In a packed Carleton Ice House, the Carleton Ravens men’s hockey team lost a hard-fought battle Oct. 26 against their cross-town rivals by a score of 5-2.
Organizers had to relocate Ravens fans down beside the glass to accommodate the crowd of supporters. From start to finish, the fans cheered their team on, but watched the Ravens come up short.
“I thought we had the jump, but the bounces weren’t there tonight,” third-year forward Linden Bahm said after the game.
First-year forward Mitch Porowski gave the Ravens fans something to cheer about early in the game scoring just 2:31 into the game. Porowski buried a rebound off the boards from a shot from the point by fourth-year Mike Folkes, while fifth-year Ryan Berard picked up the other assist on the play.
But the Gee-Gees came right back, scoring just two minutes later. Second-year Gee-Gee Guillaume Donovan broke down the right side of the ice, beating Ravens goal Ryan Dube low blocker side.
The Gee-Gees took the lead when third-year captain Luc Oliver Blain-Ouellet knocked the puck out of mid air then shot low blocker side putting the puck just inside the post.
The Ravens then got themselves into penalty trouble by taking back-to-back penalties. The Gee-Gees took advantage of the extra man when Guillaume Donovan scored his second of the game, finishing off a cross crease pass to increase their lead to 3-1.
Both teams exchanged penalties throughout most of the second period, playing four-on-four. With 6:14 left in the second period, Berard caught the Ottawa goalie going the wrong way and put the puck past him short-side.
Late in the second period, Shane Bakker was given an offsetting roughing minor when he and first-year Gee-Gees player Jean-Sebastian Fournier started pushing and shoving each other in front of the Gee-Gees bench. This got the Ravens fans standing up and cheering loudly.
Bahm had the best chance for the Ravens early in the third period. He managed to get around the Gee-Gees defence but second-year Gee-Gees goalie Russel Abbott managed to make the save.
Just three minutes later, the Gee-Gees doubled their lead when fourth-year Paul Forster beat Ryan Dube on a breakaway. Then, with eight seconds left in the game, Forster scored an empty-net goal, sealing the victory for the visiting rivals.
The Ravens struggled on the power play, going for 1-13 on the man advantage. The Gee-Gees penalty kill stood up to a barrage of shots fearlessly blocking slap shots from the point.
“It’s just trying to move the puck better to the middle of the ice and not trying to take the hardest shots in the world, just making sure they get through and keep working at it and hope it works next time,” Bakker said.
In their last game against the Université du Québec Trois-Rivières, second-year forward Mike Lomas took a violent knee-on-knee and could not leave the ice under his own weight. Lomas was visibly in pain as he grimaced on his way to the locker room.
“He suffered a knee injury from a knee on knee play so he probably is going to be out until Christmas time,” Ravens head coach Marty Johnson said.
The Ravens continue regular season play at Lakehead University Nov. 2-3.
