The Carleton Ravens men’s hockey team continued their climb up the Ontario University Athletics (OUA) East standings, as they defeated the Concordia University Stingers 4-2 on Jan. 3 and emerged with a dominating 6-1 victory over the Royal Military College (RMC) Paladins on Jan. 5.
“I thought the guys worked really hard. You have four weeks to five weeks off in between games, and then you have a two-week Christmas break—it’s really hard, but they worked hard,” head coach Shaun Van Allen said.
“You can really tell that they cared. They really bonded together and wanted to have this win, and it was a great team effort.”
In their game against Concordia, Ravens forward Jared Steege opened the scoring a minute into the opening frame to give Carleton a 1-0 lead.
Carleton would find themselves hanging onto a 2-0 lead five minutes into the first, as Ravens forward Aaron Boyd found the back of the net against Stingers goaltender Marc-Antoine Turcotte.
Nine minutes later, Stingers forward Christopher Smith scored against Ravens goaltender Francois Brassard to make it a one-goal game for Concordia. Carleton answered back five minutes later with a goal of their own to restore their two-goal lead as the teams headed off the ice with the Ravens up 3-1.
During the game, tensions rose between both teams as Carleton and Concordia each served 39 minutes of penalties on 10 infractions, which resulted in two players from each team getting thrown out of the game.
“I think both teams were kind of notorious to get into it with them,” Ravens forward Alex Boivin said. “So, every time they’re here or we’re there, we expect a battle.”
“We’re both competitive teams, and nobody wants to lose, so, you put guys out there like that, and it’s going to get a little bit chippy, but I think we thrive in that department, so we really came to play today,” Boivin added.
The game remained 3-1 until Concordia once again made it a one-goal game with three minutes left in the final frame.
The Ravens answered back with an empty net goal from forward Jake Smith as they dashed the Stingers’ hopes for a comeback, sealing the 4-2 victory.
“It was a little too close. We wanted to make it a little dramatic for the fans out there, so, I think we barred down,” Boivin said on the last minutes of the game.
“Obviously, we don’t want it to be that close, but I think we all worked, and I think that last two can attest to [what] a hardworking team we are, how resilient we can be, and at the end of the day we came out with the win,” he added.
Against the RMC, the Ravens found themselves with a 2-1 lead heading into the second period with goals from forward Chiwetin Blacksmith and Boivin.
In a game similar to Thursday, the teams found themselves going off for multiple penalties. Carleton ended up serving 48 minutes on 16 infractions, while the Paladins took 36 minutes on 14 infractions.
“Well, it’s a learning process, and we’re trying to get better on that. The playoffs are right around the corner here. The part we like is the guys play with a lot of emotion, and they stick up for their teammates which we really like,” Van Allen said.
“But, there’s a fine line between playing with a little bit too much emotion and getting outside yourself and playing with the right amount of emotions. So, we were happy for the most part, it’s just penalties after the whistle that we want to clean up.”
The Ravens found themselves up 4-1 heading into the third period, as they saw the game’s first even strength goal come from Smith.
In the final frame, Carleton increased their lead as defenceman Josh Burnside and Boyd found the back of the net to make it a 6-1 game.
“It was a good game. It was a tough start, but we played really well after we stuck to our game plan and did what we [had] to do to win the hockey game,” Smith said.
The Ravens now are set to face off against the first-place OUA East University of Ottawa Gee-Gees on Jan. 11.
Van Allen expects the Gee-Gees will “be ready for us,” adding how he won’t need to “say much this week” to psych his team up for the big game.
“Well, I don’t have to tell anyone who we’re playing .” Van Allen said.
— With files from Tim Austen
