The Carleton Ravens men’s hockey team avenged last seasons playoff loss on Nov. 14.
The team came back from an early 2-0 deficit to win the game 6-3 over the Université du Québec à Trois-Rivières (UQTR) Patriotes.
“I thought our players took on the challenge of playing in one of the toughest rinks in our league and competed for 60 minutes,” said Ravens head coach Marty Johnston. “They knew they were up against a [really] talented team in UQTR. We stuck to our system and were very happy with the result.”
The Ravens appeared to open the scoring in the first period, but the goal was waved off. Carleton was then called for a penalty and UQTR capitalized with a goal on the power play, adding another goal 12 seconds later.
“The guys on the bench knew they had a long game ahead of them and they were preaching to each other to hold their composure and stick to the game plan,” Johnston said. “They did that and we had some guys come through with some real big goals.”
“We talked about it before, how we can’t get down if things don’t go our way,” said Ravens forward Brett Welychka. “Clearly being down two goals against a good team isn’t a ‘good start,’ but we battled back and found a way to make the game even shortly after.”
The Ravens fought back to tie the game before the end of the first and after 40 minutes, they held a 4-3 lead.
“If we want to be successful we need to learn to not only play with a lead, but also learn to find a way to come back in games,” Welychka said.
Carleton potted two goals in the final frame to finish off the Patriotes.
“Over the past couple of years we haven’t been able to beat them at their rink, so it was great for us to get the win on the road,” said Ravens defenceman Jason Seed. “Our forwards produced a lot of offence and [goaltender] Franky [Dupuis] played a huge game for us in net, so it was a full team effort.”
“Any time you can beat a rival on the road and come home with two points is always a satisfying feeling for your team as a whole,” Welychka said.
The win was extra sweet for the Ravens as they avenged last year’s post-season loss to UQTR while also extending their win streak to three games.
“We knew coming in to the game we had to make a statement. Everyone was really happy about beating them,” Seed said.
The Ravens will hit the ice again on Nov. 20 at Ryerson.
