OTTAWA (February 21, 2010) – The Queen's Gaels men's hockey season came to a heartbreaking halt on Sunday in Ottawa with a 3-2 double overtime loss to the Carleton Ravens.

Gaels netminder Steele De Fazio of Georgetown, Ont., did his part to keep the Gaels season alive making 54 saves on 57 shots, but Carleton's Ryan Berard of Niagara Falls beat De Fazio at 12:11 of the second overtime to end the Gaels best season in 27 years.

The win handed the Ravens a 2-1 series victory and set up a meeting with the McGill Redman in the second round of the OUA playoffs.

Carleton's Robert Mark-Smith of Stittsville, Ont., opened the scoring just over seven minutes into the game, scoring his first of the playoffs. The 1-0 lead was short lived as Payton Liske of Welland, Ont., scored on the Gaels first powerplay of the game, tying the score at 1-1 going into the intermission.

All was quiet until the third, when Queen's powerplay struck again. This time David Chubb of St. George's, Nfld., put one past Raven netminder Alexander Archibald of Ottawa, with just 3:15 to go in the final frame.

Carleton answered with just 54 seconds left in the game as Andrew Self of Peterborough, Ont., beat De Fazio to force overtime.

With the Gaels winning game one in overtime, they looked to produce similar magic in game three. However, Berard ended that game with his second of the playoffs as Yves Bastein of Dowling, Ont., and Self drew the assists on the play.

De Fazio stopped 124 of 134 shots throughout the three-game series while Liske led Queen's in playoff points with two goals and two assists. The Gaels nabbed the opening game of the series with a dramatic 4-3 overtime win; that win also marked the Gaels first post-season win since 2004. The Ravens stole the second game of the series, 4-1 at the Kingston Memorial Centre.

The Gaels finished the regular season in fifth place of the OUA East Division with a record of 14-12-1-1 and conclude the year with an overall record of 15-14-1-1. The 14 regular season wins were the most since the 1983-83 season where Queen's recorded 15 wins.

Rookies Liske and Jordan Mirwaldt of Winnipeg, Man., burst on to the OUA hockey scene leading all-rookies in OUA scoring with 40 points each. They were also tied for 13th among the CIS scoring leaders.