road trip, last college game — ran beneath the surface of every period.

Kirk was born on March 11, 2001, in Ste. Anne, Manitoba, and came to goaltending through an unlikely path. Her brother, who is just over a year younger than her, was a goalie first, and she started in the crease largely because her family already had the equipment and her first women's team needed someone to fill the position. For years she also played defense, carrying two hockey bags to the rink and suiting up in whichever role the team required. She told InGoal Radio she made the full-time switch to goaltending around grade seven or eight, driven in part by watching her brother and by a competitive instinct that had always pulled her toward the net ^[1].

She developed through the Eastman Selects program in Manitoba, choosing to stay home rather than attend a prep school, and focused on making an impact at showcases to attract college interest. It was at the Stoney Creek Tournament in Ontario that Robert Morris University found her — she had not reached out to them — after a strong performance drew attention from their coaching staff. She had been running a methodical search of her own, keeping a book in which she crossed off schools that didn't offer the academic program she wanted or didn't need a goalie in her graduating year. RMU became her only Division I offer, and she accepted.

At Robert Morris, Kirk made the CHA All-Rookie Team after going 15-9 in 24 starts her freshman year. Her sophomore season produced eight wins in 15 games and a .939 save percentage. The program's sudden closure forced her to transfer, and she landed at Ohio State — where her path took time to unfold. She played in only four games in her junior year at OSU, then appeared in 11 games as a senior, winning eight. Her fifth and final year of eligibility became her signature season: 24 games, a .945 save percentage, a 22nd win that set a new Ohio State program record, a shutout of Wisconsin in the national championship game, and the NCAA Tournament MVP award.

Before any of that, Kirk had already played on the biggest stage in international hockey at her age group. At the 2019 U18 World Championship in Obihiro, Japan, she started all four games for Canada, allowed just one goal across the tournament, and was named tournament MVP as Canada won gold. She was, by her own account to InGoal Radio, the only player from Manitoba on that roster ^[1]. She went on to participate in Hockey Canada's U22 and development programs over several subsequent summers, with COVID interrupting one cycle, and attended her first senior national team camp in the summer ahead of the 2024-25 PWHL season.

Kirk joined the Toronto Sceptres for the PWHL's 2024-25 season, wearing number 1. Her development as a goaltender has been shaped by a network that followed her from her amateur years into professional hockey: she credited goaltending coach Gord Woodley — whom she first worked with extensively through Hockey Canada programs — as a lasting influence, and noted that Woodley's involvement with the PWHL is something she views with genuine respect. In Toronto, she works with goaltending coaches Brad Kirkwood and Brad Fogel, and with a mental skills coach she described as a significant resource for her transition into professional hockey.

On episode 285 of the InGoal Radio podcast, Kirk spoke at length about the mental framework she used through her championship run at Ohio State and carried into her first PWHL season — including the three-pillar approach she developed to manage pressure in high-stakes moments ^[1]. InGoal Magazine has covered Raygan Kirk in one podcast appearance.