The Carleton Ravens men’s hockey team were blown out 6–1 by the McGill Redbirds at the Ice House on Sunday, dropping their third straight game and leaving them in need of wins to keep their playoff hopes alive.
“It wasn’t a 6-1 game,” Ravens head coach Mark Cavallin said. “I think our guys played their hearts out and we had some good chances — just didn’t go our way tonight.”
The Ravens had an early power play to start the game, but said they were unable build momentum because of rough ice conditions.
“We had the power play twice with wet ice, so it didn’t even count as a power play,” Cavallin said. “We couldn’t even move the puck.”
Two minutes later, McGill goaltender Nicolas Ruccia sent a cross-ice breakaway pass to Alexi Van Houtte-Cachero, who buried it past Ravens goalie Dylan Meilun to give the Redbirds a 1-0 lead.
Both teams continued to struggle with the ice conditions until McGill’s Xavier Fortin scored on another breakaway with three minutes remaining in the first.
Nicolas Pavan added another just before the end of the period to make it 3–0.
Meilun was pulled after one period in an attempt to spark the Ravens.
Carleton’s Reese Belton expressed his frustration at the start of the second period, swearing and slamming bench doors, which landed the forward with a ten-minute misconduct.
“The bounces weren’t going our way — it’s very understandable,” Cavallin said. “We know the magnitude of the game — everyone wanted it, so obviously, it’s going to be very frustrating.”
The Redbirds added three more goals and sat with a very comfortable 6-0 lead after two periods.
The third period remained scoreless until the Ravens broke the shutout on a late snipe from Brady Egan.
McGill has bested the Ravens in all three meetings this season, with the two teams set to meet once more at the Ice House on Feb. 11.
“It was a little wet out there,” Ravens captain Blake Allan said about the ice conditions. “It made it pretty tough to break out and generate any momentum, but they’re playing on it too, and we got to find a way to battle through it.”
“It was just one or two plays — other than that, the game was fairly even,” Cavallin said. “We’re down a little manpower, and we had to put a forward on D, so you can’t ask too much of them.”
The Ravens are now 10–15 and sit second last in the OUA East Division but remain in playoff contention with three games left in the season.
“The older guys have to lead by example for the younger guys,” Cavallin said of the team’s attempts to stay focused at this point in the season.
“We’re a lot better team than we were in the first half,” Allan added. “I think the young guys are really buying into the systems.”
The Ravens will look to keep their playoff hopes alive on Friday when they travel to Montreal to face the Concordia Stingers.
Featured image by Nathan Cox/the Charlatan
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