The Carleton Ravens men’s hockey team saw their pre-season record drop to 0-2 with a 5-2 loss to the University of Prince Edward Island (UPEI) Panthers Sept. 22.
Veteran defenceman Justin Caruana said the Ravens didn’t put out their best effort in the loss and felt they should have capitalized on their home ice advantage in the game, which was played off-campus at the Kemptville Arena in Ottawa.
“It was not our best performance,” Caruana said. “They travelled for [over] 10 hours in the night and we should have taken advantage of that.”
Forward Linden Bahm opened the scoring for the Ravens, but the Panthers tied the game before the end of the first period.
The Panthers scored twice more before Ravens forward Brandon MacLean cut the deficit to one goal, but the Panthers scored twice again to push their lead to 5-2.
With a winless start to the exhibition season, there’s still work to be done, Caruana said. The Ravens still have two more exhibition games Oct. 1-2 before regular season play begins Oct. 7 at Brock University.
“Working for a full 60 minutes is the biggest one,” Caruana said.
Despite the slow start, Caruana said that there’s a lot to look forward to this year.
“We are going to be a hard-working, run-and-gun team this season,” Caruana said.
