AROUND OUA: Ravens beat rival Gee-Gees to claim Colonel By Classic
OTTAWA, ON — Playing each other for the first time in nearly three years, the Ravens men’s hockey team reigned victorious at the inaugural Colonel By Classic with a 6-2 final over the recently reborn Ottawa Gee-Gees Wednesday night at the Arena at TD Place.
SCOREBOARD
Ottawa 2 @ Carleton 6
RMC 1 @ UOIT 5
Ravens beat rival Gee-Gees to claim Colonel By Classic
OTTAWA, ON — Playing each other for the first time in nearly three years, the Ravens men's hockey team reigned victorious at the inaugural Colonel By Classic with a 6-2 final over the recently reborn Ottawa Gee-Gees Wednesday night at the Arena at TD Place.
A three-goal performance from newly named captain Michael McNamee (Perth, ON) led the offensive outburst for the Ravens who scored a season-high six goals.
"We took advantage of our opportunities in the first half of the game and that kind of changed things, but credit Ottawa," says Ravens head coach Marty Johnston. "They stuck with it and played well as a team."
Twenty-five seconds after the opening puck drop, the newly named captain found himself on a two-on-one break with third-year forward Ryan Van Stralen (Prescott, ON). With the first shot on net, McNamee blasted a wrist shot past the glove of Gee-Gees' netminder Graham Hunt for the game's opening goal.
On their feet, the Carleton faithful applauded the 1-0 lead of the pre-game favourites as it seemed like the Ravens were preparing to hand the Gee-Gees a rough wake-up call.
"We'd be lying if we said we didn't feel like favourites going in, but we knew that Patrick [Grandmaitre] would have his guys ready to go," says Johnston. "Given the fact that we've had some stumbles early in the year already we didn't want to take anything for granted."
Before the Ravens could get comfortable with their lead, an aggressive forecheck from Georgetown-native Brendan Jacome beat a flat-footed Ravens' defence before feeding Marco Azzano for a net-front five-hole tally, making it a 1-1 game.
The quick-responding Gee-Gees then turned their game to a defensive stalwart, playing a neutral-zone-trap and breaking up any offensive-zone setup attempted by the Ravens. The remaining three-quarters of the first period followed suit, seeing minimal scoring chances.
The second period, however, took a turn for the opposite, and in the case of the Ravens, a turn for the better. Four consecutive goals thrust the Ravens into a dominant position.
Less than two minutes in, an offensive miscue from the Gee-Gees saw a four-man rush get turned over and sent back into their own zone. With a two-on-one break, Alexandre Boivin (Ottawa, ON) set up Adam Chapman (Barrie, ON) for a glove-side one-timer that gave the Ravens a 2-1 lead.
Nearly 30 seconds later, a fortunate puck bounce off the glass panel directly behind Hunt fell right onto the stick of Brett Gustavsen (Scarborough, ON) who tapped in his first of the game.
In an attempted response, the Gee-Gees struggled to claw their way back. With scoring chances constantly being denied by the Ravens' defence core and goalie Francois Brassard (Gatineau, QC), the young Gee-Gees evidently changed to a much more physical game plan.
However, there was no shaking the Ravens as fourth-year defenceman Derek Brown (Scarborough, ON) forced a Gee-Gees' turnover near Brassard's crease, then turned the play the other way where McNamee netted his second goal of the game.
With a 4-1 lead, the Ravens were in clear control. The exclamation mark to the period came with eight minutes left when Gustavsen stepped into the Gee-Gees' high slot and shot a bullet into the top-right corner.
In comparison, a mild third period saw a lock-down defensive effort from the host Ravens. A mid-period goal from Antoine Pouliot gave the Gee-Gees' fans a glimpse of hope, but would ultimately lead to nothing.
As the clock dwindled down and the crowd cheered on, McNamee broke into the Gee-Gees' zone and buried an empty-net goal, earning his first hat-trick of the season in his first game as captain.
"Mike stepped up right in the summer in terms of his off-ice work," says Johnston on his choice to award McNamee the captaincy. "I truly believe he is an elite player in this league and I believe that was fairly evident tonight."
Source: Carleton Ravens
No. 5 ranked Ridgebacks continue perfect start to OUA season
OSHAWA, Ont. – The UOIT men's hockey team continue to roll as they stayed undefeated after defeating the RMC Paladins 5-1 at home on Wednesday night.
Their perfect start to the season continued thanks to a two-point night by captain Cameron Yuill (Wellington, Ont.) and a successful outing by his linemates Malik Johnson (Montreal, Que.) and Connor Jarvis (Port Union, Ont.).
That said, the nationally ranked Ridgebacks had Ryan Doucette (Waterloo, Ont.) open the scoring as he beat a screened Matthew Murphy from the hash marks 5:51 into the first period to give UOIT the lead, which they never surrendered. Alex Yuill (Wellington, Ont.) and Mike Robinson (Stouffville, Ont.) assisted on the goal.
Cameron Yuill gave UOIT a 2-0 lead under three minutes later with linemates Johnson and Jarvis picking up the assists.
Midway through the frame the Ridgebacks had a costly turnover as RMC's Bennett Huber walked in on Brendan O'Neill's (Ilderton, Ont.) right side, beating him glove side to cut the Ridgeback lead in half.
Nate Mitton's (Kitchener, Ont.) slashing penalty late in the first period looked like an opportunity for the Paladins to tie the game up, but after Tyler Mayea (Burlington, Ont.) cleared the puck down the ice Cameron Yuill took off and ended grabbing the puck to score UOIT's second shorthanded goal of the year and Yuill's second of the game.
In the second the lone goal was scored again by the Yuill-Jarvis-Johnson line as Jarvis found the puck on his stick in the slot and gave Murphy no chance as he beat him glove side to extend the lead to three.
The final goal for the Ridgebacks came in a chippy and penalty-filled third period as Ben Blasko (Kingston, Ont.) put the puck perfectly on Mitch Bennett's (Fenelon Falls, Ont.) stick on a cross-crease pass to beat an outstretched Murphy.
O'Neill earned his third win in as many starts for UOIT, turning aside 24 Paladins shots.
Murphy, who leads the OUA in saves, made 29 in the loss for RMC.
This weekend the Ridgebacks have a rare weekend off from conference play, but will face the Cornell Big Red in exhibition play on Friday night in Ithaca, N.Y. Puck drop is scheduled for 7 p.m.
Their next conference game goes Tuesday in Sudbury, another rare date for the team as they play the Laurentian Voyageurs at 11 a.m. for a school day game.
QUICK LOOK AT THE RIDGEBACKS
Overall Record: 7-1-2
Conference Record: 5-0-0
Next game: Friday, Oct. 21 @ Cornell Big Red (7 p.m. – Ithaca, N.Y.)
Source: UOIT Ridgebacks
