NORTH BAY, Ont. -- Team captain Evan Vossen scored once and added a helper on the winning tally as the McGill Redmen pulled away with a pair of third period goals to sink the Nipissing Lakers 4-1 before 1,631 at Memorial Gardens, Saturday night.

Sam Hopewell got the Lakers on the board to open the scoring in the first period, but the feisty, hard working McGill Redmen tied it less than two minutes later on a goal by Jean-Francois Boisvert.

The Lakers had a lot of opportunities with the extra man as the Redmen were called for five minor penalties in the middle frame.

But it was the Redmen who cashed in on the power play as freshman Marc-Olivier Vachon connected on the game-winner with a knuckle-ball one-timer past Daniel Spence to give the Redmen the 2-1 lead at 12:22 of the middle frame.

The Lakers best chance was a one-timer by Dan Watt on a beautiful feed but Redmen netminder Hubert Morin made a highlight reel stop to keep the game 2-1 for the No.2 ranked Redmen. Andrew Marcoux was also stifled as his one-timer in the third frame went off the goal-post behind Morin, who made 28 saves for the win and improved to 6-2.

Redmen defenceman Ryan McKiernan made it 3-1 on a power-play blast from the top of the circle past Spence early in the third period which appeared to take the wind out of the Lakers sails.

Vossen, who assisted on Vachon`s winning effort, snuffed out any hope for the Lakers when he upped the lead to 4-1 with 47 seconds remaining as the Redmen beat the Lakers for the 10th straight time.

The Lakers were confident coming into the contest as McGill had to score a late goal to force overtime in their previous meeting in Montreal earlier in the month. The Lakers lost that one in overtime but that was the first time Nipissing had taken a point from the OUA East giants and the Lakers felt McGill was ripe for the picking.

"It was a full 60-minute effort by our guys and our special teams were exceptional," said head coach Kelly Nobes, whose Redmen went 2-for-6 with the man-advantage and killed off all eight Laker power-play chances. "We were really good on faceoffs, especially on the penalty-kill, which helped us weather the storm in the second period."

Lakers head coach Mike McParland was pleased with the performance of his troops but he realizes his team still has to be better if they want to knock off McGill.

"We had some chances on the power play and two of their goals came on the power play," noted McParland. "To beat McGill our goaltender has to outplay their goalie and our special teams have to be better than theirs. Tonight they had an edge in both those departments."

The loss drops the Lakers record to 8-4-4 on the season and allows UQTR to move into a tie for first with the Redmen with 24 points. The Ottawa Gee-Gees vault past the Lakers with a game in hand as they have 20 points on 9-4-2 record.

McGill, which improved to 11-1-2, plays at Ryerson on Sunday at 2 p.m. The game will be webcast (with no audio) and is available online at: http://www.ryersonrams.ca/ViewArticle.dbml?DB_OEM_ID=22300&ATCLID=205033644

SOURCE:

Nipissing Athletics and

Earl Zukerman, McGill Athletics & Recreation

SCORING SUMMARY

McGill 4 at Nipissing 1

(Saturday, November 26, 2011 - Memorial Gardens)

GOALS BY PERIOD
McGill 1-1-2 -- 4
Nipissing 1-0-0 -- 1

1st Period-
1, Nipissing, Sam Hopewell 2 (P. Cianfrini, J. Gray), 14:19.
2, McGill, Jean-Francois Boisvert 2 (G. Langelier-Parent, B. Levesque), 16:47.

Penalties-
Levesque Mcg (elbowing), 13:20;
Peca Nip (interference), 13:40.

2nd Period-
3, McGill, Marc-Olivier Vachon 4 (E. Vossen, F. Verreault-Paul), 12:22 (PP).

Penalties-
Dupont Mcg (tripping), 6:29;
Langelier-Parent Mcg (slashing), 8:56;
Bailey Nip (boarding), 11:58;
Wright Mcg (holding opp. stick), 14:38;
Laporte Mcg (hooking), 16:34;
Cianfrini Nip (holding), 16:50;
Ducharme Mcg (high sticking), 19:00.

3rd Period-
4, McGill, Ryan McKiernan 1 (M.O. Vachon, M.A. Dorion), 3:49 (PP).
5, McGill, Evan Vossen 8 (A. Wright), 19:13.

Penalties-
O'Donnell Nip (hooking), 1:07;
McQuaid Nip (tripping), 2:03;
Verreault-Paul Mcg (hooking), 4:52;
Dupont Mcg (tripping), 13:23;
Watt Nip (interference), 14:37.

Shots on Goal-
McGill 11-5-9 -- 25.
Nipissing 14-8-7 -- 29.

Power Play Opportunities-
McGill 2 / 6;
Nipissing 0 / 8.

Penalties (No/Mins)-
McGill 8 / 16;
Nipissing 6 / 12.

Goalies-
McGill, Hubert Morin (W, 6-2, 29 shots-28 saves, 60:00).
Nipissing, Daniel Spence (L, 8-6, 25 shots-21 saves; 60:00).

Att - 1,631

Referees-Matthew Davie, Derik Gratton.
Linesmen-Steven Dix, Joe Monette.

Start: 7:00 PM
End: 9:24 PM
Length: 2:24

MOLSON CUP THREE STARS

1. Evan Vossen, McGill

2. Ryan McKiernan, McGill

3. Hubert Morin, McGill