CIS men's hockey Tuesday roundup: Ravens steal a close one from the Gee-Gees at home

Photo credit Paul Conway, uOttawa

Carleton 3, Ottawa 2 Final Boxscore

OTTAWA - Tuesday night marked another chapter in the storied rivalry between this city's two universities. This time the battle would take place on the ice at the uOttawa Sports Complex. While of course there were valuable points on the line; bragging rights would remain equally important on this night.

Expecting a fast paced, physical game; the Gee-Gees set the tone early with some big hits, and showed some grit in winning some key battles along the boards. Their hard work eventually paid off at the 13:56 mark of the first period when rookie forward Kyle Ireland, Rosetown, Sask., made an excellent tape-to-tape pass to Gee-Gees captain Matthieu Methot, Ottawa, Ont., who was streaking across centre ice. With Methot now taking the puck across Carleton's blue line, and he fired a perfect hard low shot. Then it was first-year defenseman Dominic Jalbert, Gatineau, Qué., who was trailing hard and fast with his stick on the ice to shovel home the rebound, and draw first blood; 1-0 Gee-Gees.

The second period continued with both teams exchanging big hits, and scoring opportunities. After a bad bounce after Jalbert tried to throw the puck on net; it deflected to centre ice with Carleton third-year forward Derek Wells, Aylmer, Qué., catching up to the puck and breaking in all alone to even the score at 11:50 in the second period.

Carleton would take the lead soon after on a power play goal at 17:03. With the Gee-Gees unable to clear the zone, third-year forward Ryan Berard, Niagara Falls, Ont., threw the puck in front and connected with a streaking fourth-year defenceman Justin Caruana, Orono, Ont., who made no mistake and buried the puck short-side.

Still the Gee-Gees would manage to tie it up with a power play in the last dying seconds of the second period. Dominic Jalbert would score his second goal of the game off another rebound, this time coming off a blocked point shot from Kyle Ireland. The goal came after some great sustained pressure by the Gee-Gees power play unit.

With the score tied 2-2 going into the third period, it stayed very tight until Carleton was able to capitalize on a two-on-one. Third-year forward Andrew Self, Peterborough, Ont., gave little chance for third-year Gee-Gees goaltender Aaron Barton, Carlisle, Ont., as he placed a beautiful shot top right-hand corner, and what would prove to be the game winning goal.

The Gee-Gees would have a chance to send this game into overtime after Carleton was called for a hooking penalty with only 22.9 seconds remaining. Unfortunately they good not make good of their opportunity, and the game finished with Carleton stealing this one on the road with a 3-2 win.

Notable standouts for the Gee-Gees were goaltender Aaron Barton who made 23 saves and played exceptionally well to keep things close for his team; fourth-year defenseman Gabriel Houde, Pontiac, Qué., maintained a noticeable physical presence throughout the game with some big hits; and obviously first-year Dominic Jalbert who together with the Gee-Gees top line of Ireland, Blain, and Methot finished with a total of 6 points combined.

Despite the loss, head coach Dave Leger was pleased with how his guys competed, and was encouraged by what he saw tonight from his team: "(Carleton) is a very good team in, and I think we showed that we can compete with a very good team in our league. The lesson that we take from this game is that it sometimes comes down to the team who makes the least amount of mistakes."

"I was pleased with how our guys competed tonight. At the end of the day that's what I want to see us do is be a hard team to play against, and I thought we had a lot of good play from a lot of our players. But we're going to need to capitalize more on those power play opportunities," added Leger.

Also worth mentioning is that unfortunately for the Gee-Gees, not only did they lose the game on the ice but also the battle in the stands. A group of Carleton students, also known as "the Red Zone" attended the game, and made their presence felt with some loud cheers of their own.

The Gee-Gees will next travel to Ryerson (4-3-0 OUA) in a rematch of last week's Friday night home game wherein the Gee-Gees cruised to 7-3 victory. The puck drops on Friday night, October 29, at 7:30 p.m. in Toronto.

Source:

Ottawa Sports Info