Preseason was not an excuse to go easy, as the Carleton Ravens men’s hockey team defeated the McGill Redmen 4-3 in a shootout on Sept. 16 at the Ice House.
“I thought we started off fairly slow, but as the game went on we fell into our rhythm,” said Ravens head coach Marty Johnston. “All in all it was about the guys establishing a pace and getting bumped around a bit, learning from our mistakes and getting some video and using it to move forward.”
With a mix of fresh faces on the bench this season, Johnston said Ravens rookie Adam Chapman stood out during the game as he battled to establish a role for himself before the start of the season later in October.
“I thought that [Chapman] certainly came in and provided a spark that we needed,” he said. “Adam’s skills really show in games, being in front of the net and finishing checks, so it was nice to see that.”
Midway through the third period, the Ravens found themselves trailing 3-1. Brett Welychka and Alexandre Boivin tallied late goals to send the game to overtime.
Welychka and Mike McNamee would score in the shootout to seal the win for the Ravens.
In goal, the Ravens will feature a tandem of Francois Brassard and Justin Nichols, and according to Johnston, there is no doubt that there will be an ongoing competition for the new number one role.
“It will be a very tight battle between who will be number one goalie this year,” Johnston said. “We have had the luxury in the past of having very good goalies, our guys finished first and second in the country.”
“It’s nice that every day we know that the guys are competing in practice for that position, but like I said, it will be a battle to see who is going to get the minutes,” he said.
Brassard started the game for the Ravens, while Nichols entered the game midway through the third period, though he spent extra time in goal with the game needing 10 minutes of overtime and a shootout to determine a winner.
“It is kind of hard to come into a game halfway through like that when you’re cool and it’s a back and forth game,” Nichols said. “I just gauged the play shift by shift and got myself accommodated to the speed of the game, especially during the overtimes and shootout where I played like myself the most.”
After an aggressive and physical game, Johnston said it was a great start to the preseason in order to see where the team is at and what needs to be improved in time for the regular season.
“Now with game video, we can teach what we want and don’t want, see why our power play wasn’t clicking for example, and dig in with the guys personally,” he said.
Carleton will continue preseason play with a game on Sept. 22 at the Ice House against the Windsor Lancers.
