Casey Rosen doesn’t score a lot of goals, but when she does, they’re memorable.

Known more for her penalty-killing and leadership, Rosen scored the final goal as the Western Mustangs rocked defending champs McGill Martlets 5-0 in the CIS (Canadian Interuniversity Sport) women’s hockey championship.

The tally came on her last-ever shift in her last-ever game as a collegiate hockey player. Rosen will be graduating this year with a bachelor of science degree, with a double major in biology and physiology.

Scoring the way she did with about a minute left marked a nice bookend to a career that began when she was a freshman four years ago and had to replace an injured player. She scored twice in her first game to impress Mustangs head coach Chris Higgins. “She scored two goals, and she’s not missed a game since then,” Higgins said.

Throughout her career, Rosen scored 18 goals and 10 assists in 70 regular season games. But she says her role wasn’t to be a scorer. In fact the Mustangs, eventual Ontario University Athletics and CIS champions, had a hard time scoring goals all season. They played a lot of low-scoring, one-goal games.

But the team stressed defence and rode a strong 200-foot game to a remarkable 28-1-3 record including playoffs, which Rosen admits “was crazy.” There’s lots of talent on the team, she said. “We didn’t rely on one person. We kept changing the lineup and found what worked. Everybody got points.”

Rosen’s main contribution was a strong forecheck and harassing the opposing defence. “We get the other team on their heels. We pressure them and cause them to be frazzled. My parents say when I’m on the ice, I’m like a hurricane,” she said.

Rosen, who played right wing, got a lot of time on the penalty kill and toward the end of the season, on the power play, too. Higgins said Rosen had a key role on the Mustangs’s penalty killing and provided energy. “Her biggest contribution to the team was through leadership,” he added.

One of two co-captains, she was looked up to by the others, Higgins said. “Everyone listens to whatever she has to say.”

“We bonded and had a close group,” Rosen said.

Rosen comes from a hockey family. Her dad, Ian, still plays, as do her brothers, Neil and Jamie. Her parents, Neil and Annegail, came to every game she played this season, from North Bay in the north to Windsor in the south. They even flew out to Calgary for the CIS championship.

A United Synagogue Day School and Anne and Max Tanenbaum Community Hebrew Academy of Toronto graduate, she excelled in hockey, softball and field hockey and was TanenbaumCHAT’s female athlete of the year. Prior to joining the Mustangs, she played for the Toronto-Leaside Junior Wildcats.