Box Score
OTTAWA -- Rookie Alexandre Comtois of Sherbrooke, Que., tied a school record with a pair of shorthanded goals, including the game-winner, and set up another as No.6-ranked McGill skated to a key 6-2 triumph over Ottawa in OUA men's hockey at the uOttawa Sports Complex, Friday.

The second-place Redmen improved to 13-5-1 and moved four points ahead of Ottawa, which dropped to 11-7-1. McGill now trails division-leading Queen's (12-1-5) by just two points and will play the Gaels in Kingston on Saturday night in the first of a home-and-home series.

"I guess you could call it a complete game effort," said McGill head coach Kelly Nobes. "We played 60 minutes tonight, had everyone going. It was good to see and was a big win for us. We put lots of pucks at the net and I thought that we were good away from the puck in terms of our transition from offence to defence."

The Gee-Gees took a startling 1-0 lead when Nicolas Larocque-Marcoux tallied just 14 seconds after the opening faceoff. But McGill rallied with back-to-back goals by David Rose and Patrick Delisle-Houde -- his first of two -- in a three-minute span to take a 2-1 edge into the first intermission.

Comtois, an electrical engineering freshman who measures 5-foot-7 and 180 pounds,  scored on a breakaway at 10:10 of the second period to give the Redmen a 3-1 lead. He then set up team captain Benoit Levesque to put McGill ahead 4-1.

Comtois later struck again for the game's final marker, his fifth of the season, at 18:35 of the third stanza. It was the first time in almost 18 years that a McGill player had scored two shorthanded goals in one game and he becomes the seventh player in school history to accomplish the feat. The Redmen have now connected for five "shorties" this season -- three of them by Comtois -- after not scoring one last season.

"Alex is a real sparkplug for us," offered Nobes."He does a great job on the penalty-kill, competes so hard and proved tonight that he can be a real threat offensively."

Rounding out the scoring was Ottawa's Rock Regimbald, who narrowed the gap to 4-2 after two, and McGill's Delisle-Houde with his sixth of the season early in the third.

Goaltender Karel St. Laurent made 33 saves to register his first career win for McGill, which outshot Ottawa 38-35. Gee-Gees starter Warren Shymko took the loss. He was beaten four times on 26 shots before giving way to Harrison May late in the second stanza. May turned aside 10 of 12 shots.

"We had some good individual performances," added Nobes. "It was nice to see Karel get his first win between the pipes. He had a solid game... Comtois with two shorthhanded goals, you don't see that very often... It was good to see Delisle-Houde get going with a couple of goals too... Also, Justin Ducharme was flying, finishing checks and chipping pucks. He hasn't been in the lineup much for us this season but he played a real positive game."

REDMEN RAP: The previous six McGill players to tally two shorthanded goals in a game were: Mike Teolis (1988), Martin Hetu (1988), Patrice Tremblay (1990), Mark Shewfelt (1992), Pierre Gendron (1996) and David Butler (1996)... McGill swept their season series over the Gee-Gees and improved to 98-79-10 in 187 lifetime meetings with Ottawa, dating back to their first confrontation in 1968.


SCORING SUMMARY
McGill 6 at Ottawa 2
(Friday, January 10, 2014 - Sports Complex Arena)

GOALS BY PERIOD:
McGill 2-2-2 -- 6
Ottawa 1-1-0 -- 2

1st Period-
1, Ottawa, Nicolas Larocque-Marcoux 3 (Ouellette, Regimbald), 0:14.
2, McGill, David Rose 5 (McNicoll, Delisle-Houde), 8:59.
3, McGill, Patrick Delisle-Houde 5 (Boutet, Rose), 11:53.

Penalties-Leduc Ott (interference), 2:17; Millette Mcg (10-minute misconduct), 4:31; Leduc Ott (hooking), 9:46.

2nd Period-
4, McGill, Alexandre Comtois 5 (McKiernan), 10:10 (SH).
5, McGill, Benoit Levesque 3 (McKiernan, Comtois), 17:09.
6, Ottawa, Rock Regimbald 3 (Tanguay-Theriault, Blunden), 17:23.

Penalties-Blunden Ott (slashing), 7:28; Carrier Mcg (tripping), 8:37; White Ott (hooking), 14:06; Tanguay-Theriault Ott (inter. on goaltender), 18:44.

3rd Period-
7, McGill, Patrick Delisle-Houde 6 (McNicoll), 4:05.
8, McGill, Alexandre Comtois 6 (Le Sieur), 18:35 (SH).

Penalties-McNicoll Mcg (roughing), 10:26; Ouellette Ott (slashing), 10:26; Blunden Mcg (roughing), 10:46; Antonelli Mcg (tripping), 18:00.

Shots on Goal-
McGill 13-14-11 -- 38.
Ottawa 14-10-11 -- 35.

Power Play Opportunities-
McGill 0 / 5;
Ottawa 0 / 3 (plus two SHGs against).

Goalies-
McGill,
Karel St. Laurent (W, 1-1-0, 35 shots-33 saves).

Ottawa,
Warren Shymko (Start, L, 8-5-0, 26 shots-22 saves; 37:09);
Harrison May (ND; 12 shots-10 saves; 22:51).

Attendance: 116
Start: 7:05 PM
End: 9:27 PM
Length: 2:22

Referees-Pat Brown, Scott Garrod.
Linesmen-Shane Nakic, Scott Wilson.

THREE STARS:
1. MCG - 26 Alexandre Comtois
2. MCG - 28 Patrick Delisle-Houde
3. OTT - 26 Rock Regimbald