After splitting its first two matches of the season on the road, the Carleton Ravens men’s hockey team repeated with another split in their home openers.
The team shut out the McGill Redbirds 2-0 on Friday followed by a back-and-forth 7-6 shootout loss to the Concordia Stingers on Saturday.
Friday: Grametbauer blanks McGill in 2-0 win
The story of Friday night was Ravens goaltender Mark Grametbauer, who turned aside all 35 shots he faced for the shutout.
“He’s been good these first three games, all-around,” Ravens centre Aaron Boyd said. “We didn’t help him out enough in UQTR and I think tonight he was on top of it again … He was on top of everything and that kept us in it.”
The Ravens stumbled out of the gate in the first period, trapped in their defensive zone for long stretches and often failing to connect on breakout passes. After 20 minutes, Carleton trailed McGill 14-6 on the shot clock.
Grametbauer answered the call.
“He was outstanding. [He] made a lot of big saves, stopped a lot of rims back there, really battled,” Ravens head coach Shaun Van Allen said. “[He] was easily, clearly our best player.”
He would continue to stump McGill’s offence through the second frame, long enough for Boyd to wire a wrist shot over the glove of McGill goalie Alexis Shank during a power play to break the defensive stalemate.
The success of special teams proved to be paramount for the Ravens, especially in a tight defensive battle where opportunities were hard to come by. The Ravens went one-for-three on the power play and five-for-five on the penalty kill.
“We’ve been practicing [special teams] a lot, every day basically throughout the week, so I think executing on those chances … is massive to our success,” Boyd said.
Looking to put a seal on the game in the third period, Boyd approached with speed and once again beat the glove of Shank for his second of the night and fourth in three games.
“I know some of their defencemen were cheating a little bit, so relying on my wingers to make those passes helped a lot, and just having that time and space to walk in made it easy,” Boyd said, referencing the aggressiveness of McGill’s defenders.
The win was Carleton’s first of the season without going into overtime.
“Everyone is gaining points if we’re going into overtime or a shootout, so we want to win as many games as we possibly can in regulation,” Van Allen said.
Saturday: Ravens can’t bury hatchet in wild 7-6 loss
If defence was the name of the game Friday, the exact opposite was true the following night as the Ravens hosted the Concordia Stingers.
It was the first time the teams faced each other since February 2020, when the Stingers upset Carleton and eliminated the Ravens from the Ontario University Athletics (OUA) playoffs.
“This is a big game for a lot of us, especially returning guys just because they kicked us out of the playoffs the last time we played, so a lot of us are very bitter,” Boyd said before the game.
The game featured 12 goals, nine of which came from a fast-and-furious second period.
Following a relatively uneventful first period in which Concordia left wing Adam Capannelli and Carleton defender Simon Kerr traded goals, the game turned into a feeding frenzy.
Concordia’s Phélix Martineau scored 46 seconds into the second period, then Boyd answered with two goals. Concordia’s Gabriel Proulx and Isiah Campbell both scored soon after.
“We started trying to do too much and then when we did have a chance, we had soft clears and we weren’t strong enough on the boards,” Van Allen said.
Fortunately for Carleton, Oliver Castleman exploded for two goals and an assist in less than eight minutes to go up 6-4, the first two-goal lead of the night.
But the Ravens just couldn’t escape the whirlwind period without one more goal against, leaving them up 6-5 with 20 minutes left to play.
“That fifth goal really hurt in the last 28 seconds. [When] you go into the third with a two goal lead, you feel a lot better,” Van Allen said.
The flow of play slowed considerably through the first half of the third period. The Ravens appeared to be on their way to sweeping the weekend, but with seven minutes left, Concordia’s Maxime Trépanier erased what had once been a comfortable two-goal cushion.
In a game where both teams seemed to score at will, it was destined for extra time. Surprisingly, neither team scored, although Castleman came close to a hat-trick at one point.
In the shootout, two Stingers goals from Capannelli and Trépanier delivered them the hard-fought victory.
Like last weekend, the Ravens picked up three of four possible points. They’ll be back in action Thursday and Saturday against the uOttawa Gee-Gees.
Featured image by Spencer Colby.
