MONTREAL -- Forward
Josh Sterk scored on a breakaway at 3:41 of sudden-death overtime as the fourth-ranked Ryerson Rams eked out a 1-0 victory over No.6 McGill in an OUA men's hockey thriller at McConnell Arena, Friday.
Ryerson had a 41-36 edge in shots as the Rams posted their seventh straight win and improved their lifetime record against McGill to 8-43-1 in 52 meetings overall.
It also marked the second consecutive shutout loss for the Redmen since their four-game win streak was snapped with a 4-0 whitewash at Queen's last week. The last time McGill was blanked in back-to-back games was a pair of road losses in 2011 against the Carleton Ravens, who won 4-0 (Jan. 29/11) and 3-0 (Feb. 5/11). Those two losses at Carleton marked the first time in 107 years that McGill had endured back-to-back shutouts against a varsity team in regular season play. The previous occurrence was way back during the 1903-04 season, the first year of competition for the Queen's Cup in the old Canadian Intercollegiate Hockey Union, when McGill was skunked 5-0 by Toronto (Feb.5/04) and 3-0 by Queen's (Feb. 19/04).
With the team's tied at 0-0 after regulation, they entered the first overtime period with four skaters aside and McGill appeared to be in control but seconds after Redmen sophomore
Jerome Verrier missed a good scoring opportunity, Rams defenceman
Brandon Devlin collected the puck behind his net and sprung Sterk free on a long-bomb breakaway behind the McGill defence. Sterk deked Redmen rookie netminder
Louis-Philip Guindon, who appeared to make the save. However, after a delayed reaction, the referee ruled that the puck had crossed the goal-line and the Rams emptied the bench in jubilant celebration.
The result ruined a stellar performance for Guindon, who registered 40 saves, many of them spectacular, in a losing cause as his record dropped to 7-3. The 6-foot-1, 183-pound kinesiology freshman from St. Joseph du Lac, Que., is ranked fourth among OUA leaders in wins, third in goals-against average (2.09) and seventh in save percentage (.919).
At the other end of the ice, Rams starter
Charlie Graham made 36 saves to collect his second straight shutout as his record improved to 8-2 and his GAA was lowered to 2.35.
McGill was 0-for-6 on the power-play, while Ryerson was 0-for-5. One of the Ram PP opportunities was a two-man advantage early in the second period after McGill defenceman
Francis Lambert-Lemay and forward
Patrick Delisle-Houde were both assessed high-sticking infractions at 3:05 and 3:27, respectively. Shortly after winning the faceoff, McGill centre
Jerome Verrier broke his stick after blocking a shot from the point, which gave Ryerson a huge advantage. But the plucky penalty-killing trio of Verrier, centre
Alexandre Tremblay and rearguard
Nathan Chiarlitti hung tough and negated the Rams PP with a combination of faceoff wins (4), blocked shots (3) and a crease-clearing glove pass before the cavalry arrived to salvage the period at 0-0.
Both teams have less than 24 hours to recover in time for their last games of the semester, which will be streamed live on
OUA.TV.
The loss for McGill, combined with a Queen's 6-3 victory over Laurentian, dropped the Redmen into second place in the OUA East with an 11-3-2 record. They sit one point behind the Gaels and one point ahead of both UQTR and UOIT, with Concordia just two points back. McGill will close out the semester on Saturday at 7 p.m. with a home game against the Toronto Varsity Blues (1-13-2) in a long-standing rivalry that dates all the way back to 1899.
The Rams, who lead the OUA West with a 12-2-1 record, head to the nation's capital to meet Ottawa (7-7-2) on Saturday at 7 p.m.
REDMEN RAP: Saturday's game versus UofT will mark the 600th career game behind the bench for McGill head coach
Kelly Nobes, who owns a combined lifetime 329-256-14 record over 16 years as bench boss at RMC, Laurier and McGill... The last time that a McGill game was 0-0 heading into overtime was four years ago, when
Alex Picard-Hooper tallied the deciding marker in a PK shootout of a 1-0 win home-ice over Carleton on Jan. 20, 2012... The time before that was a 1-0 overtime victory over UQTR on Oct. 14, 2006.
LINK TO COMPLETE BOXSCORE
SCORING SUMMARY
Ryerson 1 at McGill 0 (OT)
(Friday, December 2, 2016 - McConnell Arena)
GOALS BY PERIOD:
Ryerson 0-0-0-1 -- 1
McGill 0-0-0-0 -- 0
1st Period-
(No Scoring).
Penalties-Gamelin Mcg (slashing), 5:22; Sterk Rye (interference), 11:39; Fine Rye (cross checking), 19:11; Mistele Rye (10-minute misconduct), 19:11.
2nd Period-
(No Scoring).
Penalties-Guindon Mcg (tripping), 1:05; Lambert-Lemay Mcg (high sticking), 3:05; Delisle-Houde Mcg (high sticking), 3:27; Doctor Rye (holding), 7:10; Leader Rye (interference), 10:56; Ricci Rye (roughing), 16:02; Bois Mcg (roughing, roughing), 16:02; Basso Rye (checking to the head, roughing, 10-minute misconduct), 19:37; Delisle-Houde Mcg (roughing), 19:37.
3rd Period-
(No Scoring).
Penalties-Hinds Rye (slashing), 2:59; Delisle-Houde Mcg (cross checking), 2:59; Lewis Rye (tripping), 3:14; Hinds Rye (cross checking), 7:28; Tremblay Mcg (goaltender interference), 7:28.
Overtime (5 min., 4-on-4)
1, Ryerson,
Josh Sterk 3 (Devlin), 3:41.
Penalties-(none)
Shots on Goal-
Ryerson 17-12-11-1 -- 41.
McGill 11-8-15-2 -- 36.
Power Play Opportunities-
Ryerson 0 / 5;
McGill 0 / 6.
Goalies-
Ryerson,
Charlie Graham (W, 8-2-0, 36 shots-36 saves; 63:41).
McGill,
Louis-Philip Guindon (L,7-3-0; 41 shots-40 saves; 63:41).
Attendance: 262
Start: 7:02 PM
End: 9:26 PM
Length: 2:24
Referees-
Kevin Maille,
Jonathan Girard.
Linesmen-Jean
-Francois Losier,
Jonathan Bolduc.
MOLSON CUP THREE STARS:
1.
RYE - 31 Charlie Graham
2.
MCG - 35
Louis-Philip Guindon
3.
RYE - 20 Josh Sterk
OUA MEN'S HOCKEY STANDINGS
(updated after Friday's games)
| 1 |
Queen's |
17 |
12 |
4 |
1 |
25 |
0.735 |
53 |
43 |
2-0-0 |
8-2-0 |
145 |
| 2 |
McGill |
16 |
11 |
3 |
2 |
24 |
0.750 |
62 |
44 |
0-1-1 |
7-1-2 |
380 |
| 3 |
UQTR |
16 |
11 |
4 |
1 |
23 |
0.719 |
68 |
44 |
6-0-1 |
7-2-1 |
229 |
| 4 |
UOIT |
17 |
11 |
5 |
1 |
23 |
0.676 |
58 |
46 |
1-0-1 |
5-4-1 |
221 |
| 5 |
Concordia |
16 |
11 |
5 |
0 |
22 |
0.688 |
62 |
42 |
2-0-0 |
6-4-0 |
250 |
| 6 |
Carleton |
17 |
10 |
7 |
0 |
20 |
0.588 |
65 |
41 |
1-0-0 |
6-4-0 |
299 |
| 7 |
Ottawa |
16 |
7 |
7 |
2 |
16 |
0.500 |
46 |
48 |
1-0-0 |
6-2-2 |
222 |
| 8 |
Laurentian |
17 |
7 |
8 |
2 |
16 |
0.471 |
46 |
57 |
0-2-1 |
4-5-1 |
230 |
| 9 |
Nipissing |
16 |
5 |
10 |
1 |
11 |
0.344 |
34 |
54 |
0-1-0 |
3-7-0 |
228 |
| 10 |
RMC |
16 |
3 |
12 |
1 |
7 |
0.219 |
26 |
56 |
0-6-1 |
2-7-1 |
265 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| 1 |
Ryerson |
15 |
12 |
2 |
1 |
25 |
0.833 |
64 |
38 |
7-0-0 |
8-2-0 |
295 |
| 2 |
York |
17 |
10 |
5 |
2 |
22 |
0.647 |
47 |
37 |
0-1-0 |
6-2-2 |
168 |
| 3 |
Windsor |
17 |
9 |
6 |
2 |
20 |
0.588 |
55 |
50 |
3-0-2 |
5-3-2 |
310 |
| 4 |
Laurier |
18 |
8 |
7 |
3 |
19 |
0.528 |
57 |
60 |
1-0-1 |
5-3-2 |
234 |
| 5 |
Guelph |
16 |
9 |
7 |
0 |
18 |
0.563 |
57 |
51 |
4-0-0 |
6-4-0 |
216 |
| 6 |
Lakehead |
15 |
8 |
6 |
1 |
17 |
0.567 |
49 |
55 |
2-0-0 |
5-4-1 |
237 |
| 7 |
Brock |
16 |
7 |
8 |
1 |
15 |
0.469 |
48 |
64 |
0-5-1 |
4-5-1 |
331 |
| 8 |
Western |
17 |
6 |
9 |
2 |
14 |
0.412 |
41 |
62 |
0-1-0 |
2-6-2 |
264 |
| 9 |
Waterloo |
15 |
5 |
7 |
3 |
13 |
0.433 |
32 |
47 |
2-0-1 |
4-5-1 |
261 |
| 10 |
Toronto |
16 |
1 |
13 |
2 |
4 |
0.125 |
39 |
70 |
0-4-0 |
1-9-0 |
220 |
