MONTREAL -- Mathieu Pompei of Laval, Que., tallied twice, including the game-winner at 16:36 of the final period as sixth-ranked McGill rallied from a two-goal deficit for a 3-2 triumph over Queen's in a "Renew The Rivalry" men's hockey contest that attracted 598 rowdy students to McConnell Arena, Saturday.

It was an early birthday present for the Redmen, who turn 139 years old on Sunday and the result marked McGill's 31st consecutive conquest over their long-time archrivals from Kingston, Ont. The Redmen are now 125-50-2 lifetime against the Gaels in a series that dates all the way back to 1895.

The Gaels had taken an early 2-0 lead on a couple of goals by Andrew Wiebe at 1:05 and Patrick McGillis at 3:47 of the opening period.

"We had some adversity to start the game down 2-0 in the first few minutes but stuck to the process of playing the right way," said Redmen bench boss Kelly Nobes, whose troops outshot Queen's by an incredible 56-28 margin, including 21-13 in the first period, 19-7 in the second and 16-8 in the third. Despite the lopsided play, McGill was in tough against Queen's all-Canadian netminder Kevin Bailie, who made 53 saves in a losing cause as the junior from Belleville, Ont., saw his record slip to 12-7 with a 1.99 goals-against average and a .946 save percentage.

"From that point on, we really just took control of the game and it was great to see that kind of response from our group, given that we've got a bunch of key guys out of the lineup. We set a list of eight objectives for the game and we met six of them. We really wanted to focus on the process tonight, not just the outcome but on the eight objectives. So I'm really pleased with how we went about winning the game."

The Redmen were thoroughly dominant in the middle stanza and struck twice. Rookie blueliner Dominic Talbot-Tassi potted his 11th, on a power-play at 11:42 and some six minutes later, as a McGill penalty was expiring, Pompei stole a puck at his blueline and raced on a breakaway the length of the ice to score an unassisted back-breaker at 17:55.

In the third period, just as overtime appeared to be looming, Pompei pounced on a rebound in the crease to net the game-winner at 16:36 of the final stanza.

"Pomps is playing great hockey and has got a lot of confidence," said Nobes of his veteran, a senior majoring in social work, who is now ranked second in the nation with 17 goals (six behind UQTR's Guillaume Asselin), three of them game-winners. "He's scoring a lot of big goals and is playing a 200-foot game that is really important for our team but also one of the reasons for his success. I'm very proud of him."

The 5-foot-7, 167-pound centre is also seventh in the CIS points race with 35 in 26 contests and now owns a career record of 59-62-121 in 143 games overall.

Initially, one of the assists on his game-deciding marker was credited to Samuel Labrecque and a PA announcement was made recognizing that Labrecque had established a new single-season points record for defencemen. But Labrecque said after the game that it was not his assist and a scoring change was made after video replay confirmed that freshmen Christophe Lalonde and Daniel Milne had set up the marker.

Labrecque, who had a helper on the first goal, is now tied for the team's single season records in both goals and assists by a blueliner. He continues to lead the CIS scoring race with a 15-27-42 record in 26 games, with two left before playoffs. He leads Carleton rookie Brett Welychka (13-26-39) by three points.

McGill was 1-for-4 on the power-play and is now second in the CIS with a 29.7 per cent success rate. They killed off six of seven shorthanded scenarios.

McGill rookie netminder Joe Fleschler made his second straight start in place of injured veteran Jacob Gervais-Chouinard. The 6-foot-5, 212-pound native of Summit, N.J., kicked out 26 of 28 shots for the victory, improving his record to 3-2.

McGill (20-5-1) now shares first-place in the OUA East with UQTR (20-3-1). The Redmen have clinched at least third-place but could still finish first or second. They have just two games remaining before playoffs, a home-and-home series with seventh-place Concordia (8-11-5), beginning on Feb. 5 at McConnell Arena. They will close out the season on Feb. 12 with the annual Ronald Corey Cup contest for local college hockey supremacy at the Ed Meagher Arena. Should McGill finish second and Concordia end up seventh, then the two cross-town rivals would meet in an OUA best-of-three quarter-final series, which is slated to open on Feb. 17.

It was a costly loss for the fifth-place Gaels (14-7-1), who have six games left on their schedule and could've caught the Redmen. Queen's can now finish anywhere from fourth to sixth. They have a tough three-games-in-four-nights stretch next weekend, begining with a home contest against RMC (3-17-3) on Feb. 4.

LINK TO COMPLETE BOXSCORE

SCORING SUMMARY
Queen's 2 at McGill 3
(Saturday, January 30, 2016 - McConnell Arena)

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

1st Period-
1, Queen's, Andrew Wiebe 5 (McGillis), 1:05.
2, Queen's, Patrick McGillis 11 (Greenaway, Wiebe), 3:47 (PP).

Penalties-Lalonde Mcg (tripping), 3:28; Verrier Mcg (cross checking), 6:56.

2nd Period-
3, McGill, Dominic Talbot-Tassi 11 (Labrecque, Heelis), 11:42 (PP).
4, McGill, Mathieu Pompei 16 (unassisted), 17:55.

Penalties-Milne Mcg (hooking), 9:26; Wiebe Qns (roughing), 10:10; Regimbald Mcg (slashing), 15:42.

3rd Period-
5, McGill, Mathieu Pompei 17 (Lalonde, Milne), 16:36.

Penalties-Abraham Qns (elbowing), 2:57; McGillis Qns (tripping), 4:31; Gamelin Mcg (tripping), 12:20; Heelis Mcg (closing hand on puck), 13:28; Ming Qns (tripping), 16:51; Lambert-Lemay Mcg (interference), 19:51.

Shots on Goal-
Queen's 13-7-8 -- 28.
McGill 21-19-16 -- 56.

Power Play Opportunities-
Queen's 1 / 7;
McGill 1 / 4.

Goalies-
Queen's, Kevin Bailie (L, 12-7-0, 56 shots-53 saves; 59:14).
McGill, Joe Fleschler (W, 3-2-0, 28 shots-26 saves; 60:00).

Attendance: 598
Start: 5:02 PM
End: 7:16 PM
Length: 2:14

Referees-Simon Tarte, Guillaume Labonté.
Linesmen-Benoit Sansoucy, Francis Trempe.

MOLSON CUP THREE STARS
1. MCG - 19 Mathieu Pompei
2. MCG - 6 Samuel Labrecque
3. QNS - 30 Kevin Bailie