Men swept the rivalry and season series with the win
The Gee-Gees faced off against the Carleton Ravens at TD Place for the sixth annual Colonel-By Classic on Feb. 8. The Gees came into the game second in the OUA East division. The team was looking to make the first-ever clean sweep in the men’s crosstown rivalry games.
The first period started with a fiery wrist shot from forward Max Grondin for a clean top-shelf goal, with assistance by forward Tommy Bouchard and defenceman David Lafrance. Grondin entered the game leading the Gee-Gees in scoring.
“We have a rivalry with these guys,” Grondin said about the team’s aggressive play. “We are both Ottawa teams. We always try to keep it aggressive, and we try to stick to our game plan. They’re hard games, so we play hard.”
The Ravens would respond by playing a solid defensive game; they were laying big hits and clearing their zone to bring the puck into the Gees’ end. The Gees saw this response and answered with several overpowering board checks, while using skill to get past defenders on the rush and creating opportunities in the offensive zone.
The Gees were clearly in charge of this game from the moment the period started. The effort led to a huge line brawl after unsportsmanlike behaviour occurred in goaltender Frankie LaPenna’s crease. This brawl gave the Gees a power-play which led to a one-sided fight by the Ravens. The Gees were unable to exit their zone for a long period of time as the Ravens were shutting them down.
The Gees spent the period controlling the possession while stopping the Ravens on both ends of the ice. The Ravens could not keep the Gees out of their zone, as their attacking was effective even if they were not putting another goal on the scoreboard. The defence succeeded in protecting the net and preventing huge scoring opportunities.
LaPenna was doing great in this matchup despite not having to make the super flashy saves he is known for. He was, however, making quick and easy saves that were keeping the Gees in this game. His rebound control and vision were quite phenomenal to watch.
At the start of the second period, the Gees were still in control of the game with aggressive play and phenomenal puck possession. The Ravens were still doing well with laying big hits as well as protecting the crease, but they just could not stop the Gees from gaining momentum.
The Ravens were giving it their all, but they could not change a thing on the scoreboard. The Gees were putting on an absolute masterclass on how to protect the lead, Carleton should learn from this. However, the Ravens were learning from this as they were able to get a goal on LaPenna due to a very tough screen to tie the game up 1-1.
A fight broke out between the Ravens and the Gees after the goal, as tensions were reaching a breaking point with both teams. The fight led to 4-on-4 action as both teams served penalties. Gees defender Peter Stratis took a penalty to make it a 4-on-3 for the Ravens as the Gees were on the penalty kill.
The kill was played well as LaPenna went back to making the simple saves, as well as poking the puck away from the Ravens to stop their chances. The penalties were killed off and that is when forward Mathieu Desgagnes scored a wicked bardown goal to take back the lead 2-1.
The Gees captured their momentum back and completely took over in the offensive zone. Even when the Ravens got into the Gees territory, their possession was too short to do anything as the Gees would take the puck away and go back on the rush. The Ravens took a penalty and ended the period short-handed. The Gees started the third period on the power-play, but then again, the whole game for the Gees felt like a power-play.
The third period started with the Gees’ power-play not doing much once again. They were trapped in their own zone for a bit and unable to capitalize on that opportunity. The Ravens killed the penalty off and were back to even strength. The Gees were slipping just a bit as they could not match the Ravens’ effort this period.
Another scrap broke out as Grondin pushed Craig head-first into the boards for a penalty that put the Gees on the penalty kill. The kill was strong as Carleton could not stay in the offensive zone and went puck chasing as the Gees kept clearing the zone. The kill was successful as the Gees brought it back to even strength.
The Gees’ defence was playing very strong as the team played well in their own zone, laid some board-shattering hits and let LaPenna just do his thing — as per usual — with big saves. The Ravens refused to go out quietly as they were laying huge hip checks and tried hard to generate something on offence. This led to the Ravens getting another penalty for slashing and the Gees were back on another power-play.
“We’ve been managing the same system since January,” Gees coach Patrick Grandmaitre said about the team’s defensive scheme against Carleton. “We switched a couple of things over the break, but our systems have been the same. I think they were at their most dangerous on transition plays. Where we turned the puck over sometimes, flying the zone and creating offence that way. Our strategies were the same, but the execution was still really good.”
The Gees still were unable to produce on the power-play and the Ravens were back to full strength. That would not last for long, as a Carleton player ran LaPenna and it led to an altercation that caused 4-on-4 action. The Gees were stuck in their own zone throughout the 4-on-4 , however, good goaltending and defence saved the day as the game returned to even strength with the scoreboard unchanged.
The Ravens emptied the net in a desperate attempt to get an extra attacker on the ice to tie the game up, but it was a wasted effort as the captain Anthony Poulin scored a backhand empty net goal to end the game 3-1. The Carleton crowd chanted ‘ref you suck’ to finish the game, but it is not the referee’s fault the Ravens men’s teams did not win a single men’s cross-town rivalry game this year.
