Final Results
Jan 23, 08 - 19:00

Redmen 2 - UQTR 1

Game Report by Earl Zukerman

TROIS-RIVIERES – Eric L’Italien of Ste. Foy, Que., snapped a 1-1 tie at 6:35 of the final period as 10th-ranked McGill skated to a hard-fought 2-1 road victory over No.6-UQTR in men’s university hockey, Wednesday.

It ended an 11-game regular-season winless streak (0-9-2) in Trois-Rivieres for the Redmen, dating back to 2002. Despite that bump in the road, McGill is 13-9-3 in the last 25 matchups with their bitter archrivals overall, including three wins in four meetings this season.

“It was a huge win for us, no doubt,” said Martin Raymond. “But we still have lots of work down the stretch if we are going to catch that team and win the division. Nonetheless, I was pleased that we were able to bounce back from our last game (a 3-1 loss at Concordia). We did all the little things right tonight and our penalty-killing unit was great. We got a strong performance from (goaltender) Mathieu Poitras and a key first goal from Guillaume Doucet, who really stepped up his game.”

Doucet, a 5-foot-9, 180-pound freshman centre from Montreal, gave the Redmen a 1-0 lead at 9:55 of the middle period but rookie Jean-Sebastien Breton evened the score for the Pats at 4:13 of the third.

L’Italien, who graduated from McGill last spring but returned for a fourth campaign to study law, scored his second game-winner of the season just two minutes later. The 24-year-old senior who has seven goals and 18 points in 15 games, was also the subject of a “Where Are They Now?” feature all day on the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League website.

The Pats outshot McGill 35-24 but were stymied by goaltender Mathieu Poitras, a senior from Gatineau, Que., who made 34 saves for the win and improved his regular season record to 13-3-0. He is the winningest goalie in McGill history with a lifetime record of 80-27-6 overall, including a 52-15-6 mark in league play.

Rookie Olivier Laliberté made 22 saves in a losing cause for UQTR and took his first loss in CIS play, dropping to 3-1-0.

McGill, which improved to 15-5-1, closed the gap to four points behind first-place UQTR (17-5-1) in the OUA Far East standings, with two games in hand and seven games remaining before playoffs.

McGill will make up both games in hand this weekend when they continue their four-game road-trip at York and Royal Military College on Friday and Saturday, respectively. The Pats are off until the following week, when they are scheduled to play a home-and-home series against Carleton.

REDMEN RAP: McGill snuffed out all four UQTR power plays and continue to lead the league with a .906 penalty-killing rate (116 of 128)… Defenceman Ken Morin, who blocked a UQTR shot in the midsection late in the game, spent the night in a Trois-Rivieres hospital awaiting precautionary morning tests to rule out the possibility of a ruptured spleen… Top-line forward Sam Bloom skated in the pre-game warm-up but missed his second straight game after being knocked unconscious against Queen’s the previous week… He has passed four out of six recovery steps thus far and could be back in the lineup over the weekend.

McGill 2 at UQTR 1
(@ Le Colisee)

- Jan 23, 2008 -

FIRST PERIOD:
Scoring -
(No Scoring)

Penalties -
UQTR: M. Gravel (tripping) 2:07,
UQTR: K. Petit (high sticking) 11:52,
McG: M. Kovacevic (hooking) 15:37,
UQTR: Bench (too many men) 17:30

SECOND PERIOD:
Scoring -
1. McGill, Guillaume Doucet (7) (Simon Courcelles, Steven Pearce) 9:05

Penalties -
McG: L. Allaire (roughing) 11:12

THIRD PERIOD:
Scoring -
2. UQTR, Jean-Sebastien Breton (9) (Frederic Lavoie, Samuel Gibbons) 4:13
3. McGill, Eric L’Italien (7) (Vincent Lambert, Guillaume Demers) 6:35

Penalties -
McG: S. Shewchuk (hooking) 0:20,
UQTR: N. Desilets (holding) 8:11,
UQTR: A. Joanisse (hooking) 12:44,
McG: K. Morin (elbowing) 18:54

SHOTS BY PERIOD:
MCG: 8 8 8 -- 24
UQTR: 9 12 14 -- 35

GOALS BY PERIOD:
MCG: 0 1 1 -- 2
UQTR: 0 0 1 -- 1

POWER PLAY (Goals / Chances):
McGill 0-5.
UQTR 0-4.

GOALTENDERS:

McGill
Mathieu Poitras [W] 13-3-0, SV:34, GA:1, 60:00

UQTR
Olivier Laliberte [L] 3-1-0, SV:22, GA:2, 58:39
Empty-net (1:21, GA:0)

Start : 7:05 PM

End : 9:06 PM

Attendance : 640

Referee: Pascal St. Jacques

MOLSON CUP THREE STARS:
---------------------------------
1. Mathieu Poitras, McGill
2. Olivier Laliberte, UQTR
3. Eric L’Italien

McGILL LINEUP SCRATCHES:
--------------------------------
G: J.M. Filiatrault (dressed but DNP)
G: Jake Jarvis
D: Erik Stilling (shoulder)
F: Charles Gauthier (upper body)
F: Sam Bloom (upper body)
F: Simon Marcotte
F: Jeremy Burgess

SOURCE:

Earl Zukerman
Communications Officer & Webmaster
Dept. of Athletics
McGill University
475 Pine Avenue W.
Montreal, QC
H2W IS4
514-398-7012
earl.zukerman@mcgill.ca
www.athletics.mcgill.ca