Marko magical as McGill masters Mustangs
Mar. 27, 2009

THUNDER BAY, Ont. – Marko Kovacevic, a senior from Serbia, tallied twice, including the game-winner, and added an assist as the McGill Redmen rallied to edge Western Ontario 4-3 at the 2009 CIS men’s hockey championship before 2,412 at Fort William Gardens, Friday.

Cavendish University Cup website: www.cisport.ca/e/championships/m_hockey/2009

The one-goal margin of victory was insufficient for McGill, which needed to win by at least five goals to avoid being eliminated from gold-medal contention. The fifth-seeded Redmen, who avenged their 2-1 loss to the Mustangs in the OUA Queen’s Cup final two weeks ago, finished pool play with a 1-1 record and a minus-two goal differential following a 4-1 opening-day setback against No.2-Saint Mary’s on Thursday.

“We weren’t looking past today, we were only worried about this game,” said McGill head coach Martin Raymond. “Today was all about pride.”

“We didn’t play our best game against them (Western) in the OUA final. We wanted to show them but also ourselves that we should have won the Queen’s Cup,” added Alexandre Picard-Hooper, who also had three points and was named player of the game for McGill.

Éric L’Italien, a fifth-year co-captain from Ste-Foy, Que., opened the scoring for McGill at 14:34 of the first frame. The teams were playing four-on-four when L’Italien took a perfect pass from sophomore Simon Marcotte-Légaré of Longueuil, Que., and beat goaltender Brad Topping with a high shot to the corner.

The Mustangs rallied with two second period goals just 19 seconds apart -- by senior defenceman Chris Petrow of Haliburton, Ont., and rookie right-winger Joe McCann of Essex, Ont., -- midway through the stanza to give Western a 2-1 advantage.

Petrow struck first during a man-advantage situation went his shot from the point deflected off McGill's Sam Bloom and into the net. Seconds later, McCann accepted a beautiful feed from sophomore right-winger Kyle on a two-on-one break and gave Western their only lead of the afternoon.

Kovacevic, a senior forward from Belgrade, tied the score at the 16-minute mark of the second and Picard-Hooper, the OUA rookie of the year from Boucherville, Que., who assisted on both Kovacevic goals, scored at 1:50 of the third stanza to give McGill a 3-2 lead.

Kovacevic then gave the Redmen a two-goal cushion, on the power-play, at 10:27 of the third period. He batted the puck in mid-air from the side of the net.

“Today was a total team effort,” Kovacevic said. “It was a battle out there but we knew if we kept working hard we could win this game. There’s no quitting in this team.”

Sam Bloom, a senior from Toronto and the third member of McGill's top scoring line, had a pair of helpers.

Lamb of Port Coquitlam, B.C., brought the Mustangs back to within one with 4:30 left in the game. Lamb also assisted on McCann’s marker and earned player-of-the-game honours for Western.

McGill had a 39-35 edge on shots as freshman goaltender Kevin Desfossés of Beauport, Que., picked up the win to finish the season with a 12-4-0 record overall, since joining the Redmen in January. Desfossés made a game-saving stop with 1:57 left on the clock, robbing Aaron Snow of Windsor, Ont., from up close.

Topping, a senior from Strathroy, Ont., made 35 saves in a losing cause.

The Redmen were 1-for-4 on the power play while the Mustangs went 1-for-6.

“This was like a lot of our playoff games this year, another one-goal game,” said Western head coach Clarke Singer, whose team went 7-1 in the OUA playoffs including six one-goal affairs. “We’re a little disappointed in our team effort today. We did a lot of things that are uncharacteristic of our playoff run.”

“Full credit to McGill however, they’re a great team, they’re fast, they compete hard, they’re extremely well coached,” Singer added.

“We needed to take care of things better,” said fifth-year captain Sal Peralta of Leamington, Ont., who assisted on the Mustangs first goal. “We were ready for a tough battle. We just came up short.”

Western had a goal waived off at 2:51 of the middle frame. Referee Mark Hulshot blew his whistle a split-second before the puck went in as McGill forward Vincent Lambert was down with an injury at the other end of the ice. Hulshot had let the Mustangs charge all the way up ice and after they missed a scoring chance, blew the play dead. Lambert eventually made his way back to the bench, escourted by a team therapist.

“That’s a game-changer right there,” Singer said. “To the referee’s credit he explained the situation. As much as the call hurt us, his interpretation was fair and we have to accept it.”

Despite the loss, Western (0-1) could still advance to Sunday’s University Cup final (2 p.m., Sportsnet / SSN Canada) with a three-goal win over Saint Mary’s (1-0) in their final duel, slated for 2 p.m. on Saturday (Rogers Sportsnet / SSN Canada).

Should the Mustangs beat the Huskies by two goals, both teams would be tied with a plus-one goal differential and the Pool-B winners would be determined following a complex tie-breaking formula.

GAME NOTES: McGill finished their 133rd campaign with a 27-17-0 record overall, including a pair of overtime losses... Redmen head coach Martin Raymond was assessed a game misconduct after the contest for failure to control his bench when, during a minor skirmish, a sixth Redmen skater appeared on the ice to offset the six Western skaters after they pulled their goalie for an extra attacker… Raymond will have to serve a one-game suspension in next year’s regular-season opener… Referee Hulshot was loudly booed by the crowd after assessing Picard-Hooper with a tripping call midway through the third period... The call was made when a player from Western had clearly fallen after stepping on the puck... The Redmen expect to lose seven players to graduation, including co-captains Eric L'Italien and Ken Morin, plus Kovacevic, Bloom and Lambert, defenceman Erik Stilling and goaltender Jake Jarvis... This was the 28th lifetime meeting between McGill and UWO and their first-ever meeting at the University Cup tournament… The Redmen are 12-13-3 lifetime versus the Mustangs... McGill is now 3-3 all-time at the CIS championship going 1-1 in 2006, 2008 and 2009… Western was the last OUA team to claim the Cup in 2002 when the Mustangs beat UQTR 4-3 in the final on a goal by Stacey Bristone at 13:17 of the third overtime period… The 2002 final, which ended after 43:17 of extra time, is still the longest game in University Cup history.

SCORING SUMMARY
No. 5 McGill 4, No. 3 Western Ontario 3

FIRST PERIOD

SCORING:
1. McG Éric L’Italien (1) (Simon Marcotte-Légaré), 14:34

PENALTIES:
Yan Turcotte (McG) roughing, 1:17;
Simon Marcotte-Légaré (McG) holding, 6:39;
Sean Courtney (UWO) hooking, 10:04;
Yan Turcotte (McG) holding, 14:01;
Sal Peralta (UWO) high-sticking, 14:10.

SECOND PERIOD

SCORING:
2. UWO Chris Petrow (1) (Sal Peralta, Jason Swit) 11:16 PP
3. UWO Joe McCann (1) (Kyle Lamb, Jason Furlong) 11:35
4. McG Marko Kovacevic (1) (Alexandre Picard-Hooper, Sam Bloom) 16:00

PENALTIES:
Francis Paul-Verreault (McG) slashing, 0:55;
Alexandre Picard-Hooper (McG) interference, 10:19;
Patrick Ouellet (UWO) hooking, 18:03.

THIRD PERIOD

SCORING:
5. McG Alexandre Picard-Hooper (1) (Marko Kovacevic, Sam Bloom) 1:50
6. McG Marko Kovacevic (2) (Marc-André Dorion, Alexandre Picard-Hooper) 10:27 PP
7. UWO Kyle Lamb (1) (Yashar Farmanara) 15:30

PENALTIES:
Jason Swit (UWO) roughing, 9:23;
Alexandre Picard-Hooper (McG) tripping, 12:05;
Aaron Snow (UWO) slashing, 20:00;
Aaron Snow (UWO) roughing, 20:00;
Francis Verreault-Paul (McG) roughing, 20:00;
Coach (Martin Raymond, McG) failure to control bench, game misconduct, 20:00.

GOALS BY PERIOD:
McG: 1-1-2 -- 4
UWO: 0-2-1 -- 3

SHOTS BY PERIOD:
McG: 13-15-11 -- 39
UWO: 10-13-12 -- 35

POWER PLAY:
McG: 1-4
UWO: 1-6

PENALTIES (No/Mins):
McG: 7-24
UWO: 6-12

GOALTENDERS
McG –
Kevin Desfossés (W, 1-1, 35 shots, 32 saves, 3 GA, 60:00)

UWO –
Brad Topping (L, 0-1, 39 shots, 35 saves, 4 GA, 59:00)
Empty net (0 shots, 0 GA, 1:00)

PLAYERS OF THE GAME:
McG: Alexandre Picard-Hooper
UWO: Kyle Lamb

TIME: 2:25

REFEREE: Mark Hulshof
LINESMEN: Nigel Black, Kevin Kulski

ATTENDANCE: 2,412

McGILL LINEUP
F: Doucet, Verreault-Paul, Lambert
F: Kovacevic, Picard-Hooper, Sam Bloom
F: Daneau, Marcotte-Legare, L'Italien
F: Vossen, Langelier-Parent, Verrilli
D: Morin, Stilling
D: Turcotte, Dorion
D: Valente, Gazdic
G: Desfossés

McGILL LINEUP SCATCHES:
G: Danny Mireault (dressed but DNP)
G: Hubert Morin
D: Ben Morse
D: Glenn Tindle
D: Spencer Brennan (injd)
F: Tim Drager
F: Benoit Arsenault (injd)
F: Andrew Wright

SCHEDULE & RESULTS (All times Eastern)

Pool A

1. Alberta

4. UNB

6. Lakehead

Pool B

2. Saint Mary’s

3. Western Ontario

5. McGill

Thursday, March 26

Pool B #1: Saint Mary’s 4, McGill 1

Pool A #1: UNB 6, Alberta 3

Friday, March 27

Pool B #2: McGill 4, Western 3

19:30 Pool A #2: No. 6 Lakehead vs. No. 1 Alberta (SSN Canada webcast)

Saturday, March 28

14:00 Pool B #3: No. 3 Western vs. No. 2 Saint Mary’s (Rogers Sportsnet / SSN Canada webcast)

19:00 Pool A #3: No. 6 Lakehead vs. No. 4 UNB (Rogers Sportsnet / SSN Canada webcast)

Sunday, March 29

14:00 Final (Rogers Sportsnet / SSN Canada webcast)

- CIS -

For more information please contact:

Earl Zukerman
Communications & Publications Officer
McGill Athletics & Recreation
514-398-7012 (tel.)
www.mcgill.ca/athletics

Michel Bélanger

CIS Communications manager

Cell: (613) 447-6334

belanger@universitysport.ca

www.universitysport.ca