Final Results
Jan 30, 09 - 19:00

Redmen 3 - Carleton 2

Game Report by Earl Zukerman

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Marko makes his mark as Redmen slay Ravens
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MONTREAL – Marko Kovacevic, a native of Belgrade, Serbia scored twice as McGill rallied with three goals in the final period to defeat visiting Carleton 3-2 in men’s university hockey at McConnell Arena, Saturday.

It was the fourth straight victory for the Redmen who moved into sole possession of second place in the OUA Far East. McGill has posted a 13-3-1 record after an 0-4-2 start to the season.

After a scoreless opening period, Ottawa native Michael Testa broke the ice with his ninth goal of the season at 6:41 of the middle frame. That lead held up until 4:47 of the third period, when Kovacevic converted a pretty three-way passing play from linemates Alexandre Picard-Hooper and Sam Bloom. The threesome connected again less than six minutes later as Kovacevic netted the game-winner with his ninth of the season.

Picard-Hooper, a freshman from Boucherville, Que., leads the Redmen in points and finally cracked the league’s Top 10 scoring leaders. He sits ninth with a 9-21-30 record in 23 games.

Freshman Francis Verrault-Paul of Mashteviatsh, Que., netted the other Redmen marker, making it 3-1.

The Ravens made it close in the final minute when Ryan Berard of Burlington, Ont., tallied on the power play with netminder Alexander Archibald on the bench in favour of an extra attacker.

McGill, which went 0-for-9 on the power play, outshot Carleton 37-16 as rookie netminder Danny Mireault improved to 9-6-0. Ravens’ netminder Alexander Archibald made 34 saves in a losing cause and dropped to 11-10-0.

It was the second consecutive loss for the fourth-place Ravens, who fell to 11-9-3 and will play next on Feb. 3 when they host Queen’s.

The Redmen will host No-3-ranked UQTR (20-2-1) on Saturday at 7 p.m. in a battle that will mark the 132nd anniversary of McGill’s first hockey game, which was played on Jan. 31, 1877.

REDMEN RAP: The win gave McGill a lifetime 582-582-89 record in 1,253 games played against OUA opponents… The third period comeback by the Redmen was no surprise as they have outscored opponents 31-19 in the final stanza this season… After 23 regular season contests, the Redmen have scored only 28.9 per cent of their 83 goals on special teams (20 PPG, 4 SHG), their lowest percentage in over a decade… Kovacevic leads the squad with four PP goals, while Evan Vossen is tops in shorthanded markers with two… Defenceman Yan Turcotte, a senior from Laval, Que., served an automatic one-game suspension for a checking-from-behind infraction against Concordia last Wednesday… Turcotte, who will be back in the lineup against the Pats on Saturday, has 523 career penalty minutes, seven short of McGill’s all-time penalty king Dan Jacob, who patrolled the Redmen blueline from 2000-01 to 2004-05 and is currently playing pro in Serbia.

SCORING SUMMARY

Carleton 2 at McGill 3

(NOTE: Carleton pulled goalie to score)

(Jan 30, 2009 @ McConnell Arena

FIRST PERIOD:
Scoring -
(none)

Penalties -
McGill BENCH Served by F. Verrault-Paul (too many men) 1:28,
C. Downey Car (high sticking) 13:27,
B. Gazdic Mcg (holding) 14:11,
I. Greene Car (high sticking) 17:48

SECOND PERIOD:
Scoring -
1. Carleton, Mike Testa (9) (S. Bakker, C. Carre) 6:41

Penalties -
F. Verrault-Paul Mcg (slashing) 0:59,
C. Carre Car (holding) 8:21,
F. Walker Car (hooking) 10:59,
K. Stanley Car (slashing) 12:17,
M. Langelier-Parent Mcg (roughing) 15:30,
J. Caruana Car (interference) 16:46,
B. MacLean Car (roughing, 10-minute misconduct) 18:13,
B. Good Car (slashing) 20:00,
B. Gazdic Mcg (unsportsmanlike cnd.) 20:00

THIRD PERIOD:
Scoring -
2. McGill, Marko Kovacevic (8) (S. Bloom, A. Picard-Hooper) 4:47
3. McGill, Marko Kovacevic (9) (A. Picard-Hooper, S. Bloom) 10:20
4. McGill, Francis Verrault-Paul (13) (G. Doucet, A. Wright) 15:41
5. Carleton, Ryan Berard (11) (B. MacLean, A. Gibbons) 19:21 (PP & Extra Attacker)

Penalties -
F. Verrault-Paul Mcg (interference) 1:55,
C. Downey Car (hooking) 7:13,
S. Valente Mcg (hooking) 12:13,
C. Boudeau-Mifflen Car (roughing) 16:34,
M. Daneau Mcg (roughing) 16:34,
S. Bakker Car (checking from behind, game misconduct) 16:56,
B. Good Car (roughing) 16:56,
K. Morin Mcg (roughing) 16:56,
C. Carre Car (roughing) 18:24,
F. Verrault-Paul Mcg (roughing double minor) 18:24

SHOTS BY PERIOD:
CAR: 6 - 5 - 5 -- 16
MCG: 11 - 14 - 12 -- 37

GOALS BY PERIOD:
CAR: 0 - 1 - 1 -- 2
MCG: 0 - 0 - 3 -- 3

POWER PLAY CONVERSION:
Carleton 1-7.
McGill 0-9.

PENALTIES:
Carleton 15-46.
McGill 11-22.

GOALTENDERS

Carleton
Alexander Archibald [L, 11-10-0, 59:07, SV: 34 GA: 3]
Empty-net [0:53, 0 GA]

McGill
Danny Mireault [W, 9-6-0, 60:00, SV: 14 GA: 2]

Start : 7:02 PM
End : 9:30 PM
Attendance : 377
Referee: Mathieu Cote

MOLSON CUP THREE STARS:
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1. Marko Kovacevic, McGill
2. Alexandre Picard-Hooper, McGill
3. Ken Morin, McGill

McGILL LINEUP SCRATCHES:
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G Hubert Morin
G Jake Jarvis
G Kevin Desfosses (dressed but DNP)
D Spencer Brennan
D Yan Turcotte (serving a one-game suspension)
F Benoit Arsenault (eye injury)
F Tim Drager
F Eric L’Italien (knee)
F Simon Marcotte-Legare (knee)

SOURCE:
Earl Zukerman
Communications Officer
Dept. of Athletics & Recreation, Room 225 B
McGill University
475 Pine Avenue W.,
Montreal, QC H2W 1S4
CANADA
514-398-7012 (Tel.)
514-398-1956 (Fax)
www.athletics.mcgill.ca

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Motivation helps in hitting milestone Jan 30, 09 Ice Hockey (M)

By RANDY PHILLIPS, The Gazette

McGill's Martin Raymond put a humorous spin on reaching the 500-game milestone as a head coach in men's university hockey.

"I don't know if it's a magical mark," he said. "Five hundred games ... I could have lost 400 of them. If it was 500 wins, at least I could say I was lucky enough to be on the right side of the scoreboard a lot of times.

"Seriously, my first reaction to having coached 500 games is that I have been lucky," he added. "The department of athletics at McGill has endured me long enough for me to do that, but I've also had some great people around who have supported me along the way and accepted my mistakes after starting my coaching career at a fairly young age."

The 40-year-old Pierrefonds native lives with his wife, Christine Lanoue, and sons Philippe, 13, and Antoine, 11, in Ste. Basile le Grand on the South Shore.

He is in his 14th season as head coach at McGill and reached the 500-game plateau last Saturday at McConnell Arena when the Redmen beat the Ottawa Gee-Gees 5-2.

Raymond has coached 502 games after 5-2 and 8-1 wins on the road this week over Royal Military College and Concordia, respectively. With Wednesday's win over Concordia, the Redmen clinched a playoff berth for the 23rd time in 26 years and are tied with the Stingers for second place in the OUA Far East standings with 28 points. McGill (13-7-2) holds a game in hand on Concordia (12-7-4).

McGill plays host to the Carleton Ravens tonight and the division-leading Trois Rivières Patriotes (19-2-1) tomorrow. Both games at the McConnell Arena begin at 7 p.m.

Raymond is the all-time winningest coach in McGill hockey history with a 280-187-35 overall record. He began coaching at McGill after a five-year playing career with the Redmen, during which he earned all-conference honours three times and was named an All-Canadian in his final season, 1991-92, while serving as team captain. He also was named the McGill male athlete of the year and team MVP in his final season after leading the Redmen in scoring.

After playing professional hockey in Germany for one season, Raymond returned to McGill in 1993 to do a masters degree in physical education. After Jean Pronovost's resignation as head coach of the Redmen midway through the 1994-95 season, Raymond ended up sharing the coaching responsibilities with Jamie Kompon, now an assistant coach with the Los Angeles Kings. The following season, Raymond was back as an assistant to Terry Bangen, who left McGill after one season to become an assistant coach with the Vancouver Canucks.

Raymond knew at a young age he wanted to coach hockey and the opportunities that came his way at McGill were a case of being in the right place at the right time.

"I started thinking about coaching when I was 18," he said. "At that age, there was no doubt in my mind I was going to coach, but I didn't think I was going to make a living out of it. When I got hired by McGill, I didn't expect to be renumerated for it. I just really wanted to work with young kids and older ones to help them grow through the sport of hockey.

"University hockey is a great way to develop young people, because we're on the ice every day. You get to see them and influence them a little bit more than coaching in minor hockey, where you see the kids only two or three times a week."

One of the highlights of Raymond's coaching career came last season, when the Redmen won the Queen's Cup as OUA conference champions for the 14th time in school history, but the first since 1946.

"It's also been a thrill to see the guys move on after their careers, specifically guys who have gone on to have the opportunity to play professionally," Raymond said. "I'm very proud of all the guys who graduated from our program. A lot of them are doing extremely well in their careers in business or whatever, but seeing guys playing in various pro hockey leagues is quite something for me."

Twenty-eight players Raymond coached have gone on to play pro hockey. Another former Redmen player, Mike Babcock, is in his fourth season as head coach of the Stanley Cup-champion Detroit Red Wings.

Raymond often is asked if coaching at a higher level might be in his future, and admits he struggles when trying to answer.

"Like everybody else, you think about maybe coaching at a different level," Raymond said. "Would it be a fun thing to do? I can't say that it does not interest me, but it doesn't consume me or concern me that much.

"I mean if McGill at one point is fed up with me, we'll entertain other avenues in coaching," he added. "But for sure, I'm not bored at McGill. I've got tonnes of things to try to solve and improve. It's not like it's an easy task, but it is fun and I enjoy doing what I do. I feel lucky being able to do it and be paid for it.

"Maybe one day, when my kids are older and leave the house, my wife and I will look and say, 'If McGill's fed up with me, maybe it's time to move somewhere else.' But not right now. I really enjoy the players, the support I get from the department, the alumni, and the way the program has evolved through the years. It's all very motivating for me."

rphillips@thegazette.canwest.com
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