The Carleton Ravens men’s hockey team lost the opening game of their third round Ontario University Athletics (OUA) playoff series against the Université du Québec à Trois-Rivières (UQTR) Patriotes 4-1 on Wednesday night at Trois-Rivières.
“I think we were going to have a 60-minute effort with everybody going. There was a bit of a dropoff after last series and that emotion we had needs to come back,” Ravens head coach Marty Johnston said after the game.
The first period was a back-and-forth affair, with momentum swinging both ways. Both sides had opportunities on the power play, although the game remained scoreless after one period. Francis Dupuis stopped all 12 shots he faced in the period, while Carleton was only unable to direct six shots on goal.
UQTR was able to get on the board first when Ravens defenseman Jeremie Fraser turned the puck over to UQTR forward Pierre-Maxime Poudrier at the offensive zone blue-line. Poudrier came in on a breakaway and scored a shorthanded goal.
The Ravens found themselves trailing for the first time this playoff season. Carleton was also outshot 22-15 through two periods, although they only trailed by one.
The first two periods were mostly a defensive gridlock from two of the offensive powerhouses in the OUA East, but the third period saw the offence take control of the game.
UQTR forward Tommy Giroux scored early in the third period on a rebound from a point shot to extend the lead to two.
Mitch Zion answered for the Ravens just three minutes later to cut the lead to one.
Despite the game being back within reach for the Ravens, they took a penalty a minute after the goal. Giroux scored his second of the game on the power play to give a two goal lead to the Patriotes once again.
“I thought we had some periods where we were moving our feet and taking it to them,” Zion said. “I thought right before the goal, we were pressing real well and then an unfortunate penalty and that just set us back.”
UQTR sealed the game with an empty-net goal at 19:39 of the third period.
After the game, Zion cited Carleton’s inability to stay out of the box as a reason for the loss.
“It’s not easy having to kill off six penalties against the top rated power play in the country,” Johnston said. “We can’t put ourselves in spots where we have to kill that many penalties and hopefully we can get a few more power plays next time.”
“We need to be better on special teams and take away those guys’ time and space,” he said.
The Ravens will look to stave off elimination in game two of the series on Saturday, March 5 at the Ice House.
