The Carleton Ravens men’s hockey team started their season on a losing note Oct. 7-8, dropping both of their road games against the Brock Badgers and the Western Mustangs.
“We were hoping to go in there and come out with two wins, but we didn’t perform to the best of our capabilities both games,” said Ravens defenceman Justin Caruana. “We need to find out what is going on, get back to work this week during practice, and try and turn things around this coming weekend.”
In their regular season opener Oct. 7, the Ravens lost 6-3 to the Badgers in St. Catharines, Ont.
Second-year defenceman Brad Albert, team captain Brandon MacLean, and fourth-year forward Shane Bakker scored for the Ravens, while goaltender Matthew Dopud stopped 18 of 23 shots in the loss.
The Badgers’ final goal was a late empty-netter.
“I think we certainly struggled in our first game,” said head coach Marty Johnston. “We didn’t have our legs the way we wanted to in the first half of the game, and it sort of snowballed from there.”
The following day, Carleton played a much stronger game against the Mustangs, ranked fifth in the country, but still lost by a score of 4-2.
The line of Joe Pleckaitis, Jeff Hayes, and Ryan Berard accounted for both Ravens goals. Second-year forwards Pleckaitis and Hayes, both from Ottawa, each had a goal and an assist, while Berard notched two assists. Ryan Dube was solid between the pipes for the Ravens, turning aside 27 of the 31 shots he faced.
“I thought we had a much better effort [Oct. 8] and played well against one of the best teams in the country,” Johnston said. “So we are looking to build off that performance and hopefully turn it into a win [this] weekend.”
In order to get into the win bracket, Johnston said the team needs to work on their offensive production. Carleton went a combined 0-11 on the power play in their first two games.
“We’re really struggling to score goals at the moment,” he said. “We haven’t generated enough scoring [at] even strength and on our power plays.”
Looking forward, Caruana said the team has to play from the opening whistle to the final buzzer if they want to improve. The Ravens never led in either of their two opening games due to slow starts.
“I think our big problem this weekend was playing the full 60 minutes,” he said. “We could put good periods together, and some good spurts here and here, but I think we need to start faster and get the jump on teams rather than come from behind. If we do that, I think we’ll be fine.”
The Ravens play their first two home games of the season Oct. 14-15 against the Guelph Gryphons and the Waterloo Warriors.
“I think we’re still finding our way,” Johnston said. “We are hoping that we can continue to improve our play, and make sure that we are peaking at the right time. We’re not setting any specific goals and we just want to make sure that we are playing our best at the end of the season.”
