By Mason Bugaresti (Photos by Charles Fortin)
The Carleton Ravens men’s hockey team was eliminated from the Queen’s Cup playoffs Saturday night after losing 6-3 in the game and 2-0 in the best-of-three series.
The Ravens fell behind early in game #2 as UQTR jumped out to a quick start scoring the game’s first goal just 6:48 into the first. Mark Grametbauer (Halifax, N.S.) made two-straight stops before Felix Lauzon potted a rebound to give the Patriotes the 1-0 lead. Less than four minutes later, Julien Tessier sniped a shot off the goalpost and in to double UQTR’s advantage.
Before the end of the period, Carleton’s Brogan O’Brien (Prince George, B.C.) fired a shot through traffic which beat UQTR goaltender Alexis Gravel top-shelf. After being outshot 9-5 in the period, Carleton entered the first intermission trailing 2-1.
The start of the second period mirrored that of the first with the UQTR Patriotes scoring two quick goals and extending their lead to 4-1 less than four minutes into the second period. With Carleton trailing by three, the Ravens' powerplay went to work as Aaron Boyd (Winnipeg, Man.) potted his first of the playoffs to cut the lead to two. On a later second-period powerplay, Alex Johnston (Ottawa, Ont.) deflected a Nick McCarry (Calgary, Alta.) shot past Gravel to make it a 4-3 game after 40 minutes.
The Patriotes pulled away in the third period restoring their two-goal lead less than three minutes into the final frame. About 9 minutes later, UQTR would add a sixth goal to put the game to bed ending with a 6-3 final score.
With the loss, the Carleton Ravens are now eliminated from the 2023 Queen’s Cup Playoffs, while the UQTR Patriotes will advance to play the Concordia Stingers in the OUA East final.
