OTTAWA - On the annual Teddy Bear Toss night, the Carleton Ravens defeated the RMC Paladins 6-5 in come-from-behind fashion. The Ravens trailed 4-0 at one point in the game but the offence came to life as the game went on resulting in a large comeback victory.
The Ravens outplayed the Paladins throughout almost the entire first period but couldn’t find a way to get on the board. RMC did a good job at keeping Carleton to the outside and not allowing the Ravens any high-danger chances. RMC goaltender Michael Davis also did a good job at staying solid and square to make a couple of big saves in the opening frame.
The Ravens struggled in the defensive end throughout the first period which gave some high-danger chances to the Paladins. RMC capitalized midway through the period as Wil Murray picked up a puck off of a turnover to give RMC a 1-0 lead. The Ravens would continue to push to try and tie, but it remained a 1-0 game through the opening period of play.
The second period was considerably worse for Carleton early on as RMC came out of the gate fighting hard. A quick powerplay goal less than a minute into the second made it 2-0 RMC. The Paladins would quickly add another goal making it 3-0, and that was enough for Ravens head coach Shaun Van Allen to pull goaltender Mark Grametbauer (Halifax, N.S.) from the game, as Cole McLaren (Lequille, N.S.) came in for relief. While the Ravens did press harder after the goalie switch, RMC would add yet another to make it a 4-0 game. That goal once again came off of a defensive turnover.
However, the Ravens did a good job at fighting adversity to battle back in the later portion of the period. On a five-on-three power play, Nick McCarry (Calgary, Alta.) scored his fourth goal of the year to give Carleton some life. The Ravens would add another goal on the man advantage late in the period with Parker Aucoin (Sturgeon County, Alta.) continuing his monster season offensively and cutting the deficit to two. Carleton trailed 4-2 after 40 minutes of play.
The Ravens took the two late second-period goals and exploded in the third. Three unanswered goals gave Carleton a 5-4 lead heading late into the final 20. All three goals came off of rebounds on shots from the point with Carleton finding a consistent way to beat Davis in the third. It started with McCarry getting his second goal of the game, Blake Allan (Davidson, Sask.) then tied it up with a backhand goal and Will Collins (Ottawa, Ont.) put one home on a rebound to give the Ravens the lead.
RMC then had to get back on offence trying to tie the game back up, and sound pressure with under three minutes left resulted in the equalizer. A loose puck rolled towards Devin Pimm who buried it past an outstretched Mclaren to tie the game back up. Carleton would quickly respond though as with thirty seconds left in the third Kaleb Bulych (Yorkton, Sask.) picked up his first goal as a Raven to give his team the lead. The Ravens would hold on to seal a big come-from-behind win in front of its home crowd.
The win improves the Ravens' record to 8-3-3 on the season, bouncing back from a hard-fought loss against the uOttawa GeeGees this past Sunday. The Ravens will look to feed off of the win as it heads to Montreal for the final game of the first half against the Concordia Stingers.
“I don’t even know how to explain that one. A lot of turnovers on our part in the first half of the game really complicated things. A lot of credit to RMC, they put us in some bad places and then we made some bad decisions.”
“You're down two goals going into the third against a really hard-working team, you don’t expect to come back and win that one and credit to the guys for sticking with it and finding a way to win.”
“We started getting traffic in front of their goalie and we started getting pucks on net. We won some battles in front of the net and our cycle game was a whole lot better in the third.”
“I thought Lukash Matthews has really played well the last couple of games…he’s stepped in and played really well and was really consistent. Paul Larabie came back and gave us a spark to (his) line. It's an opportunity when guys go down for some of these other guys to get a chance to step up.”
“We’re going to have to manage the puck a lot better, (and) have to play our systems better. They haven’t played since last Sunday so they’re going to be ready to go and it's our last game before the Christmas break so we want to have a good showing.”
“It felt good, that was a good game. Obviously, we took some bad turns in the first but I’m proud of the group that they found a way to give ourselves a chance to win that game.”
“I think it was just a focus issue. We addressed it between the second and third. We had a little lapse that's our fault but I thought we did a good job of bouncing back and finding a way to win.”
“It's big that we win this game momentum-wise and confidence-wise. It gives the team a lot of confidence to roll into that game on Saturday and hopefully win that game too. We’re battling a lot of injuries right now so that win is huge.”
