MONTREAL -- It was indeed an unlucky Friday the 13th for the McGill men's hockey team. Eric Margo of North Vancouver, B.C., redirected the puck with his skate at 18:30 of the final period to give the visiting Gaels a 2-1 victory before a capacity Winter Carnival crowd of 1,189 at McConnell Arena.

McGill disputed the goal but after a lengthy discussion between the four on-ice officials -- video replay is not used in the OUA -- the goal was allowed and the fifth-ranked Gaels improved to 15-4-1, taking over top spot in the OUA East standings, one point ahead of the No.3 Redmen, who dropped to 14-4-2 with eight games remaining. It marked the first-ever Carnival Game loss for McGill, since the long-standing event was re-born 15 years ago after a two-decade absence.

The most telling statistic, however was that Queen's was 1-for-7 on the power-play, while McGill was 0-for-1.

"It's very disappointing. We had the top two teams in the league playing for first place and the power-play difference was 7-1," said McGill head coach Kelly Nobes, whose troops played shorthanded for 12 minutes and 23 seconds. "I've seen a lot of hockey games and don't see that very often. That's the tale of the tape."

For the Gaels, it marked the second straight win over their long-time rivals after snapping a 31-game losing streak with a 4-0 win in Kingston back on Nov. 26. The last time that Queen's swept McGill in a season was in 2003-04. That said, McGill still owns an impressive lifetime record of 125-52-2 overall since they began playing Queen's way back in 1895.

Forward Eric Ming of Williamstown, Ont., opened the scoring on the power play at 11:04 of the first period after his high wristshot from the blueline found its way through a forest of players into the back of the net.

McGill evened the score at 15:47 of the middle stanza when rookie forward Guillaume Gauthier of Ste. Marthe sur le Lac, Que., jumped on a turnover for an unassisted marker.

Despite the lopsided penalty tally, Queen's only held a 35-31 edge in shots.

All-conference netminder Kevin Bailie, a 6-foot-3 senior from Belleville, Ont., made 30 saves and improved to 8-5 after finally collecting his first career victory in seven tries against the Redmen. For McGill, freshman Louis-Philip Guindon of St. Joseph du Lac, Que., made 33 saves in a losing cause as his record fell to 8-4.

This was the 2100th game overall for McGill against Canadian university competition since they began against RMC in 1892. The Redmen are 1026-947-127 lifetime (.519) against all CIAU/CIS/U Sports opponents, scoring 8,649 goals and allowing 8,394.

McGill will host Royal Military College on Saturday (Jan. 14) at 7 p.m. The Paladins are 4-16-1 after surprising  Nipissing (6-13-1) with a 4-2 result in Kingston, Friday night. The Gaels take on the York Lions (13-5-2) in Toronto on Jan. 20.

FACES IN THE CROWD: Among the huge throng of Management students in the crowd was McGill football Hall of Fame lineman Val St. Germain, visiting from Ottawa with his two young sons who were in Montreal for a hockey tournament. A two-time all-Canadian guard with the Redmen from 1990 to 1994, St. Germain had an extensive 14-year career in the Canadian Football League with Hamilton (1994-98), Edmonton (1999-01), Ottawa (2002-05), Winnipeg (2006-07) and Saskatchewan (2007). A three-time CFL all-star he played in the 1998 Grey Cup game with Hamilton (a loss to Calgary) and earned a Grey Cup ring with Saskatchewan in 2007.


LINK TO COMPLETE BOXSCORE

SCORING SUMMARY
Queen's 2 at McGill 1
(Friday, January 13, 2017 - McConnell Arena)

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

1st Period-
1, Queen's, Eric Ming 11 (Abraham, Doggett), 11:04 (PP).

Penalties-Hendrix Qns (high sticking), 8:23; Tremblay Mcg (charging), 10:41; Delisle-Houde Mcg (hooking), 18:26.

2nd Period-
2, McGill, Guillaume Gauthier 3 (unassisted), 15:47.

Penalties-Talbot-Tassi Mcg (roughing), 7:11; Brown Qns (roughing), 10:26; Genovese Qns (roughing), 10:26; Delisle-Houde Mcg (roughing, elbowing), 10:26; Pompei Mcg (roughing), 10:26.

3rd Period-
3, Queen's, Eric Margo 2 (Bertolucci, Hendrix), 18:34.

Penalties-Curcuruto Mcg (tripping), 3:17; Delisle-Houde Mcg (holding), 5:19; Gamelin Mcg (high sticking), 9:21.

Shots on Goal-
Queen's 11-13-11 -- 35.
McGill 11-10-10 -- 31.

Power Play Opportunities-
Queen's 1 / 7;
McGill 0 / 1.

Goalies-
Queen's, Kevin Bailie (W, 8-5-0, 31 shots-30 saves; 60:00).
McGill, Louis-Philip Guindon (L, 8-4-0, 35 shots-33 saves; 58:56).

Attendance: 1,189
Start: 7:01 PM
End: 9:22 PM
Length: 2:21

Referees-Nicolas Comtois, Alexandre Cote.
Linesmen-Maxime Mongeon, Nicolas Boivin.

MOLSON CUP THREE STARS
1. QNS - 20 Eric Margo
2. QNS - 30 Kevin Bailie
3. MCG - 35 Louis-Philip Guindon


2016-17 OUA MEN'S HOCKEY STANDINGS (updated after games of Jan. 13)
 

Rank	OUA East	GP	W	L	OTL	PTS	PCT	GF	GA	STK	P10	PIM
1	Queen's	20	15	4	1	31	0.775	61	46	5-0-0	8-2-0	161
2	McGill	20	14	4	2	30	0.750	78	47	0-1-0	7-2-1	478
3	Concordia	20	14	5	1	29	0.725	82	51	5-0-1	7-2-1	322
4	Carleton	21	13	7	1	27	0.643	83	47	4-0-1	7-2-1	377
5	UQTR	20	12	6	2	26	0.650	77	55	0-1-1	6-2-2	284
6	UOIT	21	12	8	1	25	0.595	69	65	0-3-0	3-6-1	259
7	Ottawa	19	9	7	3	21	0.553	64	56	3-0-1	7-1-2	275
8	Laurentian	19	8	9	2	18	0.474	51	63	0-1-0	4-5-1	244
9	Nipissing	20	6	13	1	13	0.325	43	67	0-2-0	4-6-0	282
10	RMC	21	4	16	1	9	0.214	36	85	1-0-0	1-8-1	370
Rank	OUA West	GP	W	L	OTL	PTS	PCT	GF	GA	STK	P10	PIM
1	Ryerson	20	15	4	1	31	0.775	84	58	2-0-0	8-2-0	351
2	York	20	13	5	2	28	0.700	60	42	3-0-0	7-2-1	194
3	Laurier	21	10	7	4	24	0.571	70	70	3-0-2	5-2-3	303
4	Guelph	19	11	8	0	22	0.579	72	61	1-0-0	7-3-0	260
5	Windsor	21	10	9	2	22	0.524	61	68	0-3-0	4-4-2	434
6	Brock	20	10	9	1	21	0.525	60	74	0-1-0	3-6-1	391
7	Lakehead	18	8	9	1	17	0.472	57	72	0-3-0	5-5-0	275
8	Waterloo	19	7	9	3	17	0.447	41	59	2-0-0	4-5-1	311
9	Western	19	6	11	2	14	0.368	47	73	0-3-0	2-7-1	293
10	Toronto	20	2	16	2	6	0.150	49	86	0-1-0	2-8-0	336

 

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	WON	3	1		RMC	1,663
2017	Lost	1	2		Queen's	1,189
TOT	14-1-0	61	21			AVG.:  1,217