Box Score
KINGSTON, Ont -- The No.6-ranked McGill men's hockey team took advantage of a momentary lapse of reason to score three goals in 72 seconds en route to a crucial 4-3 road victory over No.7 Queen's in an OUA East Division tussle for first-place at the Kingston Memorial Centre, Saturday.

It was McGill's 24th consecutive victory over the Gaels since losing 5-2 at McConnell Arena on Feb. 6, 2004. The Redmen improved to 64-5 in the last 69 confrontations with Queen's and 118-50-2 in 170 lifetime meetings, dating all the way back to 1895.

More importantly, the result put McGill (14-5-1) into a first-place tie with Queen's (12-2-5) atop the 10-team OUA East standings with eight games remaining before playoffs. It marked the second straight win for the Redmen, who hold the tie-breaker with more victories. Queen's, which prior to the weekend hadn't lost any game in regulation time this season, has now dropped two in a row .

McGill's weekend sweep over Ottawa and Queen's salvaged a tough stretch of five consecutive road games, with the Redmen winning three of them.

"We really stuck together and had all 20 guys playing as a team," said Redmen team captain Benoit Levesque. "That's something that we struggled with last week (while losing two of the first three road games). But we had everyone contributing this weekend and all working towards the same goal and it really worked out for us. We realized that we have to play our "A" game every night because every team is going to play their best against us. We know that we've got to play a full 60 minutes every single game. I think that the guys see that now and they are buying into the system (that the coaching staff has implemented)."

After a scoreless struggle in the opening period, McGill came out of the intermission like a thoroughbread racehorse in a wild second period that featured six goals, including four by the Redmen,

Cedric McNicoll, an accounting sophomore in his first season with the Redmen, broke the deadlock, scoring his seventh of the season on the power-play at 1:07. Rookie Carl Gelinas of Sherbrooke, Que., made it 2-0 just 50 seconds later. Only 22 seconds after that, sophomore Max Le Sieur struck paydirt to make it 3-0 before a stunned Gaels squad.

Queen's head coach Brett Gibson then called a timeout to settle his rattled troops. The ploy payed off two minutes later when Tyler Moore connected at 4:34. About six minutes after that, Queen's narrowed the gap to 4-2 when Jordan Coccimiglio scored and it appeared that the Gaels may have ignited a rally.

But 61 seconds later. McGill rookie blueline Samuel Carrier threw water on the fire, converting a power-play to put the Redmen ahead 4-2 with what proved to be his third game-winner, at 11:44 of the middle stanza. It marked the 20th goal of the season from the combined McGill defensive corps, tops in the 20-team OUA.

As quickly as the six-goal onslaught began, it was suddenly over and the teams returned to their defensive posturing.

Braeden Corbeth closed the gap to 4-3 midway through the final stanza and pulled their goalie in the last minute, which left for a hairy but uneventful finish.

McGill outshot the Gaels 46-35 as rookie goaltender Jacob Gervais-Chouinard registered 32 saves for the win, improving his record to 8-3-0. Kevin Bailie made 42 saves in a losing cause for Queen's and dropped to 8-6-0.

The Redmen went 2-for-5 on the power-play and showed tremendous discipline, receiving only two minors in the game, one of them a coincidental penalty with a player from the Gaels. Queen's was kept off the scoresheet on their lone power-play chance.

"We came out hard right from the start," said Kelly Nobes, who now owns a 107-44-4 record overall in his fourth season as head coach of the Redmen and is 247-212-15 lifetime as a CIS coach, including stints at RMC and Laurier. "We were hittiing. moving our feet and everybody was going. Our power-play was real good, we had control of the puck and were getting good looks. If your power-play scores two goals every night, you're going to be happy."

The bitter rivals will get another crack at each other when McGill plays host to Queen's on Friday, Jan. 17 in the annual Management Carnival Game. A capacity crowd is expected and advance tickets are available at the Redbird Sports Shop located inside the Currie Gym at 475 Pine Avenue West. Last year's Carnival Game drew 1,139 to McConnell Arena, which seats 950 but can accomodate more with standing room.

REDMEN RAP: Defenceman Ryan McKiernan collected one assist to extend his point-scoring streak to five games. He continues to lead the Redmen in goals, assists and points with a 9-14-23 record, which ranks second among all OUA blueliners in points, three behind Ryerson's Peter Hermengildo (5-21-26)... Samuel Carrier has quietly crept up to fourth on that list of defencemen with a 6-10-16 mark in 20 games.


SCORING SUMMARY
McGill 4 at Queen's 3
(Saturday, January 11, 2014 - Kingston Memorial Centre)

GOALS BY PERIOD:
McGill 0-4-0 -- 4
Queen's 0-2-1 -- 3

1st Period-
(No Scoring).

Penalties-Wentworth Qns (checking to the head, 10-minute misconduct), 18:11; Van Laren Qns (checking from behind, 10-minute misconduct), 19:10.

2nd Period-
1, McGill, Cedric McNicoll 7 (Rose, Carrier), 1:07 (PP).
2, McGill, Carl Gelinas 4 (Pompei, Boutet), 1:57.
3, McGill, Max Le Sieur 7 (Comtois, Bernier), 2:19.
4, Queen's, Tyler Moore 4 (Chabot), 4:34.
5, Queen's, Jordan Coccimiglio 4 (Soquila), 10:43.
6, McGill, Samuel Carrier 6 (McKiernan, Delisle-Houde), 11:44 (PP).

Penalties-Jackson Qns (hooking), 11:05; Le Sieur Mcg (cross checking), 12:24; Comtois Mcg (slashing), 13:37; McGillis Qns (slashing), 13:37.

3rd Period-
7, Queen's, Braeden Corbeth 3 (Van Laren, Grant), 11:32.

Penalties-Derochie Qns (slashing), 0:29; Clements Qns (interference), 7:38.

Shots on Goal-
McGill 16-17-13 -- 46.
Queen's 14-13-8 -- 35.

Power Play Opportunities-
McGill 2 / 5;
Queen's 0 / 1.

Goalies-
McGill, Jacob Gervais-Chouinard (W, 8-3-0, 35 shots-32 saves, 60:00).
Queen's, Kevin Bailie (L, 8-6-0, 46 shots-42 saves, 59:00).

Attendance: 150
Start: 7:38 PM
End: 9:42 PM
Length: 2:04

Referees-Scott Ferguson, Scott Gray.
Linesmen-Jonathan Andress, Robert Laurin.

THREE STARS
1. MCG - 28 Patrick Delisle-Houde
2. QNS - 8 Braeden Corbeth
3. MCG - 9 Max Le Sieur


SOURCE;
Earl Zukerman
McGill Sports Info Office
514-398-7012