The Carleton Ravens men’s hockey team extended their win streak to six games in a 3-2 shootout win while on the road at the University of Ontario Institute of Technology (UOIT) on Jan. 28.
The streak was halted the following evening when visiting the Queen’s Gaels in a 2-0 loss.
The Ravens quickly found themselves down 2-0 less than halfway through the opening frame against UOIT.
“I think that our first period, we had some bus legs and didn’t play as well as we wanted to but at the same time I thought UOIT came out and played well,” said Ravens head coach Marty Johnston.
Captain Joey West was able to pull the Ravens within one midway through the second period.
Ryan Van Stralen secured an equalizer with just 10 seconds remaining in regulation and sent the game to overtime.
Neither team was able to find the back of the net in overtime. Mitch Zion kept the Ravens alive in the shootout when he tied the game with Carleton’s third shot before Brent Norris won it for the Ravens in the fifth round.
“After the first I thought that we regrouped well and put in a real hard road effort and took until the last 10 seconds of the game to get the tying goal, but the guys deserved it and I’m happy to see that result,” Johnston said.
The win was the sixth consecutive victory for the Ravens, as well as their ninth in their previous 10 games. Patrick Killeen earned the win for the Ravens after entering the game to begin the second period to replace Francis Dupuis in goal.
“We played them earlier in the year and we had a tough time against them and they beat us, so we were obviously trying to prove something to them and to ourselves that we can beat them this time around,” said Ravens defenceman Jason Seed.
“It was a tight game and obviously to come out with the two points on the road like that is really good for us,” he said.
The following night the Ravens traveled to Kingston to take on the Queen’s Gaels.
Carleton fell behind 1-0 after the first period. The Gaels quickly extended their lead to 2-0 just one minute into the second period.
Another comeback was not in the cards however, as Gaels netminder Kevin Bailie stopped all 39 shots directed his way to earn the shutout.
“I think that maybe our legs got a little bit sapped from Friday night’s effort going into double overtime and then a shootout,” Johnston said. “We ended up using the same guys as the game got further into the third and overtime so we weren’t necessarily at our best but I thought the Queen’s goalie played very well and came up with some big saves at key moments, and any time you don’t score you aren’t going to win.”
“We knew going into that game the kind of style that they play . . . They trap a lot and shut down other teams,” Seed said. “We tried to come up with something to get around that for the game but obviously they came out on top and shut us down pretty well . . . We played well but not well enough to come out with the win.”
The Ravens will hit the ice again on Feb. 5 when they travel to North Bay to take on the Nipissing Lakers.
