The Carleton Ravens men’s hockey team has dropped the puck on its 2011-12 pre-season, opening with a hard-fought 4-3 loss to the Nipissing University Lakers Sept. 16.
In a game that saw the Ravens fall behind by two goals on two separate occasions, it was the Lakers proficiency on special teams that ultimately made the difference.
“They scored three goals against our penalty kill, and I think our powerplay needs to be a little bit better, but those are things that aren’t going to be spot on right off the start,” said Ravens head coach Marty Johnston. “We were pretty much top five in the league [on the penalty kill] all of last year, so I’m hoping that stays the same,” Johnston said.
With 2,636 fans in attendance, the scene inside Memorial Gardens was more reminiscent of a high-stakes regular season game than an exhibition contest.
And with two powerplay goals in the opening 20 minutes from the home team, the large crowd had plenty of reason to get on their feet early in the evening.
Ottawa native Jeff Hayes managed to pull one back for the Ravens before the end of the period, who went into the dressing room trailing 2-1.
After falling behind 3-1, the Ravens managed to battle back with two goals in quick succession to open the third.
“I thought we got off to a very slow start, but as the game went on I thought we played well and I was very happy with our third period,” Johnston said.
The final frame started in ideal fashion for Johnston’s men, as winger Andrew Self brought the Ravens to within one goal just nine seconds after the opening faceoff.
Building on that momentum, the Ravens managed to draw even shortly after. Forward Joe Pleckaitis, who was tied for third on the team in scoring with 29 points last season, completed the comeback with his first goal of the exhibition campaign.
But after fighting back to tie the game at three apiece, Nipissing notched the game-winner with only 3:26 remaining in the final period.
Lakers forward Marcus Watson scored his first-ever goal in a Lakers uniform — a pink uniform in support of the Canadian Breast Cancer Foundation CIBC Run for the Cure to commemorate the third annual Real Men Wear Pink game.
Watson beat a Ravens defenceman to the outside before squeezing the puck through the five-hole of Ravens goaltender Ryan Dube on the wrap-around.
This time there was to be no comeback, as Lakers netminder Daniel Spence held down the lead, ensuring that Johnston’s second season at the helm of the Ravens did not start off with a victory.
While he admits that even during the pre-season he would “like to win every game,” Johnston said there were some positive signs to be taken from the team’s performance. Most encouraging for the former Gloucester Rangers bench boss was the men’s resilience after falling behind.
“That was very positive. We were on the road, we were down but we fought our way back,” he said. “We carried the play in the third period and I was really happy with that. Obviously giving up a late goal in the third is not something we want to be doing, but overall I was happy with our effort.”