The Ravens men’s hockey team fell in a shootout to the University of Ottawa Gee-Gees on Oct. 11 and the Royal Military College of Canada (RMC) Paladins on Oct. 12.
“We can play better. Very poor start on our part, and in the second period, I thought we were much better and we had some good scoring chances,” head coach Shaun Van Allen said.
“Their goalie made some really good saves, and then in the third, one mistake kind of tied it, and then in the shootout, they could have won. They ended up winning—we could have won. We had two chances to win.”
Against the Gee-Gees, the Ravens opened the scoring in the first period, when forward Alexandre Boivin capitalized on the power play and gave the Ravens a 1-0 lead.
Despite the Ravens leading 1-0 at the end of the first period, the Gee-Gees outshot Carleton 13-9.
The Ravens came out strong in the second period and extended their lead to 2-0 one minute in after forward Jared Steege fired the puck past Gee-Gees goaltender Anthony Brodeur.
The Gee-Gees made it a one-goal game with five minutes remaining in the period, when forward Brendan Jacome backhanded the puck up and over Ravens goaltender Francois Brassard and into the net.
Five minutes into the third period, Gee-Gees defenceman Medric Mercier raced out of the penalty box and made it a tie game when he fired the puck past Brassard.
There would be no goals for the rest of the period as the two teams headed into overtime.
Overtime would solve nothing, however, and the teams headed into the shootout with U of O having outshot Carleton 36-24 throughout the entire game.
It would eventually be the Gee-Gees that would take the win after a goal by forward Yvan Mongo.
“He looked really good—he probably got us the point, especially in the first period when we weren’t very good,” Van Allen said about Brassard’s play. “He was our best player by a country mile.”
Against the Paladins, at Constantine Arena, the Ravens opened the scoring halfway into the opening period, when Boivin pounced on the rebound and put the puck past RMC goaltender Austin Hannaford.
RMC quickly tied the game up less than a minute later, when Paladins forward Deric Boudreau fired the puck past Ravens goaltender Justin Nichols.
The Ravens regained the lead three minutes later, when forward Brogan O’Brien shot the puck into the net for his first U Sports goal to close out the period.
Carleton extended their lead to 3-1 eight minutes into the second period, on a powerplay, when forward Dalen Hedges managed to beat Hannaford.
The Paladins made it another one goal game seconds later, when forward Alex Macdonald went in for a breakaway and sent the puck sailing past Nichols.
Two minutes later, RMC went on the power play, and capitalized with a goal from forward Liam Stagg.
Four minutes later, the Ravens regained the lead when, on his first U Sports goal, forward Matthew Forchuk beat Hannaford with a wrist shot to head into the final period with a 4-3 lead.
RMC tied the game to force overtime with two minutes left in the third, when forward Bennett Huber beat Nichols on the five-hole.
Once again, overtime solved nothing as the Ravens headed to the shootout for the second night in a row.
Despite leading the game in shots on goal 44-33, the Ravens fell in the shootout when Boudreau’s goal sealed the victory for the Paladins.
The Ravens play their next games on Oct. 19 and 20 at the Ice House as they take on the University of Waterloo Warriors and the Wilfrid Laurier University Golden Hawks, respectively.
Photo by Tim Austin
