Twitter shines spotlight on Diamond at McGill's 14th annual Winter Carnival game, Jan. 15

Sara Diamond (right)

MONTREAL -- Sara Diamond, the national anthem singer for the Montreal Canadiens, will be offering her rendition of O Canada at the 14th annual McGill Management Winter Carnival men's hockey game between the visiting Royal Military College Paladins and the McGill Redmen on Friday, Jan. 15 at 7 p.m.

Usually a near sell-out, the previous 13 Carnival games have all been McGill victories. Last year's version of the annual winter classic drew a crowd of 1,269 to the 950-seat McConnell Arena.

Advance general admission tickets can be purchased at the Redbird Sports Shop located in the McGill Sports Centre, 475 Pine Ave. West, (514-398-1539). Remaining tickets go on sale one hour prior to game time at the Arena, located at 3883 University Street, just north of Percival Molson Stadium. Admission is $10 for adults, $5 for students and seniors. Children 12 and under are admitted free.

Diamond, a 20-year-old from Montreal, is a McGill freshman in the Desautels faculty of management. She was invited to perform the anthem via the McGill Athletics Twitter feed.

@McGillAthletics @DesautelsMcGill I'm in!! It'll be my way of still feeling like I'm in Desautels ???? dm the info
— Sara Diamond (@saradiamond) January 9, 2016

The main act will feature RMC visiting from Kingston, Ont., to do battle with McGill, ranked No.2 in the nation. The game will be webcast live on The McGill Sports Network.

On paper, it seems like a major mismatch.

McGill is on a three-game win streak and sits atop the OUA East division with a stellar 17-2-1 record. The Redmen lead all 34 CIS teams in victories, power-play goals (35) and shots per game (40.6). They rank second in PP percentage (31.5), fourth in goals per game (4.50), fourth in both, goals-against average (2.27) and save percentage (.924), and are 19th in penalty-killing success rate (80.6).

McGill also leads the country with most goals from defencemen, tallying a whopping 27 of their 90 markers from the blueline.

RMC sits last in the OUA East with a 3-15-3 record but the Paladins are arguably the fittest team in the country and will enter the contest stoked with adrenalin after pulling off a pair of upset road wins at Laurentian in Sudbury last weekend by scores of 3-1 and 2-1 (in a shootout).

To add food for thought, the army team known for their work ethic almost pulled off a stunning upset in their last confrontation with McGill in Kingston on Dec. 4. The Redmen jumped into an early 3-0 first period lead, then sat back and watched in horror as RMC tied the score with three consecutive goals in the final period.

As overtime loomed, the McGill cavalry finally showed up in the form of rookie David Storto, who scored his first career goal at 17:55 and the Redmen escaped from the penitentiary town with a 4-3 victory.

The McGill roster is laced with the experience of 20 major junior players and features four of the top seven snipers in the CIS national scoring race, led by defencemen Samuel Labrecque and Dominic Talbot-Tassi, who are ranked one-two, with 13-22-35 and 10-22-32 records, respectively, in 20 games to date. With eight games remaining on the OUA schedule, the McGill single-season records for most goals (15), assists (36) and points (42) by a defenceman could all fall and one of them could become the first blueliner in CIS history to capture the scoring crown.

Leading the way up front for McGill are a pair of senior forwards, namely David Rose and Mathieu Pompei. Rose is fourth in CIS scoring with 9-22-31, while Pompei is tied for seventh (13-15-28).

Junior netminder Jacob Gervais-Chouinard owns a 16-2 record and is tied for the CIS lead in victories. He is ranked second in minutes played (1,099), fourth in goals-against average (2.18), fifth in save-percentage (.926) and tied for second in shutouts (2).

Leading the Paladins in scoring are sophomore Bruce Hornbrooke (21GP: 8-9-17) and senior Eric Louis-Seize (20GP: 8-8-16). Freshman Alex Cameron tops their rearguards (21GP: 1-6-7), while senior Matt Murphy is their leading goaltender with a 3-8 record, to go along with a 4.16 GAA and an .896 save percentage.

McGILL REDMEN HOCKEY WINTER CARNIVAL GAMES

YEAR	RESULT	McG	OPP		OPPONENT	ATTENDANCE
2003	WON	6	0		Toronto	1,113
2004	WON	4	3		UQTR	1,103
2005	WON	3	0		Concordia	1,324
2006	WON	3	1		Concordia	1,415
2007	WON	7	2		Concordia	1,523
2008	WON	4	1		Concordia	890
2009	WON	4	1		UOIT	688
2010	WON	12	3		Concordia	1,080
2011	WON	5	4		Carleton	1,355
2012	WON	1	0	(ots)	Carleton	1,039
2013	WON	4	2		UQTR	1,139
2014	WON	2	1		Queen's	1,471
2015	WON	2	0		Carleton	1,269
2016					RMC
TOT	13-0-0	57	18		AVG.: 1,185	15,409