RECAP: Men’s hockey falls to Ravens in front of record crowd at Colonel By Classic

Four unanswered goals in the third period erased the Gee-Gees men's hockey team's two-goal lead, as the Carleton Ravens won the fourth annual Colonel By Classic by a 4-2 score in front of 2,861 fans at the Arena at TD Place on Friday evening.

The attendance on Friday broke the previous record for the event of 2,578 fans, set last season. 

"I'm pissed off at the way we handed them the game," said Gee-Gees head coach Patrick Grandmaître. "It wasn't tic-tac-toe plays, it was them taking the puck away from us, creating turnovers and then pouncing on their chances. I'm really not happy with that."

"I think we were dominant for the first 35 minutes or so," said Gee-Gees defenceman Jacob Sweeney. "Then it went downhill. We weren't competing, we weren't winning battles, we were panicking with the puck and we got away from our game."

The first period was a quiet one, with both teams running into penalty trouble. Ottawa was dominant on the back end, limiting the Ravens to just three shots in the first 20 minutes. 

Ottawa opened the scoring in the back half of the second period. The Ravens turned the puck over at their offensive blue line, allowing Cody Drover and Kevin Domingue to break in on a two-on-none. As has happened so often during their Gee-Gees careers, Drover made a textbook pass across to Domingue, who made no mistake beating Ravens goaltender Justin Nichols. 

The Gee-Gees doubled their lead moments later. Another turnover created an odd man rush, with Daniel Hardie squeaking one through Nichols. Kyle Ward and Quinn O'Brien got assists on what served as Hardie's first goal in a Gee-Gees uniform.  

The Garnet and Grey's advantage would be halved early in the third period, with Alexandre Boivin potting a bouncing puck to make the score 2-1. Jared Steege leveled the game a couple of minutes later. Carleton scored two goals in the third period before the Gee-Gees could register a shot. 

Carleton took their first lead of the contest at 10:42 of the third. With Domenic Graham sprawled out after an acrobatic save, Kody McDonald fired the puck into the open cage 

An empty netter from Boivin would follow, giving the Ravens their second straight win in the Colonel By Classic. 

"I just didn't feel like we had the urgency to move the puck and get it going," said Grandmaître. "I thought we were sluggish. Even though we had the lead 2-0, I felt like we weren't playing our game. 

Ottawa was 0-6 on the man advantage in the contest. They were 3-3 on the penalty kill, improving their season percentage to 88.9 — the highest in the conference. 

The Gee-Gees are now 1-2-1 in the four Colonel By Classics that have been played since 2016. 

Ottawa return to the Minto Sports Complex on Saturday, November 16 to take on the Nipissing Lakers. Puck drop is scheduled for 7:00 p.m.

Tickets for all Gee-Gees home games are available at tickets.geegees.ca. The game will be streamed live on OUA.tv. For in-game updates, follow @GeeGeesMHKY.