Courcelles counts twice as Redmen rock Ridgebacks Jan 12, 08 Ice Hockey (M)

By Earl Zukerman

OSHAWA, Ont. – Freshman Simon Courcelles of Rosemere, Que., scored twice as No.9-ranked McGill rallied from a second period deficit with six unanswered goals to defeat the University of Ontario Institute of Technology Ridgebacks 6-1 in men’s university hockey at Oshawa, Saturday.

It was the first-ever meeting between McGill, the world’s oldest operating hockey team, and UOIT, a new franchise in the Ontario league and it wasn’t a friendly affair. The two teams combined for 121 minutes in penalties, including 85 to the Ridgebacks.

McGill, playing for the first time since returning from an 11-day overseas voyage during the holidays, shook off the rust of a 1-0 first period deficit after Nathan Spaling’s marker, then scored three times in each of the second and third stanzas.

Eric L’Italien, Mathieu Leclerc and Courcelles gave the Redmen a 3-1 lead after two. Defenceman Louis-Simon Allaire, who had three points in the game, made it 4-1 with a power play marker at 1:08 of the third, followed by Vincent Lambert’s goal three minutes later. Courcelles, a freshman centre, added his team-leading 12th goal on the power play to round out the scoring.

McGill thoroughly dominated territorial play with a 49-15 edge in shots, including a lopsided 25-7 margin in the final period.

Redmen goaltender Jean-Michel Filiatrault, sidelined for much of the season by a knee injury, made his third regular season start. The 23-year-old junior from Laval Que., kicked out 14 saves for the win.

McGill, which improved to 12-4-1 in league play, will host Concordia (9-9-1) in a rare Monday night affair at McConnell Arena (Jan.14). The game, expected to be a sellout as part of the faculty of management Carnival Week at McGill, will be webcast live online with a 7 p.m. start time at www.athletics.mcgill.ca

REDMEN RAP: McGill went 3-for-12 with the man-advantage and currently have the second-best power play in the 18-team OUA… The Redmen are 32-for-133 on the PP… They also lead the league in penalty-killing, snuffing out 107 of 117 shorthanded situations for a .915 kill rate… Head coach Martin Raymond, now in his 13th season behind the bench after an All-Canadian career with the Red & White, improved his overall coaching record to 252-170-35 with the Redmen.

SCORING SUMMARY

McGill 6 at UOIT 1

- Jan 12, 2008 -

FIRST PERIOD:
Scoring -
1. UOIT, Nathan Spaling (3) (T.J. Legge) 12:26

Penalties -
UOIT: R. Power (interference) 3:44,
McG: S. Pearce (hooking) 5:51,
McG: M. Leclerc (hooking) 9:40,
McG: Y. Turcotte (tripping) 12:23,
UOIT: T. Gubler (hooking) 14:36

SECOND PERIOD:
Scoring -
2. McGill, Eric L’Italien (5) (G. Demers, V. Lambert) 4:08
3. McGill, Mathieu Leclerc (1) (D. Urquhart) 11:11
4. McGill, Simon Courcelles (11) (L. Allaire) 19:49 (PP)

Penalties -
McG: K. Morin (interference) 0:21,
UOIT: J. Freeland (elbowing) 0:48,
UOIT: T. Legge (kneeing) 1:20,
McG: C. Churchill-Smith (roughing) 4:35,
UOIT: I. Brunt (roughing) 4:35,
McG: D. Urquhart (slashing) 4:44,
McG: G. Demers (hooking) 13:08,
UOIT: R. Power (hooking) 16:02,
UOIT: BENCH (too many men; served by B. Connolly) 18:48

THIRD PERIOD:
Scoring -
5. McGill, Louis-Simon Allaire (5) (D. Urquhart, S. Bloom) 1:08 (PP)
6. McGill, Vincent Lambert (6) (G. Demers, L. Allaire) 3:51
7. McGill, Simon Courcelles (12) (B. Arsenault) 17:30 (PP)

Penalties -
UOIT: R. Power (hooking) 0:35,
McG: S. Pearce (roughing dble minor) 6:57,
UOIT: J. Evans (charging major, GM) 6:57,
UOIT: K. Taylor (roughing dble minor) 6:57,
MCG: (too many men; served by S. Shewchuk) 13:33,
UOIT: K. Taylor (cross checking, 10-min. misconduct) 14:09,
McG: D. Urquhart (slashing) 14:58,
UOIT: T. Legge (slashing) 14:58,
McG: M. Leclerc (roughing) 15:08,
McG: G. Doucet (tripping) 16:39,
UOIT: I. Brunt (hooking) 16:49,
UOIT: J. Allen (unsportsmanlike conduct, 10-min. misconduct) 18:37,
UOIT: T. Legge (roughing) 18:57,
McG: G. Doucet (goalie interference, 10-min. misconduct) 19:12,
UOIT: I. Brunt (10-min. misconduct) 19:12,
UOIT: J. Koch-Butterworth (10-min. misconduct) 19:50

SHOTS BY PERIOD:
MCG: 9 15 25 -- 49
UOIT: 3 5 7 -- 15

GOALS BY PERIOD:
MCG: 0 3 3 -- 6
UOIT: 1 0 0 -- 1

POWER PLAY (Goals/Chances):
McGill 3-12.
UOIT 0-10.

PENALTIES (No./Mins):
McGill 14-36.
UOIT 21-85.

GOALTENDERS:
McGill
J.M Filiatrault (W, 1-1-1), SV: 14, GA: 1, 60:00

UOIT
Matt Mateja (L, 3-10-1) Start, SV: 39 GA: 6, 50:48)
Josh Evans (ND, SV: 5, GA: 0, 9:12)

Start : 1:30 pm

End : 3:45 pm

Attendance : 350

Referee: (not available)

MOLSON CUP THREE STARS:
(currently not available)

1. Simon Courcelles, McGill
2. Louis-Simon Allaire, McGill
3. David Urquhart, McGill

McGILL LINEUP SCRATCHES:
---------------------------------
G Mathieu Poitras (dressed but DNP)
G Jake Jarvis
D Erik Stilling (injd)
F Charles Gauthier (injd)
F Jeremy Burgess