Heartbreak was the theme as the Carleton Ravens men’s hockey team blew a three-goal lead en route to a 4-3 overtime loss at the hands of the University of Toronto Varsity Blues Nov. 25.
The loss was the Ravens’ last away game of the calendar year, leaving them with a 3-3-1 road record in 2011.
“I think we can do better,” said forward Joe Pleckaitis. “I think we can still improve in many spots of our game, and I think we’re still top contenders in this league.”
If they hope to remain contenders in the second half of the season, the Ravens will need to work on closing out games in the third period.
All of Carleton’s goals came in the second period, as the team received tallies from defenceman Christian Boudeau-Mifflen and forwards Linden Bahm and Shane Bakker. With a 3-0 lead after two periods, everything seemed to be under control.
“We started great,” Pleckaitis said. “We’ve been having some trouble starting the game in the first period, and we got a bunch of first goals, and that was great. We held the lead until the third and played two really solid periods.”
That’s when things took a turn for the worse.
“I think we got in a little bit of penalty trouble and were a bit undisciplined,” Pleckaitis explained. “But I think our special teams didn’t come through and that’s what cost us the game.”
Captain Brandon MacLean said he agreed that special teams were the difference.
“It can be the difference between two points, one point and no points,” MacLean said. “The penalty kill‘s been great all year, so we were relying on that.”
A slashing penalty to forward Chris Downey allowed Varsity Blues defenceman Matt Walters to sneak a slapshot past Ravens goalie Matthew Dopud.
Shortly afterwards, with forward Connor Barrett serving a boarding misconduct, a goal from forward Byron Elliott brought the Varsity Blues within one with just over seven minutes remaining.
“We got into penalty troubles,” MacLean said. “I might attribute it a bit to the way the refs were calling the game, but we also just lost our mental focus.”
With the Varsity Blues buzzing around the Carleton net and the Ravens desperately attempting to hold off the attack, Toronto forward Kyle Ventura drew Toronto even with a top-shelf goal off a faceoff.
The Ravens had a flurry of chances in the final three minutes of play, but Varsity Blues goaltender Garrett Sheehan held strong and forced the game into overtime.
Carleton was unable to recover from the collapse, however, as Elliott slipped the game-winning goal for the Varsity Blues past Dopud 2:23 into overtime, to cap off the comeback.
“They got a couple [of goals] on us, the momentum shifted in their favour, and then their best player got a breakaway in overtime and he cashed in,” MacLean said. “We’re not where we’d want to be, but we’re getting there.”
Despite allowing four goals, Dopud was solid in the loss, stopping 45 of 49 shots. Sheehan made 26 saves in the winning effort for the Varsity Blues.
Carleton will look to get back into the win column Dec. 2 at home against the Concordia Stingers. The last meeting between the two teams saw the Ravens emerge victorious with a 5-2 win in February.
