For the third straight season, the Carleton Ravens men’s hockey team will have an opportunity to advance to the Ontario University Athletics (OUA) East final. For the second time in three years, the team standing in their way is the Université du Québec à Trois-Rivieres (UQTR) Patriotes.
The teams played each other very evenly this year with each team winning twice, once at home and once on the road. This matchup for the Ravens goes back to the 2009 playoffs. After stealing game one on the road, Carleton couldn’t end the series at home. Game three in Quebec went to double-overtime, where the Patriotes eventually won.
There are nine Ravens players still with the team from that series (10 if you count current assistant coach Ryan Medel), and for some of them, the memory of that loss still stings.
“Actually last night I was sitting down thinking about that,” said fourth-year defenceman Justin Caruana. “That game could have gone either way and just to see them celebrating after, it’s not a nice feeling. It’s in the back of my head and I think a few of the other guys who were here are still thinking about that. So, you know, [we want to] get a little revenge.”
Captain Brad Good, however, has chosen to focus on the present.
“There’s a lot that’s happened since then,” Good said. “I think our games against them this regular season, we split the season series, and they were chippy, intense games. I think those are more so the motivation than looking that far in the past.”
Good also spoke about what the team needs to do to finally get into the third round.
“We’ve been in the second round the last two years and haven’t been able to get over that hump. But we feel confident this year. We’re playing some of the best hockey I’ve seen in four years that I’ve been here so all systems are go.”
If the Ravens are to advance, they’ll have to win at least one game on the road, since they are not the higher seed and will not have home-ice advantage as they did against Toronto in the first round. Head coach Marty Johnston touched on the need to win game one.
“We're just trying to find a way to win on the road, first and foremost,” Johnston said. “Our record isn't the best on the road (7-6-2) so we've got to make sure that we win at least one. That's really our focus right now.”
Carleton got big contributions from the top line during the regular season against the Patriotes, as Joey Manley, Ryan Berard and Brandon MacLean accounted for five goals and six assists in the four contests — Berard and MacLean missed one game while in Turkey for the World University Games. But as with any playoff series, secondary scoring is important. The Ravens will be looking to their second line of Joe Pleckaitis, Jeff Hayes and Andrew Self to chip in offensively as well.
In the four games against UQTR, Self had a goal and three assists, Hayes a goal and two assists, and Pleckaitis scored twice while adding one assist. In the post-season, Self is tied for the team lead with three goals, and Hayes has chipped in with five points.
On the other side of the rink, the Ravens will have to contain Patriotes forward Olivier Donovan. He scored two goals and added five assists in the four regular season games and has four points in three games this post-season. Some other key offensive weapons include Pierre-Alexandre Joncas (three goals, one assist vs. Carleton), Jean-Sebastien Breton (two goals and three assists), and Pierre-Luc Lessard (two goals and three assists).
Between the pipes, it will be Matthew Dopud against Jean-Christophe Blanchard. Dopud faced the Patriotes just once, stopping 28 of 31 shots, and was the hard-luck loser in a game that saw UQTR win on a fluke goal in the final second of regulation time back in December. Dopud was red-hot against Toronto, however, posting a .940 save percentage, and a neat 1.68 goals against average.
Blanchard was in net for both UQTR wins against Carleton (and did not start in either of the losses). He posted a .925 save percentage in his action against the Ravens. In the first round series against Concordia, he had a goals against average of 3.02 and a .895 save percentage.
Finally, special teams will play an important role in determining the series outcome. Carleton was wildly successful against UQTR this year, scoring on 33 per cent of their chances. The Patriotes also fared well, converting 24 per cent of power play opportunities. In the first round, the Ravens had the second best penalty kill (92 per cent) and the fifth-best power play (22 per cent). UQTR, who struggled on both special teams during the regular season, killed off 83 per cent of penalties, good for eigth. They converted on just 15 per cent of man-advantage opportunities (11th).
Johnston said there are no injuries to report so the lineup will stay the same. He outlined what the Ravens need to do to win the series.
“I think we need to make sure that we don't have any lapses like we had in the first series. In the first game, we obviously didn't play as well as we needed to and then at home there were definitely times in the second period where we let [Toronto] get momentum. I think a team has highly skilled as UQTR will make you pay for taking shifts off so we're going to have to be really tight defensively.”
In the other eastern conference semifinal, the McGill Redmen will take on the Nipissing Lakers. Both teams flew out of the gate offensively in the first round and swept their respective series'. It should be an interesting series, but it’s hard to bet against the high-octane Redmen attack, finally healthy after struggling down the stretch. The Lakers will definitely put up a tough fight.
Predictions: Redmen in 2, Ravens in 3.
– with files from Farhan Devji and Erika Stark
Matt Di Nicolantonio is a fourth-year journalism student from Toronto. He is the play-by-play voice of the Carleton Ravens for SSN and co-host of sports for Charlatan Live on CKCU radio.