The Carleton men’s varsity hockey team came up short in the Ice house Nov. 21, with a crushing 5-1 loss to the University of Western Ontario Mustangs.

The victory is the 11th straight win for the Mustangs, helping them hold on to their first-place title in the Ontario University Athletics (OUA).

The game itself consisted of wasted power plays and disappointing offensive plays on the Ravens’ part.

The first period was spent mostly in the Ravens side of the rink as Western’s sheer organization trumped the Ravens as they tried to hold their own.

The period ended with 1-0 Western lead, with a goal scored by Mustang Chris Corbeil.

The second period was much like the first with Raven goalie Alexander Archibald defending 25 shots on the Carleton net.

With less than seven minutes left in the period, Mustang Geoff Killing jumped out of the penalty box and into the offence, taking advantage of a clear path to the net and extra precious seconds to score a second goal for Western.

Western showed their strong defensive tactics as Carleton failed to take advantage of the many five-on-three power play opportunities.

In the third period, the Ravens seemed to pick up their game as centre Brandon MacLean gave spectators hope.

MacLean attempted to even things out by getting Carleton on the scoreboard, but the goal turned out to be the only one for the Ravens.

And with less than 10 minutes left in the period, Raven forward Yves Bastien was injured after ramming into the boards.

Bastien was down for at least two minutes and left the ice with the help of a trainer and fellow teammate Michael Testa as his arms hung past his knees.

According to head coach Fred Parker, Bastien will not be playing in any games in the near future due to what was later determined to be a shoulder injury.

In the last eight minutes, Western managed to bring the score to an unnerving 5-1 lead over Carleton.

Unlike the Ravens, the Mustangs took every chance they had to shoot on net – Archibald ended the game turning aside 31 shots on net.

Western goaltender Keyvan Hunt only refused 21 shots on net.

Clearly Archibald is a key player for the Raven men.

But spectators were disappointed with the Ravens’ overall performance.

“It was disgraceful,” said Carleton student Jessica Gilson “It seemed that in the third period they accepted the fact that they were going to lose.”

Parker echoed similar thoughts about the team’s performance.

“The team played mediocre at best,” he said.

He added that the team did not take advantage of their power plays.

“If you don’t take advantage of those you’re going to end up with the result we had.”

Although Carleton was expected to improve from last year, Parker said a sense of urgency is needed to bring up the Ravens’ level of play.

Although this game was a disappointment to some fans, this year’s team is different from the one spectators saw last year.

“I think number one is attitude, we expect to win every game,” Parker said. “This brings a different element into [the game].”

It is still early in the season and this attitude might just bring the Ravens a win in the near future.