The Carleton men’s hockey team picked up a pair of wins in its final two home games of the regular season, defeating the Ryerson Rams and the University of Toronto Varsity Blues Jan. 30-31.
The Ravens opened the weekend with a 5-2 victory over the Rams.
After jumping out to an early 2-0 lead less than five minutes into the game, the Ravens never looked back.
“We’re not used to really getting a lead on teams early,” Ravens captain Damian Cross said.
“We just stayed focused throughout the whole game and on the bench, and just handled everything that they threw at us.”
Michael Lomas opened the scoring for Carleton, burying the rebound of a shot by Justin Stevens. Less than two minutes later, Carleton’s Ryan Van Stralen scored on the power play by blasting a shot just under the crossbar.
A goal by Ryerson’s Jason Kelly would cut the Ravens lead to one.
That was as close as the Rams would get, as Cross responded just over a minute later, streaking down the right wing and putting the puck past the Rams goaltender.
Carleton’s David Weckworth had the only goal of the second period, putting the Ravens up by three.
Jeff Hayes also added a power play goal midway into the third period for the Ravens to give them their biggest lead of the game.
The Rams continued to battle hard, capitalizing on a power play late in the third to put the score at 5-2.
In the end, Carleton’s strong offensive play proved to be too much for Ryerson.
“We were tested all game, every shift,” Cross said. “The game plan was to be very good away from the puck, and I think that’s what we did.”
The Ravens’ power play was two for three on the night—a dramatic difference from the team’s one for 17 record with the man advantage in their previous three games.
“We played a very good team, and at the end of the day, our power play finally got a few, and I thought that really made the difference,” Ravens head coach Marty Johnston said.
The Ravens continued their momentum at home, defeating the Varsity Blues 4-1 the following day.
Hayes opened the scoring midway into the first by tapping in a pass from Michael McNamee on the power play.
The Varsity Blues tied up the game early into the second with a power play goal by Jeff Brown.
Carleton responded with goals by Van Stralen and Mitch Zion to give the Ravens a 3-1 lead at the end of the second period.
Despite experiencing penalty woes in the third period, the Ravens were able to maintain their lead.
Hayes solidified the Ravens’ win by picking off a pass on the penalty kill and deking out the Varsity Blues goaltender on the ensuing breakaway.
The Ravens successfully fought off seven of eight penalties to pull out the win.
“Our penalty kill stepped up,” Johnston said. “We were in the box quite a bit tonight, which is uncharacteristic for us.”
The Ravens’ penalty kill was not the only successful special teams unit. Carleton’s power play was effective again, going two for three on the evening.
“We’ve been working on it a lot in practice,” Hayes said. “We’ve been struggling throughout the year with it, but I think we kept it simple by getting pucks on net, and they’re just starting to go in for us.”
The two wins put Carleton in a three-way tie for first place in the Ontario University Athletics East division with the Université du Québec à Trois-Rivières Patriotes and McGill Redmen.
Carleton will play its remaining two regular season games on the road Feb. 6-7 against the Nipissing Lakers and Laurentian Voyageurs.
