The Carleton Ravens men’s hockey team had their much-anticipated opening games Oct. 12-13, but the outcome wasn’t what they were hoping for.
The Ravens opened the season Oct. 12 with a 4-3 shootout defeat at the hands of the Concordia Stingers in front of an excited and packed crowd at the Ice House.
The Ravens came out flying off the opening draw and were busy in the Concordia end early. It didn’t take long for the team to score their first goal of the season, courtesy of newcomer Mitch Porowski, just 19 seconds into the game.
“I just kind of chipped it by and went around the net, passed it back to the D-man, got the rebound in front, banged on it and it went in,” Porowski said.
All three Carleton goals were scored by new recruits who came from playing in the Ontario Hockey League.
The Ravens continued their relentless pressure and extended their lead to 2-0 with a short-handed goal by another new Raven, Jack Walchessen.
Shortly after, Concordia cut the lead down to one with a power play goal and the first period ended with the Ravens leading 2-1.
In the second period, Concordia tied it 2-2 and it wasn’t until the middle of the third period when the tie was broken.
With his second goal of the game, Porowski scored with 12:35 remaining to give Carleton the lead.
“It was along the half-boards, I brought it around the net, popped it in front and then I got a rebound from [Shane] Bakker,” Porowski said.
Their lead did not last however, as with 10:33 remaining in the game, Concordia tied it up with another goal on the power play.
After a fast-paced overtime couldn’t solve the draw, the game headed into a shootout.
Following the first round of three shooters per team, they were still tied with one goal apiece. In the sixth round, the Concordia shooter scored on Ravens goaltender Ryan Dube, and Carleton couldn’t respond. As a result, the Ravens were handed a heartbreaking defeat.
Following the game, coach Marty Johnston called his recruits “solid players.”
“They have good experience coming in, and we expect all our recruits to have an impact on the game,” Johnston said.
“I thought the first 10 minutes were very good and I thought our third period and overtime were very strong. On the other hand, we turned over the puck needlessly, our penalty-killing wasn’t as good as it needs to be and we took too many penalties.”
The following day the Ravens travelled to play the McGill Redmen, where they again got off to a 2-0 lead before McGill stormed back to score three goals in the second period. The Ravens lost 6-4.
The Ravens travel to face the University of Toronto Varsity Blues Oct. 18 and will visit their cross-town rivals, the University of Ottawa Gee-Gees Oct.21.
