The Carleton Ravens Men’s hockey team fell to the University of Toronto Varsity Blues 3-2 in a shootout on Sep. 14.
The Ravens were also defeated by the Ryerson Rams the following night by a score of 5-3 to open up the preseason.
“I would say we’re disappointed with both losses,” head coach Shaun Van Allen said. “ I thought at times we played very well. It’s just early in the season, we want to clean up a few things in our own end but for the most part we were happy with how everyone played.”
The Varsity Blues opened the scoring first when forward Hunter Atchison scored on the power play to take a 1-0 lead. Forward Nathan Hudgin then extended his team’s lead halfway through the third period with a tally of his own.
Shortly after, the Ravens cut the lead in half when forward Aaron Boyd sent the puck sailing past the Blues goaltender for his first Ontario University Athletics (OUA) goal.
The Ravens would tie the game up with 13 seconds remaining on the clock when forward Jake Smith sent the puck into the empty net to send the game into overtime for his first career OUA goal.
Overtime solved nothing as neither team was able to score a goal and the Ravens ended up falling in a shootout.
In their game against Ryerson, the Ravens came out of the gate strong and took an early 2-0 lead while outshooting the Rams 16-5 in the first period.
The Rams ended up coming back hard, and by the end of the second period, the game was tied at two goals apiece.
Early into the third period, both teams would answer back with goals of their own to make it 3-3. However, it was Ryerson which came out victorious in the end when they scored two more goals close to the end of the final period.
“We played pretty well. They were the first two exhibition games of the season so it was a good stepping stone for us,” Smith said about the games. “We learned how we have to play and the way our team’s gonna have to play in order to succeed. We’ve got a very strong team, very skilled team this year, but our work ethic has to be very good to continue.”
“I feel we dominated both games in the defensive zone and offensive zone and I think it showed on the score sheet too.” Smith added. “Obviously it wasn’t the outcome that we wanted, but that’s what exhibition games are about.”
The Ravens face off next weekend against the University of Windsor on Sep. 21 and Sept. 22 for a doubleheader at the Ice House.
File Photo
