Recap: Men’s hockey bounces back to grab first win on opening weekend

The Gee-Gees grabbed their first win of the season, 5-3 over the McGill Redbirds Saturday night after dropping the home opener 3-2 in overtime to the Carleton Ravens. 

The Gee-Gees opened the 2021-22 season off with a home meeting against the Carleton Ravens. The old rivals got off to a slow start with neither team imposing themselves in the first period. The second saw the Ravens take a commanding 2-0 lead with goals from Oliver Castleman and Parker Aucoin three minutes apart. The Gee-Gees bounced back in the third with the third line coming up big for Patrick Grandmaître, finding the back of the net twice. The first was a rocket off the stick of Nick Bowman beating Ravens netminder, Mark Grametbauer, high over the blocker side. This was followed up by another snipe, this time by Branden Makara, which found twine. Anthony Poulin got the primary assists on both goals. The Gee-Gees and the Ravens needed an extra period to decide things. With just a minute gone in the overtime period, the Ravens were able to slide one past Berube to give the Ravens their first win of the season. 

With only one change to the lineup, the Garnet and Grey were able to come out firing Saturday night against McGill, scoring twice in less than three minutes. Max Grondin and Justin McRae found the back of the net for the first time as a Gee-Gee. The Redbirds fought back, ending the first period up by one. The second period was all Gee-Gees with Bradley Chenier and Grondin scoring two goals in the space of 13 seconds to give the Garnet and Grey the lead for good. Despite McGill's attempts they couldn't beat Tristian Berube, making his second start in three nights, stopping 41 of the 44 shots he faced on the night as he sailed to his first victory with the University of Ottawa. Mongo put the game beyond doubt in the dying moments when he slid it into the empty cage.

"That's two games in a row now that we've bounced back, I think our conditioning is really good and allows us to just keep going with pace," said Grandmaître. "Our hard work is paying off." 

The Gee-Gees will be back in action Friday when they travel to Trois-Rivières to take on the UQTR Patriotes before travelling home for a date with Concordia.