After winning a thrilling double overtime victory over the University of Toronto Varsity Blues Feb. 19, the Carleton Ravens men’s hockey team is moving on to face their biggest rival: the Université du Québec à Trois-Rivières Patriotes (UQTR).
Despite going down 2-0 less than five minutes into the game, the Ravens secured their berth in the Ontario University Athletics (OUA) East semifinals with a come from behind 4-3 double overtime victory in Toronto.
“I think we knew that if we just stuck with what we were doing that we would be successful,” said Ravens head coach Marty Johnston following the game. “The guys kept believing and I’m really proud of all of them.”
A few minutes into the second overtime period, Blues’ right-winger Kyle Ventura was called on a tripping penalty. Less than a minute into the power play, veteran Ravens centre Joey Manley scored the game-winning goal to send the Ravens on.
“I’ve never scored an overtime goal before in my life,” Manley said following the game, laughing. “I just saw the opening in the corner, I was lucky the puck bounced out and I was just happy I put it in.”
The goal sends the Ravens on to a rematch of the OUA East semifinals of last year, when UQTR knocked them out of the playoffs.
“It’s going to be a pretty wild series,” Manley said. “It’s going to be tough. No team is going to take it easy. They beat us twice this year and we beat them twice. We just have to keep finding a way to do it on the road, especially because we don’t have home-ice advantage.”
The Ravens didn’t have home-ice advantage against the Varsity Blues either, but they still managed to find a way to win after surrendering an early, two-goal lead Feb. 19.
About halfway through the first period, second-year forward Joe Pleckaitis put the puck in the net for the Ravens’ first away goal of the series. The visiting Ravens went into the first intermission down 2-1.
“That’s the thing; it wasn’t bad at all,” second-year centre Jordan Deagle said of the atmosphere in the dressing room after the first period. “We weren’t worried.”
And they didn’t need to be. Carleton had an astounding 21 shots to Toronto’s eight in the first frame.
“We kept preaching the basics of what we wanted to do, and they stuck with it,” Johnston said. “Nobody tried to be the hero. It was an ordinary play that got us through it.”
It wasn’t surprising to see fourth-year captain Brandon MacLean score an equalizing goal halfway through the second period to keep Carleton in the game. The teams exchanged goals after that, with Deagle scoring the last tying goal for the Ravens before the first overtime period.
“It was a huge relief,” Deagle said of his tying goal. “It was just such a momentous moment. Getting one to tie the game up, it felt great.”
It was Varsity Blues goaltender Garrett Sheehan who kept the Blues in the game. He stopped 48 of 51 regulation shots to force overtime, following a 36-save shutout performance the night before.
Regulation was unable to solve anything and Ravens’ goaltender Matthew Dopud kept the Varsity Blues at the bay in the first overtime period before Manley ended the game early in the second.
But there’s no time for celebrating as the Ravens return to the ice Feb. 22 in Trois-Rivières.
“They’ve knocked us out of the playoffs the last two years in a row,” Deagle said of the upcoming series. “So that’s given us a lot of incentive . . . We definitely have an axe to grind with them. Heading up there on [Feb. 22] hopefully we can start things off on the right foot.”
