Slewfoot costly as Redmen give Varsity the Blues Feb 28, 09 Ice Hockey (M)

By Earl Zukerman

TORONTO – Co-captain Eric L’Italien of Ste. Foy, Que., was credited with the game-winner and was one of six different McGill players to score as the Redmen doubled Toronto 6-3 to sweep a best-of-three OUA East semifinal series in men’s hockey at Varsity Arena, Saturday.

The Redmen tied a school record for most goals scored in a playoff road game, which has stood since Feb. 26, 1975, when McGill lost a wild sudden-death semifinal 9-6 at Loyola College.

The result avenged the Varsity Blues’ shocking sweep – by scores of 1-0 and 2-0 – over a much more potent McGill squad in the 2007 playoffs.

McGill went 2-for-3 on the power play and successfully killed off all five shorthanded situations.

“The referee (Jonathan Wallace) let both teams play a lot more than the earlier games we’ve had in the playoffs,” said Martin Raymond, in his 14th season as head coach of the Redmen. “They have dominated us on special teams this year but we felt confident that we could beat them in 5-on-5 situations. Our defence came up big tonight and we blocked a lot of shots (18, including nine in the final period).”

Freshman Andrew Wright of Toronto and sophomore Guillaume Doucet of Anjou, Que., both tallied in the first period, at 3:41 and 12:43, respectively, to put McGill ahead 2-0. But Byron Elliott, a high-scoring rookie from Burlington, Ont., replied for U of T in the 15th minute of play.

Alexander Picard-Hooper, a rookie from Boucherville, Que., made it 3-1 early in the second frame when he surprised Russ Brownell, the Varsity Blues starting netminder, with a nifty, unassisted effort off a faceoff at the 1:41 mark.

L’Italien then connected on a power play five minutes later, to give McGill a 4-1 stranglehold. They upped that to 5-1 when U of T right winger was penalized for “slew-footing” – a rarely-called infraction that is not even listed in the penalty codes – and Serbian senior Marko Kovacevic clicked on the man-advantage situation with just under three minutes remaining in the period.

The Blues came to life when the game was all but out of reach, getting goals from Sean Fontyn and Claudio Cowdrey but it was a case of too little, too late. They had a 14-9 margin in shots during the third period but rookie ‘keeper Kevin Desfossés of Beauport, Que., came up big, especially when he snuffed out a breakaway by sniper Joe Rand with 1:37 remaining.

Desfossés ended up with 29 saves for the win as the Redmen had a 33-32 edge in shots.

Vincent Lambert, a junior from Ste. Therese, Que., completed the well-dispersed McGill attack with an empty-netter.

McGill owns a 24-13-2 record overall, including a 4-1 dossier in post-season play, and is just two wins away from qualifying to compete at Nationals for the third time in four years. They are in the OUA East Conference finals and await the winner of Sunday night’s Carleton-UQTR semifinal rubber match in Trois-Rivières. If UQTR prevails, then the Pats would host McGill at Le Colisée on Wednesday. Should the Ravens win, they would tentatively open the OUA East final series at McGill on Thursday. The Redmen are unable to open at home on Wednesday, as planned, since the top-ranked McGill women’s team will be hosting their playoff opener against Concordia that night.

REDMEN RAP: The game was played before a relatively small crowd, which appeared to feature more McGill fans than those of the home team… Among the former Redmen players spotted in the crowd were current RMC coaches Adam Shell (1999-03) and Chad Blundy (2000-05), plus Shawn Shewchuk (2003-08), Stephane Angers (1993-97), Jean-Guy Daigneault (1994-96), Paul Barber (1981-86), Mike Bean (1984-86) and Steve Mendelssohn (1979-82)… Daigneault, a licensed chiropractor in East Lansing, Mich., was pressed into service during the second intermission, to straighten out a back problem with a staff member in the McGill entourage.

SCORING SUMMARY

McGill 6 at Toronto 3

(Feb 28, 2009 - Varsity Arena)

FIRST PERIOD:
1, McGill, Andrew Wright 1 (Daneau), 3:41.
2, McGill, Guillaume Doucet 2 (Picard-Hooper, Kovacevic), 12:43.
3, Toronto, Byron Elliott 2 (Cowdrey, Kliewer), 14:32.

Penalties
(none)

SECOND PERIOD:
4, McGill, Alexandre Picard-Hooper 5 (unassisted) 1:41.
5, McGill, Eric L’Italien 2 (Verreault-Paul, Turcotte), 6:50 (pp).
6, McGill, Marko Kovacevic 1 (Doucet, Turcotte), 17:01 (pp).
7, Toronto, Sean Fontyn 1 (Dupont, Rand), 19:38.

Penalties
Snetsinger Tor (roughing), 2:05;
Snetsinger Tor (slashing), 5:22;
Verreault-Paul Mcg (high sticking), 6:53;
Cowdrey Tor (high sticking), 6:53;
Dorion Mcg (boarding), 11:16;
Brewer Tor (slewfooting), 15:05;
Langelier-Parent Mcg (interference), 17:23;
Turcotte Mcg (roughing), 18:24;
Ventura Tor (roughing), 18:24.

THIRD PERIOD:
8, Toronto, Claudio Cowdrey 1 (Kliewer, Ventura), 2:22.
9, McGill, Vincent Lambert 1 (L’Italien), 19:26 (en).

Penalties
Verrilli Mcg (interference), 4:39;
Turcotte Mcg (holding), 11:55;
Turcotte Mcg (high-sticking minor, 10-min. misconduct), 19:56;
Nagribianko, Tor (high-sticking ), 19:56;

SHOTS BY PERIOD:
McGill 15-9-9 -- 33.
Toronto 9-9-14 -- 32.

GOALS BY PERIOD:
McGill 2-3-1 -- 6
Toronto 1-1-1 -- 3

POWER PLAY OPPORTUNITIES:
McGill 2 of 3;
Toronto 0 of 4.

PENALTIES (No./Mins.):
McGill 8/24;
Toronto 6/12.

Goalies
McGill,
Kevin Desfosses [W, 4-1, 32 shots, 29 saves; 60:00);

Toronto,
Russ Brownell [start; L, 0-2, 24 shots, 19 saves, 39:58);
Andrew Martin [ND, 8 shots, 8 saves, 18:24);
Empty-net [1 shot, 1 goal against; 0:38]

Attendance: 204

Time: 2:08

Referee: Jonathan Wallace.

MOLSON CUP THREE GAME STARS:
1. Alex Picard-Hooper, McGill
2. Kevin Desfosses, McGill
3. Vincent Lambert, McGill

McGILL LINEUP:
----------------------
FORWARD:
Lambert, Verreault-Paul, L’Italien
Kovacevic, Picard-Hooper, Doucet
Wright, Marcotte, Daneau
Vossen, Langelier-Parent, Verrilli

DEFENCE:
Morin, Stilling
Turcotte, Dorion
Valente , Gazdic

GOAL:
Desfosses

McGILL LINEUP SCRATCHES:
------------------------------------------
G: Danny Mireault (dressed but DNP)
G: Hubert Morin
G: Jake Jarvis
D: Spencer Brennan (injd)
D: Ben Morse
D: Glenn Tindle
F: Benoit Arsenault (injd)
F: Sam Bloom (serving one-game suspension)
F: Tim Drager