The Carleton Ravens men’s hockey team edged the University of Ottawa (U of O) Gee-Gees by a score of 6-2 in the inaugural Colonel By Classic at TD Place Arena in front of 800 fans on Oct. 19.
“It was just important for it to be a win,” said Ravens head coach Marty Johnston. “We had to kill a lot of penalties at Concordia, but tonight I thought when we did take the penalties we had good composure and the guys responded well.”
Carleton opened the scoring 25 seconds into the first period when newly appointed Ravens captain Michael McNamee took an outlet pass from third-year winger Ryan Van Stralen, and fired the puck past Gee-Gees goaltender Graham Hunt.
“Obviously with the magnitude of it, and the hype, it’s tough to treat it as a normal game,” McNamee said after the game. “But we’ve had a bit of a slow start to the season . . . so really we just tried to treat it as two points on the line, which is what we got.”
U of O answered back with an equalizing goal when Gee-Gees forward Brendan Jacome took a puck in the corner and sent it to forward Marco Azzano in the slot. Azzano promptly deposited a goal over the shoulder of Ravens goaltender Francois Brassard.
The score remained 1-1 until two minutes into the second period, when Ravens forward Adam Chapman polished off a two-on-one off a pass from Alexandre Boivin.
It was here that the Ravens began to pull away. Less than a minute after Chapman’s marker, second-year forward Brett Gustavsen took the puck after it ricocheted off of the end boards and into the slot. Gustavsen wasted no time firing a wrist shot past Hunt to extend the lead to two.
“We just kept it simple I guess, the first period after we scored, we kind of sat back a little bit,” McNamee said. “Second period, we came out, kept it simple, we got two quick goals.”
Four minutes later, Van Stralen took control of the puck at the top of the faceoff circle and drove to the net, losing the puck only to have McNamee pick it up again and send a wrist shot into the top corner from the side of the crease for his second goal of the night.
A goaltending change did little to help the Gee-Gees, as Gustavsen fired a laser from the slot to the top corner for his second of the game to give the Ravens a 5-1 lead.
The score stayed there until seven minutes into the third period, when U of O took their advantage in shots and converted it into a goal from Antoine Pouliot.
McNamee earned a hat trick when he scored an empty-net goal at the end of the game to seal the victory for the Ravens.
The game between two heated rivals was surprisingly disciplined, with a lone scrum in the beginning of the second period being the only source of tension.
“It’s been something that we have mentioned in the room that we want to be a more disciplined team. We are highly offensive, and you can’t use that offence when you’re in the box,” Gustavsen said.
After the game, Gee-Gees head coach Patrick Grandmaitre said he hopes the Colonel By Classic grows to become as big as Capital Hoops and the Panda Game.
“Hopefully it becomes what the two others have become—an event, something that the hockey community can rally around,” he said. “I’ve been a part of Capital Hoops and Panda Game as a spectator and . . . what’s definitely going to help is us getting more competitive and being able to play against a top team like Carleton.”
