The weekend didn’t go how they’d hoped, but the Carleton Ravens men’s hockey team still split their weekend games against the Université du Québec à Trois-Rivières (UQTR) Patriotes and McGill Redmen Nov. 29-30.
The games capped off the fall semester for the Ravens, and they won’t play again until they take on the York Lions on Jan. 3 in an exhibiton game.
The men will be going forward with a 12-4 record, good for second in the Ontario University Athletics (OUA) East.
Their first game of the weekend was a close one against UQTR, with the Ravens coming out on top 4-3 and avenging their earlier season loss.
The game headed to a shootout, where Ravens forward Michael McNamee popped in the game-winning goal. Timothy Billingsley had a goal and an assist in the game.
The game versus McGill did not go Carleton’s way.
Even though they out-shot McGill 51-17, the men’s team fell by a whopping four goals. Ravens head coach Marty Johnston said he was disheartened by the score compared to the shot total.
“I think looking at it we probably spent more time in their end than they did in ours,” he said. “At the same time, we had some breakdowns defensively and we’re going to have to work on how we play away from the puck moving forward. Good teams will always capitalize on those chances.”
The six goals against are tied for the most the Ravens have allowed all season alongside the loss to UQTR in early October. It was also their biggest deficit of the year.
On the weekend overall though, Johnston said he was happy with the effort his team put in.
“I think we were happy with the effort in both games. It felt like we worked really hard, we obviously got a lot of shots on net,” he said. “But at the end of the day, we were hoping for two wins and we played two tough teams, and we competed at the level we needed to compete at.”
The team’s long break will give them a chance to rest up, and look toward the second half of the season. Johnston has a plan for his team, and how they can maintain their success on the bottom half of the schedule.
“We’re going to have to stay simple. We need to stick to the basics and what has made us successful and hope for good health,” he said. “Any good team needs their best players playing. We’re just going to keep going one day at a time, and I think our leadership group has done a great job maintaining that focus.”
Their next regular season game is Jan. 6 against the Queen’s University Gaels as they kick off a four-game road trip. They return to the Ice House on Jan. 17 to face off against the Laurentian Voyageurs.
