Final Results
Nov 20, 07 - 19:00

Redmen 4 - Ottawa 1

Game Report by Earl Zukerman

MONTREAL – Louis-Simon Allaire of Sherbrooke, Que., scored a goal and set up two others as McGill rallied for a 4-1 victory over the visiting Ottawa Gee-Gees in CIS men’s university hockey at McConnell Arena, Tuesday.

It was the sixth consecutive win for the Redmen, who improved to 7-3-1 and leapfrogged one point ahead of Ottawa (7-6-0) in the OUA Far East. It marked McGill’s longest win streak in league play since they won seven late in the 2005-06 season, when they went on to capture the OUA East championship.

McGill outshot Ottawa 22-11, including a 12-0 margin in the final stanza. It was the second time in school history that the Redmen had held a team shotless in a period. The previous occurrence happened against Toronto (second period), Jan. 20, 1994.

Gee-Gees forward Nick Vernelli of Kingston, Ont., scored the lone goal of the opening period but McGill roared back with four unanswered markers from sophomore defenceman Ben Gazdic of Toronto, freshmen Simon Courcelles of Rosemere, Que., Allaire and Vincent Lambert, a sophomore from Ste. Therese, Que.

Senior goaltender Mathieu Poitras of Gatineau, Que., made 10 saves for the win, improving his record to 7-2-0 in OUA play. He is the winningest netminder in McGill history with a 69-29-6 overall record.

Allaire, a 22-year-old physical therapy junior, picked up the slack in the absence of injured rearguard David Urquhart. The three-point performance by Allaire gives him two goals and seven points in 11 games. Last year, he had a 10-12-22 record in 28 contests, with the fourth-highest goal total by a defenceman in McGill history. Gilles Hudon set the single season record with 15 in 1982-83. The others ahead of Allaire on the list include Bryan Larkin (14 in 1988-89), Nicolas Cantin (11 in 1996-97) and David Bahl (10 in 1999-2000)

McGill will host Toronto and Ryerson at McConnell Arena on Friday and Saturday, respectively. The match-up with the Varsity Blues will be the first since they swept McGill in the OUA East semifinals last spring, winning 1-0 and 2-0. The McGill-Toronto rivalry dates back to 1899 and the Varsity Blues lead the all-time series 117-74-15. McGill has dominated the series of late with a 17-5-4 record in head-to-head matchups since 1996.

REDMEN RAP: McGill, which leads the OUA in penalty-killing, have snuffed out 91.4 per cent of the opposition power plays (54 of 70)... The Redmen power play is ranked third in the OUA at 22.7 efficiency (17 for 75)... In the last four games, the PP has clicked at a 34.3 per cent success rate with 12 PP goals in 35 attempts...

McGill team captain David Urquhart missed his third game with a broken hand and four Redmen players wore an “A” on their jersey but early in the first period referee Francis Charron told head coach Martin Raymond that he was limited to only three alternate captains. Charron sent Chris Churchill-Smith off the ice but Raymond convinced the official that he would designate Eric L’Italien as acting captain. The senior, who is now in law school, subsequently went back to the dressing room and waited for equipment manager Earl Hawke to sew a “C” on his jersey… Shawn Shewchuk had a pair of assists in the game and now sits tied for eighth place among OUA scoring leaders with 5-11-16 in 11 games. Only two weeks ago he was ranked 60th among OUA leaders.

SCORING SUMMARY

Ottawa 1 at McGill 4

(@ McConnell Arena, Nov 20, 2007)

FIRST PERIOD:
Scoring -
1. Ottawa, Nick Vernelli (5) (D. McDonald, P. Gauthier) 19:31

Penalties -
S. Shewchuk Mcg (spearing dble minor) 0:37,
N. Vernelli Ott (tripping) 8:32,
S. Houle Ott (roughing) 12:17,
P. Devault Ott (hooking) 14:49

SECOND PERIOD:
Scoring -
2. McGill, Ben Gazdic (2) (G. Doucet, L. Allaire) 10:47 (PP)

Penalties -
Y. Turcotte Mcg (interference) 8:35,
M. McMahon Ott (hooking) 8:51,
G. Doucet Mcg (holding) 14:50

THIRD PERIOD:
Scoring -
3. McGill, Simon Courcelles (7) (S. Shewchuk, L. Allaire) 3:37 (PP)
4. McGill, Louis-Simon Allaire (2) (S. Shewchuk, K. Morin) 15:16 (PP)
5. McGill, Vincent Lambert (3) (G. Demers, E. L Italien) 18:51

Penalties -
S. Shewchuk Mcg (hooking) 0:32,
P. Bilodeau Ott (tripping) 2:31,
N. Vernelli Ott (hooking) 9:44,
N. Vernelli Ott (checking to the head minor , 10-minute misconduct) 14:17,
C. Bowie Ott (roughing) 19:56,
W. Shariff Ott (roughing) 19:56,
J. Burgess Mcg (roughing) 19:56,
B. Gazdic Mcg (roughing) 19:56,
K. Morin Mcg (roughing) 19:56

SHOTS BY PERIOD:
OTT: 6 5 0 -- 11
MCG: 4 6 12 -- 22

GOALS BY PERIOD:
OTT: 1 0 0 -- 1
MCG: 0 1 3 -- 4

PENALTIES::
Ottawa 10-28.
McGill 8-16.

POWER PLAY CONVERSION:
Ottawa 0-6.
McGill 3-7.

GOALTENDERS:
Ottawa
Martin Bricault 0-5-0, 60:00, SV:18, GA:4 [L]

McGill
Mathieu Poitras 7-2-0; 60:00, SV:10, GA:1 [W]

Start : 7:03 PM

End : 9:04 PM

Attendance : 366

Referee: Francis Charron

MOLSON CUP THREE STARS:
1. Louis-Simon Allaire, McGill
2. Shawn Shewchuk, McGill
3. Simon Courcelles, McGill

McGILL LINEUP SCRATCHES:
--------------------------------
G Jake Jarvis (dressed but DNP)
G Jean-Michel Filiatrault (injd)
D Erik Stilling (injd)
D David Urquhart (injd)
F Charles Gauthier (injd)
F Mathieu Leclerc (injd)
F Simon Marcotte (injd)

------------------------

By Andrew Bucholtz, The Queen's Journal

A bitter pill from McGill

Men’s hockey falls flat against longtime rivals in 6-2 loss on Saturday

By Andrew Bucholtz
Assistant Sports Editor
(reprinted from The Queen's Journal)

KINGSTON -- It was a scene Queen’s hockey fans have seen before.

Despite strong Gaels support from a raucous, season-high crowd of 622 at the Memorial Centre, the McGill Redmen beat the men’s hockey team 6-2 Saturday. It was the 101st victory for McGill in the 153 games between the teams and also was the first time in the Gaels’ last six games they came away without at least a point. About 100 McGill fans came down on buses from Montreal to support their team.

“It was just a good old-fashioned butt-kicking,” said Gaels’ head coach Brett Gibson. “When you take nine of 10 points, you start thinking you’re better than you really are. … McGill came in and proved why they’re one of the best programs in the country, and they’re the benchmark where we really need to be.”

Things began to go wrong for the Gaels just after the opening faceoff when they were unable to capitalize on a first-minute power play. Veteran defenceman Alex Archibald took a slashing penalty only three minutes into the game and McGill forward Sam Bloom capitalized quickly on the ensuing power play, walking in from the blue line unchecked and blowing a slap shot by Queen’s goaltender Ryan Gibb.

Six minutes into the second period, the Redmen got a break when a long shot from Bloom hit forward Shaun Shewchuk, who was able to collect the loose puck and fire it past Gibb to make the score 2-0. McGill scored a third goal less than 30 seconds later.

The Gaels had a strong chance to reduce the lead, but what appeared to be a goal was waved off by the referee, much to the Queen’s fans’ displeasure, who chanted “Bull****” and “**** McGill”. The Redmen soon added a fourth goal on a power play, putting the game out of reach and spelling the end of Gibb’s night.

Gibson said he decided to pull Gibb based on the team’s poor performance rather than Gibb’s own efforts.

“It just wasn’t fair,” he said. “It wasn’t his night. There’s a couple he’d like to have back, but it definitely wasn’t his fault. I wasn’t going to leave him in there when guys weren’t playing the way they should.”

Brady Morrison took over netminding duties for the Gaels, but McGill defenceman Yan Turcotte beat him only two minutes later on a 20-yard wrist shot from the slot, giving the Redmen a 5-0 lead going into the second intermission.

The Gaels came out of the locker room fired up and scored only a minute into the period when forward Pat Doyle tipped a shot past McGill goaltender Mathieu Portras. Bloom replied for the Redmen with his second goal of the night, but Gael captain Jeff Ovens gave Queen’s the last word, converting a feed from Doyle to make the final score 6-2.

Gibson said the Gaels weren’t prepared to throw in the towel after the second intermission.

“That’s not my personality, that’s not my team’s personality,” he said. “I hate losing as much as they do. I called out their character, and my character guys stepped up.”

Doyle said Gibson’s speech after the second period inspired the team.

“Coach gave us a stern talking-to, and that always wakes us up pretty well,” he said.

Doyle said poor defensive play was to blame for the lopsided defeat.

“We kind of left our goaltending out to dry tonight,” he said.

Ovens had strong words for the team’s play.

“It was embarrassing,” he said. “We’re trying to show the Kingston community that we can play with any team on any night, and tonight we didn’t show it.”

Ovens said McGill’s four power play goals took the Gaels by surprise.

“That was the best power play I’ve ever seen, and I’ve been here for a long time,” he said. “They did stuff that we weren’t prepared for, and that’s something that we’re definitely going to have to go into practice next week and work on.”

Ovens said the Gaels’ improved play in the third period was for their fans, many of whom hung around even after McGill’s 5-0 lead.

“This is one of the few games where people came out and watched,” he said. “People supported us, and we felt like we were letting them down. … In the room between the second and the third, we just said ‘We’re playing for pride. We might not be able to score five goals and come back, but let’s show the people out here that we take hockey seriously and we care.”

The McGill loss came on the heels of a 4-3 shootout loss to the Ottawa Gee-Gees the previous afternoon. Clinton McCullough, Jon Asselstine, and Pat McDonough all scored for the Gaels Friday.

The team is on the road this weekend to play the Université du Québec à Trois-Rivières Patriotes and the Concordia Stingers. Next weekend, they’ll host Concordia and UQTR in their final games before the holiday break.