Ravens Sports Info (Photo: Charles Fortin)
OTTAWA (Oct. 5, 2024) - After winning their home opener 5-1 over the OUA Finalists the TMU Bold, the Carleton Ravens dropped the second game of the season on Saturday night falling 5-4 to Ontario Tech.
On Friday night, the Ravens' season got off to a bad start when Kevin Gursoy slipped a pass across the crease to Connor Bowie, who beat Ravens goaltender Ty Austin (Pembroke, Ont.) for the lead in the opening minute. Carleton wasted little time bouncing back as the line of Madoka Suzuki (Kanawaga, JPN), Will Collins (Ottawa, Ont.) and Scott McKenzie (Calgary, Alta.) got to work. Falling to his knees, McKenzie would find Suzuki cross-ice for a one-timer to tie the game.
Six minutes later Collins would cut to the middle as he entered the Carleton zone and fire a wrist shot past Kai Edmonds for the lead. Carleton would never look back. Nick McCarry (Calgary, Alta.) would poke home a loose puck on the edge of the crease to give Carleton a 3-1 lead after 20.
After a scoreless second period, Oliver Castleman (Ottawa, Ont.) and Alex Johnston (Ottawa, Ont.) would trade off on a beautiful tic-tac-toe goal to give Carleton a 4-1 lead. Madoka Suzuki would score his second of the season into the empty net to put the game away.
It looked as though Carleton had carried their momentum into Saturday night as rookie Parker Patruniak (Edmonton, Alta.) fired a seeing-eye wrister past Beckett Langkow for an early 1-0 lead. Ottawa's Giovanni Morneau would get his first just minutes later with a laser beam over the shoulder of Langkow and under the bar to make it 2-0.
The two teams exchanged power-play goals in the second with Justin Svenson scoring early before the Ravens would restore the two-goal lead. Working the puck below the goal line, the Ravens made short work of their man advantage as Alexandre Hogue (Embrun, Ont.) found Reese Belton (Winnipeg, Man.) alone in the slot for a two-goal lead.
The Ridgebacks came out firing in the third after Kyle Leonard cut the lead to one in the first two minutes, Alex Drover scored on the powerplay just after seven minutes had elapsed to tie the game. Just over four minutes later James White would strike, putting Ontario Tech into the lead. After White's goal, a length delay saw Steven Bacovsky (Winnipeg, Man.) forced to leave the Ravens' goal due to a broken skate.
Ontario Tech would take advantage of the goalie change as Baxter Anderson fired one past Tye Austin for the insurance marker. Anderson's goal would become the game-winner after Alex Johnston scored late in the third.
"The momentum definitely switched," said Ravens interim Head Coach Mark Cavalin. "I just feel like after they got a goal we were a bit back on our heels and that gave them space to play with the puck."
Despite splitting the opening weekend, there are positive signs for the young Ravens group. "This kind of a loss can probably work in your favour down the road," said Cavallin. "There were some good things that we did and on the bench it was always a belief that we could still win."
The Ravens now look to bounce back with a weekend on the road before returning home in two weeks.