Ravens stun Lakers in overtime

Graham Klassen (13) cuts around the net. Photo by Mark Pare.

The Nipissing Lakers (7-8-1) nabbed a point, but just a point as the Carleton Ravens (10-4-1) iced it in OT for a 3-2 win Friday night.

“I thought we showed a lot of character tonight, being down 2-0 and then fighting back to tie it up 2-2,” said Lakers head coach Mike McParland, “But a little bit discouraging and disheartening on a winning goal.”

Brett Cook and Connor O’Donnell got goals for the Lakers. Joey West scored twice, including the winner for the Ravens. Joey Manley scored the other Ravens goal.

“They scored on one of their first shots on net, not the start we were looking for naturally,” said McParland, “Then on the power play goal, it was an accidental goal, the guy fired in a slapper from the blue line, it hit somebody right in front of the net and bounced to the side onto (Manley’s) stick and he managed to just bang it into the empty net, it bounced right to him so it wasn’t much of a drawn up play.”

Dan Spence stopped 51 of 54 shots in the loss, while Ryan Dube turned aside 29 of 31 shots for the win
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The Ravens controlled the tempo from the beginning, after killing off an early penalty and at 4:11, West got his first of the night, shooting from the right face off dot after the Ravens established the zone in behind Spence.

“We knew that we were going to play more in our own end tonight, they have a very good team and it was our game plan going in,” said McParland, “We knew we needed to count on Spence and after the first period, he really turned his game up for sure.”

After Manley’s power play goal at 9:44, the Lakers came out strong in the second, trying to fight back from the 2-0 deficit.

At 5:50, the Lakers got what they were looking for as a relatively innocent wrist shot thrown on net by Cook fooled everyone, including Dube and found twine to make it 2-1.

It didn’t take long for the Lakers to tie it as less than two minutes later, O’Donnell converted a two-on-one opportunity, taking the feed from Vern Cooper and one-timing it home.

The close contest had to be settled in overtime, after a feisty third period.

The Lakers got close but couldn't finish things in regulation.

At 1:44 of OT, West snagged his second of the night, after a turnover in the neutral zone. West skated in and wired it by Spence for the victory.

The Lakers continue their homestand tomorrow night as the Ottawa Gee Gee’s pay a visit to Memorial Gardens. Game time is set for 7:00 p.m.

Game Notes
-The attendance was 1,442.
-The game began at 8:15 p.m., due to the Downtown Christmas Walk and didn’t finish till approximately 11:00 p.m.