The Carleton Ravens men’s hockey team earned the Ontario University Athletics (OUA) bronze on March 12, but that wasn’t the only hardware brought home by the team.
Brett Welychka was rewarded for a stellar rookie season by being named the OUA East rookie of the year as well as the OUA East first-team and the all-rookie team.
“I think he stepped in right from the get-go and made an impact with us,” said Ravens head coach Marty Johnston. “He played most of his junior career in the west with [the] London [Knights], then played in Belleville [with the Bulls] last year . . . He takes a real professional attitude to his game—he deserves all the credit he gets because he was very consistent and he played all 200 feet of the ice.”
Welychka led the way offensively for the Ravens with 14 goals and 32 assists. He led the Canadian Interuniversity Sport (CIS) in assists and trailed the national leader in scoring by only one point.
“I was excited,” Welychka said about hearing about the accolades. “I’ve got to put a lot of credit to my teammates out there and especially my line mates.”
“To be honest, I think you look around in the room and the depth that we have is unbelievable,” he said. “Anyone that comes in is going to be smart enough to realize what we can do, and I think we have that chance now that we’re going to Halifax.”
Welychka’s impressive rookie season has not gone unnoticed, as he has attracted attention from professional hockey leagues, although Welychka admits he is unsure of where he will play next season.
“I like to play by the day,” he said. “I don’t like to look ahead and what not. I’m just excited to go to Halifax and turn some heads.”
Welychka was not the only Raven to earn individual awards last week.
Mike McNamee was named to the OUA East second-team for the second time in his career. He also earned the Most Sportsmanlike award for only getting six penalty minutes on a team that was assessed the second most penalty minutes in the OUA.
“It seems like whoever [McNamee] plays with has a great year, from the get-go, from his first year,” Johnston said. “His linemates had career years and that’s basically a tribute to him and how well he distributes the puck.”
“I’m real happy that he’s getting recognized and I think he’s an elite centre in the CIS,” he said.
McNamee spent most of the season centring Welychka and Ryan Van Stralen on the top line.
“I’m just glad we’ve got a chance to play for the national championship again,” McNamee said in a text message. “It means a lot to be able to be a leader for a team who has a chance to do special things.”
“As far as the all star nomination goes, it was a good year and it’s obviously rewarding to be acknowledged for hard work and success,” he said.
McNamee also had a strong offensive season. He surpassed his career high in points with 39 points and appeared in every game this season for the Ravens.
“Being a third-year player who has already proven himself as a point producer in this league I wanted to continue doing that even more,” he said.
“Hockey is obviously a team sport and I got lucky in finding two magnificent linemates this year who deserve to be acknowledged for their hard work as well . . . [w]e were able to find chemistry early in the year and we’ve just ran with it,” he said. “It’s been a fun ride and we obviously hope to continue the success in Halifax this week.”
The Ravens will compete in the first game of the 2016 CIS University Cup men’s hockey championship on Thursday, March 17 at 4 p.m. Atlantic Time against the University of Saskatchewan Huskies.
