Photo by Marc Lafleur
The Carleton Raven’s men’s hockey team put on an impressive performance in front of their home fans at the Ice House taking down their rivals the U Ottawa Gee-Gees by a score of 6-1. Carleton goaltender Cole McLaren (Lequille, N.S.) stopped 37 shots in his Ravens’ debut, taking home his first win in his U Sports career.
Carleton got off to a terrific start in this game and they were taking the play to their archrivals early on. The Ravens finished their checks and were excellent on the special-teams side of the game right from the get-go. Sam Meisenheimer (Ottawa, Ont.) got the scoring going early with a rebound goal. Brogan O’Brien (Prince George, B.C.) doubled the Carleton lead to 2-0 in the opening 10 minutes after tucking in a rebound of his own, and then he added his second of the period on a shorthanded breakaway to make it 3-0.
Before the end of the period, Aaron Boyd (Winnipeg, Man.) continued his impressive scoring run adding his OUA-leading 7th goal of the year, and the Ravens carried a commanding 4-0 lead into the second period.
In the second period, the Ravens added to their lead with a nice goal coming off the stick of Cole Carter (Ottawa, Ont.) for his first of the year. Oliver Castleman (Ottawa, Ont.) did a great job forechecking behind the U Ottawa net to feed his line-mate Carter for the fifth Ravens goal. Cole McLaren made several great saves towards the end of the period, and Carleton entered the third period up 5-0.
After the Gee-Gees added a late goal to make it 5-1, Jeremy Masella (Phoenix, Ari.) scored an empty-net goal to seal the deal. Masella’s goal is the first of his U Sports career and capped off what was a near-perfect performance from Carleton.
“I thought after the first couple shifts, we found our legs and really got going. We were winning the board battles in this one, and we executed our defensive system really well tonight,” said coach Shaun Van Allen after Thursday’s game.
The Ravens will take on the Gee-Gees again on Saturday, Nov. 20 at the Minto Sports Complex Arena in the second half of the home-and-home series.
“We have to come out Saturday night with a short memory. We need to remember what made us successful against that team tonight, but also we need to wipe the slate clean and remember that when we show up on Saturday night, it’s a brand new 0-0 game,” Van Allen added.
The Ravens’ next home game is on Thursday, Nov. 25 at the Ice House where they will take on the UQTR Patriotes. The last time the two teams met it was an exciting back-and-forth affair that ended with Carleton losing 6-5 in overtime. Tickets are available now at goravens.ca/tickets. Get yours now before they’re all sold out!
