The Carleton Ravens men’s hockey team defeated the Université du Québec à Trois-Rivières Patriotes (UQTR) 4-2 on Feb. 9, and then fell to the Concordia Stingers 4-2 on Feb. 10 in the final two games of the regular season.
Prior to the game against UQTR, the Ravens honored David Weckworth, Fabian Walsh, Derek Brown, Ryan Van Stralen, Conor McLaren, Brett Welychka, Curtis Meighan, Tyler Akeson, and Matthew Jenkins in a graduation ceremony as it was their last home game of the regular season.
The Ravens struck first, when just 34 seconds into the opening period, Weckworth fired the puck into the back of the net past Patriotes goaltender Sebastien Auger and in doing so, scored his first goal of the season.
“I was pretty happy to get one before the end of the year, you wouldn’t want to finish with zero, so it was nice to get the one. I was happy we got the win, glad I could help out someway,” Weckworth said about getting his first goal of the season.
UQTR defenseman Élie Bérubé got the Patriotes on the board shortly before the end of the first period when he sent the puck into the back of the net past Ravens goaltender Francois Brassard.
Carleton regained the lead two minutes into the opening period when Ravens forward Adam Chapman sent the puck five-hole past Auger to make it a 2-1 lead.
Halfway through the period, Carleton extended their lead to 3-1 when Ravens forward Alexandre Boivin backhanded the puck past Auger and into the net.
UQTR answered back with a goal of their own four minutes later when Patriotes defenseman Alexandre Leclerc made it a one-goal game.
Eleven minutes into the final period, Van Stralen extended Carleton’s lead once more and drew the game farther out of the Patriotes’ reach to end with a score of 4-2.
“I thought it was a little too sloppy for our liking, of course we’ll take the win and all that, but we’re gonna have to clean it up if we’re gonna go to the playoffs,” Ravens head coach Shaun Van Allen said about the game.
On Feb. 10 against the Stingers, Concordia opened the scoring on the power play when Stingers forward Alexis Pépin tipped the puck past Brassard to make it a 1-0 game halfway into the period.
Four minutes before the end of the period, Carleton got on the board when Boivin fired the puck past Stingers goaltender Marc-Antoine Turcotte to tie the game at one.
Shortly before the end of the second period, Stingers forward Phillippe Sanche extended Concordia’s lead heading into the final period.
Two minutes into the final period, on a power play, Pepin scored his second of the game to further extend Concordia’s lead to 3-1.
With six minutes remaining in the game, Stingers forward Scott Oke added on to Concordia’s lead to make it a 4-1 game.
Carleton answered back with a goal of their own, two minutes before the end of the game, when Ravens forward Hayden Hulton sent the puck into the back of the net past Stingers goaltender Antoine Dagenais.
With the loss against Concordia, Carleton finished the regular season in fourth place in the Ontario University Athletics East Division with a record of 17-7-4, setting them up to face the University of Ottawa (U of O) Gee-Gees in the quarterfinals.
The quarterfinal matchup kicks off on Feb. 14, at the Ice House, followed by a second game on Feb. 16, at the Minto Sports Complex, and then back at home ice on Feb. 18.
Photo by Matt Czapalay
