The loss to the University of Ottawa Gee Gees Oct. 29 turned out to be just a bump in the road for the Carleton Ravens men’s hockey team, as they recorded two more victories at home Nov. 4-5.
The men followed a 5-2 victory over the Royal Military College (RMC) Paladins Nov. 4 with an almost flawless 3-0 shutout win over the University of Toronto Varsity Blues the following day.
With the two wins, the Ravens have now won six of their last seven games.
Ravens head coach Marty Johnston said he was happy with the men’s play against the Varsity Blues. The Ravens out shot the Toronto outfit 33-22.
“I think tonight was the first time that we almost played a 60 minute game,” Johnston said. “I didn’t think they had a lot of scoring chances, which I was happy with. Obviously, we’d like to capitalize on our chances a bit more, but it was a solid team effort.”
Ravens goalie Matthew Dopud recorded his second shutout of the season against the Varsity Blues.
Although he didn’t see many shots through 50 minutes of play, he earned the shutout in the last 10 minutes by holding off a late-game Varsity Blues push.
Dopud faced only eight shots in the entire first half of the game.
“You have to be always ready as a goalie,” Dopud said. “Because you never know when you’re going to get games like that.”
However, as any goaltender should, Dopud said he enjoys the pressure.
“I like it. I like the pressure. I like a lot of shots. I like being involved in the game, playing the puck and hopefully making a difference for my team.”
The Ravens opened the scoring against the Varsity Blues with a late first period power play goal from fourth-year forward Andrew Self. Two other fourth-year forwards, Chris Downey and Shane Bakker, scored the second and third goals for the team, with Downey capitalizing on an early third-period chance and Bakker adding an empty netter to seal the victory.
The Ravens kept the pressure up throughout the game, creating many scoring chances but failing to capitalize on the majority of them, mostly due to stellar play by Varsity Blues goaltender Garrett Sheehan.
“I liked how we didn’t panic because we didn’t have the goals,” Johnston said. “We stuck with it, kept them on the outside, and eventually we got a good goal from our fourth line who worked real hard tonight.”
“It was a good game,” Dopud said. “I think the whole team played well. The whole team played a lot better than last weekend.”
Johnston said the Ravens’ improved puck possession has been a key to their recent success.
“As a group, we’re playing our system,” he said. “We’re supporting the puck well, and we’re not turning the puck over as much as we have in the last month. I was really happy with our neutral zone play.”
The Ravens are now almost a third of the way through the season with 12 points, and are currently in a three-way tie with the Université du Québec à Trois-Rivières Patriotes and Concordia Stingers for third in the Ontario University Athletics East division.
