OTTAWA -- The ninth-ranked Carleton Ravens tallied three first-period power-play goals as they battered and bruised their way to a surprising 6-3 triumph over No.2 McGill in a key OUA men's hockey confrontation at the Carleton Ice House, Saturday.

It snapped Carleton's six-game losing streak to McGill in a fierce rivalry that has the Redmen holding a 28-21-1 lifetime record over the Ravens.

"We started the game with a few good shifts and had the momentum then we took four straight penalties and when you do that against a good team, you're playing with fire," said David Urquhart, who was acting as head coach for the second straight game as bench boss Kelly Nobes was serving the second of a league-imposed two-game suspension for incurring a game misconduct in a 5-1 win at Nipissing the previous week.

The Ravens, who hadn't played the previous night like McGill did, immediately took advantage, jumping into an early 3-0 lead with power-play goals from Brett Welchka at 5:50, Ryan Van Stralen at 12:55 and Michael McNamee at 14:14.

Freshman Frederic Gamelin finally stopped the bleeding for McGill when his fourth of the season at15:25 of the first period, made it 3-1. The Redmen narrowed the gap to one midway through the middle stanza when rookie sniper Christophe Lalonde, who was added to the Redmen arsenal over the holiday break, potted his second of the campaign at 9:45. Seven minutes later, however, the Ravens upped their lead to 4-2 when team captain Joey West was credited with a goal after his shot ricocheted off a body, went straight up and over McGill goalie Jacob Gervais-Chouinard and trickled down into the net.

Patrick Delisle-Houde scored his seventh of the season  at 7:12 of the third to reduce the deficit to 4-3 but the Ravens replied just 23 seconds later when Sean Bamford re-established a two-goal cushion. Corey Durocher added an empty-netter at 19:43.

"We did a good job of getting the momentum back but we had already dug ourselves a hole that was too deep to come back from at that point," added Urquhart, who is now 4-2 when filling in for Nobes over the last two years. "But the guys showed character in battling back and bringing the score back to within one goal in the third period. It was an emotional game for the guys and we'll learn from the mistakes that we made. Carleton's a team that we'll likely see in the playoffs so we'll be ready for them."

The shots were 40-32 in Carleton's favour as goaltender Francis Dupuis registered 29 saves for the victory and improved his record to 10-2. Taking the loss for McGill was the aforementioned Gervais-Chouinard, who kicked out 34 of 39 and saw his record tumble to 16-3.

After McGill drew the first four penalties, one of which was a rare call for playing with a broken stick (Liam Heelis), Urquhart had a somewhat lengthy discussion with one of the referees about Carleton's tactics. The next four infractions were all against Carleton. The Ravens ended up 3-for-7 on the power-play, while McGill was 1-for-6.

The bitter rivals split their only two meetings this season, with McGill winning 5-4 in the first confrontation back on Oct. 10. A strange scheduling quirk -- due to the Ottawa Gee-Gees suspending their program for two years -- had Carleton hosting McGill in both of their meetings this season as the Redmen hosted Carleton twice last year.

The third-place Ravens improved to 14-5-0 and sit just nine points behind the Redmen, with three games in hand. They play next in a critical game at Queen's (11-5-1) on Jan. 19.

McGill, which has six games remaining before post-season play, is now 18-3-1 and tied with UQTR (18-3-1) for first in the nine-team OUA East conference. The Redmen will host two strong squads from the OUA West Division next weekend, when Guelph (12-8) and Western (13-8) pay a rare visit to McConnell Arena, Jan. 22-23, respectively.

REDMEN RAP: McGill went the entire first semester with four alternate captains... Patrick Delisle-Houde was finally appointed as team captain during the holiday break... The alternates are Liam Heelis, Etienne Boutet and Vincent Barnard... The six goals against McGill was their most allowed in regular season play since a 7-6 home-ice victory in overtime against Nipissing on Valentine's Day in 2014... The last time it happened in a loss, was a 6-4 setback at Carleton on Oct. 25, 2013...  David Rose, who is fifth in the OUA scoring race, left the game with an undisclosed injury in the second period and did not return... McGill has five of the top nine in the OUA scoring race... Leading the way is defenceman Samuel Labrecque, who continues to top the CIS national scoring race with a 14-23-37 dossier in 21 contests. He is one goal and five points to tie the school's single-season records for blueliners in those departments.


LINK TO COMPLETE BOXSCORE

SCORING SUMMARY
McGill 3 at Carleton 6 (ENG)
(Saturday, January 16, 2016 - Ice House)

GOALS BY PERIOD:
McGill 1-1-1 -- 3
Carleton 3-1-2 -- 6

1st Period-
1, Carleton, Brett Welychka 12 (Norris, Durocher ), 5:50 (PP).
2, Carleton, Ryan Van Stralen 12 (McNamee, Welychka), 12:55 (PP).
3, Carleton, Michael McNamee 13 (Fraser, Van Stralen), 14:14 (PP).
4, McGill, Frederic Gamelin 4 (Delisle-Houde, Heelis), 15:25.

Penalties-Lalonde Mcg (roughing), 4:41; Regimbald Mcg (interference), 7:55; Heelis Mcg (playing w/broken stick), 12:11; Pompei Mcg (interference), 13:18; Werthner Carl (boarding), 19:50.

2nd Period-
5, McGill, Christophe Lalonde 2 (Pompei), 9:45.
6, Carleton, Joey West 4 (Werthner, Zion), 16:42.

Penalties-Bamford Carl (interference), 3:57; Bamford Carl (slashing), 7:32; Fraser Carl (high sticking), 10:49; Bois Mcg (slashing), 14:37; Welychka Carl (slashing), 14:37; Milne Mcg (cross checking), 15:39; Fraser Carl (slashing), 16:17.

3rd Period-
7, McGill, Patrick Delisle-Houde 7 (Heelis, Labrecque), 7:12 (PP).
8, Carleton, Sean Bamford 3 (Zion, West ), 7:35.
9, Carleton, Corey Durocher 9 (Boland, Dupuis), 19:43 (EN).

Penalties-Gustavsen Carl (delay of game), 6:57; Milne Mcg (interference), 10:05; Gamelin Mcg (roughing), 19:43.

Shots on Goal-
McGill 9-14-9 -- 32.
Carleton 17-14-9 -- 40.

Power Play Opportunities-
McGill 1 / 6;
Carleton 3 / 7.

Goalies-
McGill,
Jacob Gervais-Chouinard (L, 6-3-0, 39 shots-34 saves; 58:53).
Empty-net: (1 shot, 1 goal; 1:07)
:
Carleton,
Francis Dupuis (W, 10-2-0, 32 shots-29 saves; 60:00).

Attendance: 350
Start: 7:02 PM
End: 9:24 PM
Length: 2:22

Referees-Pat Smith, Chad White.
Linesmen-Scott Garrod, Scott Wilson.

THREE STARS
1. CARL - 10 Corey Durocher
2. CARL - 20 Brett Welychka
3. McG - 28 Patrick Delisle-Houde

SOURCE:
 
Earl Zukerman
Communications Officer
Athletics & Recreation
McGill University
514-398-7012 (Tel.)
m.athletics.mcgill.ca (mobile website)
www.mcgill athletics.ca
earl.zukerman@mcgill.ca
@EarlZukerman (twitter)
 
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www.mcgillathletics.ca/calendar.aspx