PREVIEW: Momentum in Ottawa’s favour at Colonel By Classic

It's a role they've grown to love over the past three seasons, but the University of Ottawa Gee-Gees men's hockey team will be anything but underdogs when the puck drops at the annual Colonel By Classic against the Carleton Ravens on Friday night at TD Place Arena.

With a record of 9-0-1, Ottawa has led the OUA East for the majority of the season and are nationally ranked at fourth overall. Carleton, meanwhile, holds a respectable record of 6-2-3, in a tie for third place, and just four points behind the Gee-Gees.

Whether internal or external, Ottawa has surpassed all early season expectations.

"Obviously we didn't predict this," Head Coach Patrick Grandmaître said. "But we knew at the start of the year we could compete with the best in our league." 

"We've been able to do it game in and game out, we've sustained injuries, suspensions, and adversity," he said. "Different guys have stepped up at different times. If you look at our forwards no one is in the top 20. Our defence and goaltending — every defenceman is stepping up at different times and our goaltenders are splitting starts equally, we've been doing it all with a lot of team play."

It's a stark contrast from the storyline of a year previous. Ottawa entered the Colonel By Classic losers of four straight while the Ravens were trending in the opposite direction with six consecutive wins. A 4-3 win at the Classic gave the Gee-Gees just the jolt it needed to restore momentum and kick-start a fresh win streak.

Heading into Friday night, Grandmaître and his team feels a sense of excitement for a key game on a big stage.

"These matchups are always fun," he said. "It adds something to our regular season play to have this type of a matchup." 

"It's always fun to have a bit of buzz around campus, and the fact we're both at the top of the standings in our conference adds another element to this matchup," he added.

The two teams have met once so far this season, with Ottawa engineering a comeback on the road to scoop two full points in a 3-2 shootout win.

As always special teams will be a major factor in how the game plays out. 

The Ottawa penalty killing unit was playing well through the early portions of the season, until things unravelled with three power play goals against in three opportunities against Nipissing last weekend. A disciplined effort, in combination with the return of defenceman Cody Van Lierop to the lineup should help alleviate pressure.

With multiple offensive threats, the Ottawa power play will be dangerous at all opportunities. Veteran Jean-François Plante has heated up following a quiet start, while defenceman Michael Poirier is on pace to shatter personal career bests, having tallied eight points in 10 games following back-to-back seasons of 12 points.

Another key figure for Gee-Gees fans to keep an eye on will be Brendan Jacome, anorching the second line alongside Kevin Domingue and Cody Drover.

"Brendan's not a household name in this league, but we know for us he's such an important player," Grandmaître explained. "He plays on a lot of important situations and is a reliable guy in all three zones. He kills penalties and gets power play time, too."

Puck drop is slated for 7:30 p.m. The game will be streaming live on OUA.tv. Follow along on Twitter at @GeeGeesMHKY for live game updates.

—Cameron Penney