Feb. 13, 2015.
The final horn sounds at the Carleton Ice House, and the Ravens men’s hockey team is moving on, as expected, to round two of the Ontario University Athletics East playoffs courtesy of the night’s 6-1 win over the hapless University of Ontario Institute of Technology Ridgebacks.
Despite the celebratory nature of the night, there’s something quaint, almost subdued about the atmosphere in the building. Later, the boxscore will announce 654 people were in attendance. In reality, about 200 people, mostly family and friends, fill the minimal seating at the Ice House to witness Carleton’s sweep. The crowd cheers politely throughout the night as the Ravens toy with their inferior opposition, but only a handful of fans in the student section stand up and truly celebrate. All in all, you could mistake this for a senior league game in a rural town.
This is a playoff game on a Friday night, with a potential series victory on the near horizon. The home team is poised to make a serious bid for an appearance at the national championship tournament. Where are even a few of the thousands who come out to watch the Panda Game or Capital Hoops?
The hockey team—by far the highest-calibre team on campus—struggles to pull in 200 people most nights.
That is not to say Carleton men’s basketball is not of a high calibre, as 11 championships in 13 seasons speak for themselves. But the Ravens men’s hockey is closer to the elite league in its sport, the NHL, than men’s basketball is to the NBA.
During the team’s second round playoff series the calibre of hockey on display at the Ice House rivalled that of Canada major junior teams. The Carleton-Université de Québec à Trois-Rivières series featured 37 former major-junior players from the CHL. For a reference point, the CHL is to hockey what the NCAA is to basketball in terms of funnelling players to the sport’s top league.
Two recent Ravens graduates, Shane Bakker and Brandon MacLean, currently ply their trade in the AHL, just one call away from the bright lights of the NHL.
This past season, head coach Marty Johnston’s team featured three players who were drafted by NHL organizations in Corey Durocher (Florida, 2010), Patrick Killeen (Pittsburgh, 2008), and Tim Billingsley (Phoenix, 2008). All three are likely to pursue high-level pro careers upon graduation.
Nobody from the Ravens football team will be drafted by an NFL team. Nobody from Ravens basketball, despite what some overly optimistic Canadian basketball fans say, will play in the NBA. Yet there are Ravens hockey alumni, fresh off their time at Carleton, sitting one phone call away from the big time.
While the rapidly-developing football team and perennial champion basketball team both draw thousands, the men’s hockey team plays in relative anonymity despite being the closest thing to “pro” on campus.
“Having played both NCAA and [Canadian Interuniversity Sport (CIS)] hockey, I’m always shocked at how little attention CIS gets,” said Mitch Zion, a fourth-year Ravens forward who played collegiately in the U.S. with Clarkson University.
A first-place team for the majority of the season, men’s hockey was an afterthought compared to Carleton’s other top sports teams. But at every game, there would always be a handful of hockey purists, usually seniors, who would come up to me, smile, and babble on excitedly about how good the hockey was.
It seems the student body missed the memo.
