The Carleton Ravens men’s hockey team dominated as they collected a pair of wins against the Nipissing Lakers and the Laurentian Voyageurs. The Ravens beat the Lakers 4-1 on Nov. 3, and then defeated the Voyageurs 6-0 the following night, extending their winning streak to four games.
Against Nipissing, the game got off to a slow start as neither team found the back of the net in the first period.
Five minutes into the second period, Lakers defensemen Matt Donnely was able to beat Ravens goaltender Francois Brassard while on the man advantage.
Carleton was able to answer back with a goal of their own on a power play when Ravens forward Dalen Hedges fired the puck past Lakers goalie Brent Moran to tie the game up heading into the third period.
In the third period, the Ravens wasted no time coming out on the ice when, just three minutes into the period, Hedges recorded his second goal of the night to give the Ravens a 2-1 lead.
Five minutes later, Ravens forward Jared Steege sent a backhand shot into the net past Moran to extend the Ravens lead to 3-1.
The Ravens would then score one last goal before the end of the game, when Ravens defenseman Mike Constantine received a pass from forward Alexandre Boivin and fired the puck into the back of the net.
“Better that it’s over, you know, I thought we turned the puck over too much in the first period which led to our goaltender to make saves he shouldn’t have had to make,” Ravens head coach Shaun Van Allen said about the game against Nipissing. “But, second and third [period] we kept down on our turnovers, played a lot better and I think that was the key.”
On Nov. 4, the Ravens came out pushing with strong offence and it showed when just two minutes into the first period, Ravens forward Benji Curtis recorded his first goal as a Raven and wired the puck past Voyageurs goaltender Joel Vienneau.
Eight minutes later, Ravens defensemen Matt Sozanski scored his first goal as a Raven when his shot deflected into the net to give Carleton a 2-0 lead. Soon after, Ravens forward Ryan Van Stralen went on a two-on-one with defensemen Josh Burnside and fired the puck into the back of the net.
The Ravens offence continued to pepper the Voyageurs as Brett Gustavsen broke free of the defensemen and headed to the net, alone. His shot was stopped by Vienneau but Jared Steege was there to put the rebound into the back of the net, extending the Carleton lead to 4-0. This goal would be the end of the night for the Voyageurs starting goaltender who was then replaced by backup Gunner Rivers.
The Ravens came out strong in the final period of the game as Steege received a pass from Ravens forward Fabian Walsh to send the puck past Rivers.
The goal was Steege’s seventh of the year, as he now leads the Ravens in goals scored and is tied for third place in total goals in Ontario University Athletics.
Carleton put the final nail in the coffin as Boivin sent the puck into the back of the net with an assist from Constantine to give the Ravens a dominating 6-0 victory.
With the win against the Voyageurs, Ravens goaltender Justin Nichols recorded his first shutout of the season in his second start of the season.
“It’s really nice, you get that out of the way . . . we spread the scoring out tonight with six different scorers so it was a really good game for us,” Van Allen said.
“It was good, it was two big wins, we got a little streak going, so just gotta keep playing the right way even when we get ahead, so it’s nice,” Curtis said about the games this weekend.
The two wins have bumped the Ravens into the U Sports national rankings for the first time this year, landing at the number 10 spot.
“It’s great to be noticed but on the other side it’s not, you want to kinda want to fly under the radar because everyone wants to knock down who’s on top,” said Ravens assistant coach Mark Cavallin.
The Ravens play their next games on Nov. 10 and 11 as they look to extend their win streak against the University of Ottawa Gee-Gees in a pre-Colonel By Classic matchup before taking on the Queen’s Gaels the next night.
Photo by Matt Czapalay
