Photo by Marc Lafleur
The Carleton Ravens came up just short against the UQTR Patriotes Sunday in Trois-Rivières losing a wild game 6-5 in overtime. The Ravens pick up a point for making it to overtime, making it three out of a possible four points from Carleton’s opening weekend.
This game got off to an exciting start early on. The Patriotes opened the scoring just under 3 minutes into the game after an early Carleton high sticking penalty from Jacob Cuffley (Ottawa, Ont.). A Trois-Rivières pass intended for a man in front banked off the skate of Carleton’s C.J. Garcia (Pickering Ont.) and slid past goaltender Mark Grametbauer (Halifax, N.S.) for the opening goal of the game.
Still in the first period, the Ravens answered back with two quick goals to take a 2-1 lead into the first intermission. Madoka Suzuki (Kanagawa, JPN.) beat a UQTR defenceman to the puck and set up Aaron Boyd (Winnipeg, Man.) who finished his chance to tie the game. Shortly after, Cody Caron (Sault Ste. Marie, Ont.) finished off a play set up by his line-mates Sam Meisenheimer (Ottawa, Ont.) and Oliver Castleman (Ottawa, Ont.) to give Carleton the lead after 20 minutes.
UQTR came out hard in the second period with a serious pushback effort that saw them score 3 times in the period. After the teams traded a pair of early-second period goals, the Patriotes scored two goals in rapid succession to take a 4-3 lead into the third period. Simon Kerr (Kingston, Ont.) scored the lone Carleton goal in this period on a 5-on-3 powerplay for the Ravens.
Early in the third, UQTR added a fifth goal to stretch their lead to two. Down by two goals on the road, the Ravens did not quit. First, Madoka Suzuki scored his first U Sports goal to cut the lead to one. Later in the third, Simon Kerr added his second of the game to tie it up at 5-5. Just as their season opener against uOttawa did, this one needed overtime.
In overtime, a loose puck in Carleton’s defensive zone emerged in the high slot right on a Trois-Rivières stick. The Patriotes made no mistake and took home the extra point with a 6-5 overtime win.
Carleton’s next game is their home opener on Friday, November 12 at the Ice House where they will host the McGill Redbirds. Tickets are available now at GoRavens.ca.
