Final Results
Mar 08, 08 - 19:35
Redmen 4 - Brock (OUA Queen's Cup final @ St. Catharines) 1
OUA Queen's Cup Championship Game -- Non-conference Game
Game Report by Earl Zukerman
Shewchuk shines as Redmen win first Cup since 1946
ST. CATHARINES, ONT – Shawn Shewchuk of Lloydminster, Alta., scored twice
as McGill rallied with four unanswered goals in the third period to defeat the
Brock University Badgers 4-1 and capture the OUA men’s hockey championship
before 1,378 at the Seymour-Hannah Centre in St. Catharines, Ont., Saturday.
It avenged a 3-2 early season loss to the Badgers and was McGill’s 14th
Queen’s Cup league title but their first since 1946.
"We played a huge third period," said Redmen head coach Martin Raymond.
"It’s always fun to win on the road in front of a hostile crowd. I’m
very proud of the boys, they showed lots of courage and pride tonight. It was
a huge, historic win for our program. We will celebrate for a short time but
we’re on a mission (to win a national title) and it’s not finished
yet."
Jonathon Labelle of Prevost, Que., tapped in a rebound from the point to open
the scoring for Brock at 13:27 of the middle period but defenceman David Urquhart,
from nearby Thorold, Ont., evened the game for the Redmen at 3:21 of the final
period, putting a rebound past goaltender Matt Harpwood of Welland, Ont.
Shewchuk, who was named player of the game, out-manoeuvred a Brock defencemen
and rifled a shot upstairs to put McGill ahead 2-1 on the power play at 10:34.
He quickly struck again less than two minutes later, picking a Brock defender’s
pocket and walking in on Harpwood to extend McGill’s lead to 3-1 at 12:07.
Guillaume Demers, a third-year centre from Baie Comeau, Que., iced the win
with an empty-netter at 19:13.
McGill had a 25-14 margin in shots, including a 14-3 edge in the final period
as goaltender Mathieu Poitras of Gatineau, Que., earned his school record seventh
consecutive playoff victory. The engineering senior has turned aside 153 of
161 shots in post-season play for a stingy 1.14 goals-against average and a
sparkling .950 save percentage. He is the all-time winningest goalie in school
history with lifetime record of 89-30-6 overall.
The Redmen got an unplanned extra night to celebrate in nearby Niagara Falls
as a huge snowstorm hit southern Ontario and Quebec which resulted in numerous
highway closings, forcing them to scramble for hotel accomodations. They will
head to the CIS national championships for the second time in school history
and the first time since 2005, when they reached the semifinals after earning
a berth as the OUA finalist. The tournament is slated to be held in Moncton,
March 20-24.
REDMEN RAP: McGill improved to 32-12-0 overall, two victories more than their
school record win total in 2005-06 when they went 30-8-3.
SCORING SUMMARY
- Mar 8, 2008 -
McGill 4 at Brock 1
(OUA Queen’s Cup Championship at Seymour-Hannah Centre)
FIRST PERIOD:
(No Scoring)
Penalties -
BRK: C. Yausie (slashing) 7:33,
McG: D. Urquhart (interference) 7:47,
McG: D. Urquhart (holding) 15:46,
BRK: G. Friesen (roughing) 19:16
SECOND PERIOD:
Scoring -
1. Brock, Jonathan Labelle (5) (G. Bradley, J. Martin) 13:27
Penalties -
McG: Y. Turcotte (interference) 7:00,
McG: S. Shewchuk (hooking) 14:25
THIRD PERIOD:
Scoring -
2. McGill, Dave Urquhart (1) (S. Bloom, Y. Turcotte) 2:31
3. McGill, Shawn Shewchuk (2) (S. Bloom, K. Morin) 10:34 (PP)
4. McGill, Shawn Shewchuk (3) 12:07
5. McGill, Guillaume Demers (3) 19:13 (ENG)
Penalties -
BRK: R. Del Monte (interference) 8:36,
BRK: R. Del Monte (cross checking) 13:30
SHOTS BY PERIOD:
MCG: 8 3 14 -- 25
BRK: 2 9 3 -- 14
GOALS BY PERIOD:
MCG: 0 0 4 -- 4
BRK: 0 1 0 -- 1
POWER PLAY CONVERSION:
McGill 1-4.
Brock 0-4.
PENALTIES:
McGill 4-8.
Brock 4-8.
GOALTENDERS:
McGill
Mathieu Poitras [W] 7-0-0, SV: 13 GA: 1, 60:00
Brock
Matt Harpwood [L] 4-3-0, SV: 21, GA: 3, 58:30
Empty-net: 1 goal, 1:30
Start : 7:30 pm
End : 10:00 pm
Attendance: 1,378
Referee: na
MOLSON CUP THREE STARS:
---------------------------------
1. Shawn Shewchuk, McGill
2. Sam Bloom, McGill
3. Dave Urquhart, McGill
McGILL LINEUP SCRATCHES:
---------------------------------
G: Jean-Michel Filiatrault (dressed but DNP)
G: Jake Jarvis
D: Erik Stilling (shoulder)
F: Len Verrilli
F: Charles Gauthier (concussion)
F: Simon Marcotte
F: Jeremy Burgess
SOURCE:
Earl Zukerman
McGill Athletics
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Redmen take crown for first time since 1946 Mar 11, 08 Ice Hockey (M)
By Aaron Sigal, The McGill Tribune
HOCKEY - REDMEN 4, BROCK 1:
Redmen take the crown at Queen's Cup
For the first time since 1946, McGill wins OUA league title
By Aaron Sigal
(reprinted from The McGill Tribuie)
Leafs and Cubs fans, take solace: championship droughts do end.
Rebounding well from an emotionally draining OUA East final against traditional
rivals UQTR, in which the Redmen weathered a storm of chippy Patriotes play
and secured a slot in the CIS National Championship tournament, McGill ended
62 years of frustration by defeating the Brock Badgers 4-1 for the program's
first OUA conference title since 1946.
By walking into a hostile St. Catherines arena and downing the OUA West champion
Badgers, a squad that had defeated McGill earlier this season, the Redmen gained
some extra confidence heading into nationals, where Brock will also be one of
the vying participants.
"This was a reminder for us to stick to the way we want to play,"
Head Coach Martin Raymond said. "It always gives you confidence to do the
things you practice and have success with it. When you finish on top in an important
game like this on the road against a tough opponent, it's certainly comforting
for us to know we can play strong hockey when we put our minds to it."
First period jitters
As is standard in any significant postseason affair, the first period proved
to be a defensive struggle where neither side was able to find the back of the
net. Instead, a physical tone was set for the match, and possibly for Moncton,
as the two teams employed a dump-and-chase style in order to feel out their
opponent's strategy and soften up the defence for the later stages of the game.
"We wanted to be physical from the get-go," Raymond said. "They
are a conservative, trapping team and we wanted to get after them and take them
out of their comfort zone."
The second period saw Brock ratchet up the tempo of play and start to pepper
McGill's star goalie, Mathieu Poitras, with high quality scoring chances. After
much frustration at the hands of a stellar Poitras, the home team finally converted
when forward Jonathon Labelle slotted home a rebound off a George Bradley point
shot to score the match's first tally in the 13th minute of the second frame.
Seemingly unable to generate an equalizer against Brock's Matt Harpwood, McGill
headed into the intermission glaring at year 63 of the Queen's Cup drought.
"We try not to worry about that streak in the heat of the game,"
Raymond said. "But in the back of your mind you say how it would be fun
to win a banner before nationals and keep our win streak going."
Third period dominance
Despite their 1-0 hole and history conspiring against them, the Redmen blasted
out of the gates in the third period and, not only captured the Queen's Cup
title, but built up a wealth of momentum for the CIS National Championships
with a four goal explosion.
The Red 'n' White completely reversed the run of play, delivering several devastating
hits and establishing a strong down-low presence. Defensive stalwart and captain
David Urquhart finally broke the Badger goose-egg at 3:21 into the third as
the blueliner rushed the net and capitalized on a Harpwood rebound. After opening
the floodgates, a worn-down Brock squad could not manage to stem the McGill
tide as over the next 16 minutes the Redmen potted three more markers.
Sniper Shawn Shewchuk was credited with two goals in two minutes and Guillame
Demers iced the match with an empty net tally as the game wound down. McGill
outshot Brock 25-14 over the course of the game and 14-3 in the dominant third
period effort.
"It was pretty exciting at the end," Raymond said. "It's a 105
year old cup and, lifting it, you see it has a lot of McGill plaques on it from
a long time ago. It's nice to know that it will have a new one on there now."
With the Queen's Cup streak now broken, the Redmen shift their focus to the
CIS Nationals in Moncton, New Brunswick. In addition to the Redmen, the March
20-23 tournament will feature squads from Brock, Alberta, Saskatchewan, UNB
or Saint Mary's and the host, the Moncton Aigles Bleus. In their second national
championship appearance in the last three years, McGill will have the higher
of the two OUA seeds by virtue of their Queen's Cup victory.
© Copyright 2008 The McGill Tribune
------------------
Badgers fall short in OUA final Mar 11, 08 Ice Hockey (M)
By Marc MacDonald, The Brock Press
By Marc MacDonald
The Brock Press
ST. CATHARINES, Ont. -- In front of 1,378 energized and raucous fans, the Brock
Badgers fell 4-1 to the McGill Redmen, a team yet to lose in this year's playoffs.
While both teams had already ensured their spot in the 2007-08 Canadian Interuniversity
Sport (CIS) national championship, they still wanted to taste the sweet feeling
of success.
The Seymour-Hannah Centre exhaled a collective breath after starting Brock
goalie Matt Harpwood was able to get back on his feet after being taken out
by a McGill player who appeared to have innocently lost an edge.
The collision did not seem to affect Harpwood, as he turned away all eight
shots in the period.
Brock would manage only a pair of shots in the first, with poor puck movement
by the defence, a main contributor to some Badger turnovers and their inability
to clear their own zone.
"You've got to give credit to McGill," said defenceman George Bradley.
"We couldn't generate anything down in their end and they were always coming
back at us and keeping it in our zone."
In the second period the Badgers were able to reverse the roles and spend more
time generating offense than trying to subdue it from their opponents.
"We got things turned around in the second period," said Nystrom.
"We started to move our feet and skate a little more, and because of that,
some ice opened up."
At 13:27 of the second period the Badgers would open the scoring after Bradley's
point shot was stopped, Jonathan Labelle would tap in a rebound, sending the
Badgers faithful into a frenzy.
However, for the Badgers, this would be the last time their fans would celebrate
a goal.
"Their goalie was excellent," said Labelle. "The only goal we
got was on a rebound, we had chances but we just couldn't score."
Heading into the final period, the Badgers clung to a 1-0 lead, a mere 20 minutes
away from history.
Just over two minutes into the period, however, McGill's captain David Urquhart,
would tie the game, ending Harpwood's shutout string of over 145 minutes.
On McGill's next two goals, the Badgers were left with nothing to do but watch
as they saw Shawn Shewchuk dangle in the offensive zone, go untouched into prime
goal scoring position and bury both the game winner and the go-ahead goals for
his Redmen.
Brock would manage only three shots in the final period, unable to sustain,
or generate for that matter, any offensive pressure.
"It was a tight game," said Labelle. "They weren't giving up
much and we were trying to not give up much. Both teams came out strong and
played tight early on."
With the loss, the Badgers may head into the CIS nationals with a little more
knowledge, having had some of their biggest weaknesses exposed, and time to
rectify those areas.
"We were too loose defensively," said Nystrom. "Our turnovers
were costly and McGill pounced on them right away."
It goes without saying that if the Badgers wish to produce a solid showing
at the national championships they will have to play more sound defence and
remember how they got there in the first place.
"We have to refocus and play our game," said Labelle. "This
is how we got here, we played our game, and if we do that at nationals we'll
be OK."
