With a boisterous Viking clap at the end of the game, the Ravens men’s hockey team celebrated a 3-0 win against their crosstown rivals, the University of Ottawa (U of O) Gee-Gees on Nov. 24.
“Today felt pretty easy, I guess,” Ravens goaltender Francois Brassard said. “We kind of knew what they were doing out there and we really studied their system, so I think the guys did a really good job buying into our system and making it easy for me.”
Against the U of O, the score clock malfunctioned and caused a 15-minute delay in the first period, allowing each team to regroup and calm down. Halfway through the opening frame, Ravens forward Adam Chapman found the back of the net on the man advantage to make it a 1-0 game.
Less than two minutes later, Ravens forward Alexandre Boivin found teammate Jake Smith to send him in on a breakaway, resulting in Carleton leaving the ice with a 2-0 lead.
During the second half, both teams traded scoring chances as neither team could capitalize on their opportunities. The teams left the ice with nine shots on goal apiece.
Eight minutes into the final period, Chapman scored his second goal of the game—sealing the victory for the Ravens as they handed the Gee-Gees their first regulation loss of the season.
“I was kind of missing them at the beginning of the year,” Chapman said on the two-goal night. “I was overthinking it, so especially in a game like this, it’s definitely important to finish them and it was good to be able to because I’ve been having kind of a tough time,” he added.
On Nov. 24, the Ravens and the Université du Québec à Trois-Rivières (UQTR) Patriotes opened the first frame by trading many good quality scoring chances, as well as a lot of minor penalties.
“You got to have a certain amount of emotion to play this game. I thought at times, we were getting a little distracted by them, and I don’t think they were really doing anything, you know what I mean,” head coach Shaun Van Allen said. “It was just a little bit of us being frustrated and maybe a little bit tired, but we put it together in the third period.”
Neither team could capitalize on their opportunities, as the game remained scoreless heading into the second period of play.
Tensions continued to rise throughout the second period as the Patriotes held the edge over Carleton through their especially physical style of play.
Eventually, the Patriotes got on the board first as forward Mathieu Lemay opened the scoring for his team with less than five minutes left in the second period.
The Ravens got on the board seven minutes into the final frame as forward Brogan O’Brien found the back of the net on a 5-on-3 man advantage.
O’Brien potted his second of the game with 22 seconds left in the game, when he fired a wrist shot past Patriotes goaltender Sébastien Auger to give the Ravens their fifth straight victory.
“It was a good game. I don’t think we played our best at times, but we found a way in the end, and it was a good overall effort by the whole team,” O’Brien said.
With the wins, the Ravens now sit atop the Ontario University Athletics (OUA) East Division with a 10-2-3 record in 15 games played.
The Ravens will now look to close out their final two games before the holiday break as they get set to face off against the Queen’s University Gaels and the University of Ontario Institute of Technology (UOIT) Ridgebacks.
“There’s nothing to leave it out there for,” O’Brien said. “So, there’s only two games left and then we’ve got a nice long break, so we’ve just got to keep building off that and have a good week.”
Photo by Lauren Hicks
