GUELPH, Ont – Rookie Guillaume Gauthier scored the game-winner as No.3-ranked McGill exploded for three goals in the middle frame en route to a 4-2 road victory over Guelph in OUA men's hockey action Friday night at the Gryphon Centre.

It was McGill's fourth straight victory and their fifth consecutive win over Guelph, improving their lifetime record to 30-13-5 against the Gryphons. McGill was without their leading scorer (Mathieu Pompei) and two of their top defencemen (Nathan Chiarlitti and Etienne Boutet), each of whom are representing Canada at the FISU Winter Games in in Almaty, Kazakhstan.

"We played just well enough to lose tonight, unfortunately," said Gryphs head coach Shawn Camp. "They pushed us around in our own rink in the second period and won way more battles. They played like a team that's one of the top teams in our league."
 
After a scoreless opening period, Jerome Verrier of Drummondville, Que., finally broke the ice at the 2:30 mark of the second period. The second-year forward, who had a tryout with the Detroit Red Wings last season, skated down the right wing and snapping a laser over the left shoulder of Gryphons netminder Keith Hamilton of Kelowna, B.C.
 
Michael Stevens of Turkey Point, Ont., immediately responded for Guelph, beating Redmen goalie Jacob Gervais-Chouinard only 31 seconds later to tie the score at 1-1.
 
But McGill slowly took control after that, spending more and more time in the Gryphons zone and creating plenty of havoc around the net. Rookie blueliner Nathanael Halbert of Richmond Hill, Ont., made it 2-1 for the visitors off a scramble at 11:03, and then Gauthier, a native of  Ste. Marthe sur le Lac, Que., tallied his winning marker, on the power-play, at 12:46.
 
"You just can't take a shift off, because they're so quick in transition and they have a killer instinct that's put them at the top of the league," Camp said of the Redmen, who are in first place in the OUA East Division with an 18-4-2 record. "You can't play with fire, getting into chance for chance with them."
 
Especially when the Gryphs couldn't make the most of their chances. They started the third period with a five-minute man advantage after a scrum that nearly turned into a line brawl at the end of the second, but couldn't score.
 
They did score later in the frame, with Seth Swenson of Parker, Colorado, trimming the deficit to 3-2 on another power play, but veteran Rock Regimbald of Gatineau, Que., restored McGill's two-goal advantage only 24 seconds later.
 
"We gave it right back after we scored," said a disappointed Camp. "We gave the momentum right back."
 
The Gryphs couldn't generate any luck as they tried again to come back. At one point, while shorthanded, they had a three-on-one in the Redmen zone, but couldn't beat Gervais-Chouinard. They also couldn't capitalize on a six-on-four situation for two full minutes late in the game.
 
Gervais-Chouinard made 31 saves to earn the win, improving his record to 9-2. The economics senior from Sherbrooke, Que., lowered his goals-against average to 2.37 and his save percentage improved to .911. Hamilton stopped 28 shots in a losing cause and dropped to 5-4.

McGill was 1-for-5 on the power-play and erased six of seven shorthanded situations.
 
"We executed well at times, but not for enough of the game to beat a team of that quality," Camp said. "Clearly we have to find it in us to be good for 60 minutes against the best teams that we'll now face right through the end of the season."
 
The Gryphs fell to 13-9-1 and remain in third place in an increasingly tight OUA West Division. They've now dropped two straight games after winning eight of nine. They don't have much time to reflect about their fortunes, though. They're right back at it on Saturday night with another home game against the Ottawa Gee-Gees.

With four games remaining before playoffs, the OUA East division-leading Redmen will play at Western (7-14-2) in London on Saturday at 7 p.m. A McGill victory would clinch at least third place (ahead of Carleton, Ottawa and UQTR) and home-ice advantage in the first two rounds of the playoffs.

REDMEN RAP: With Pompei, Chiarlitti and Boutet overseas, three other players served as alternate captains for the Redmen, namely defenceman Francis Lambert-Lemay, along with forwards Jan Kaminsky and Redgie Bois... Chiarlitti, a two-time AUS all-star with StFX before transfering to McGill this season, was named earlier in the week as an alternate captain with the Canadian team in Kazakhstan... Nine of the top 11 scoring leaders in the OUA are at the FISU Winter Games... Dominic Talbot-Tassi leads all OUA rearguards in scoring with a 4-24-28 record in 24 games...

LINK TO COMPLETE BOXSCORE

SCORING SUMMARY
McGill 4 at Guelph 2
(Friday, January 27, 2017 - Gryphon Centre Arena)

GOALS BY PERIOD:
McGill 0-3-1 -- 4
Guelph 0-1-1 -- 2

1st Period-
(No Scoring).

Penalties-Sills Mcg (unsportsmanlike cnd.), 6:54; Verrier Mcg (roughing, roughing), 13:37; Soligo Gph (roughing), 13:37; Thompson Gph (boarding), 14:15; Regimbald Mcg (roughing), 19:21; Nichol Gph (cross checking), 19:21; Stevens Gph (roughing), 19:21.

2nd Period-
1, McGill, Jerome Verrier 4 (Lalonde, Lambert-Lemay), 2:30.
2, Guelph, Michael Stevens 7 (Marc Stevens, Gialedakis), 3:01.
3, McGill, Nathanael Halbert 1 (Sills, Tremblay), 11:03.
4, McGill, Guillaume Gauthier 5 (Sills, Talbot-Tassi), 12:46 (PP).

Penalties-Gamelin Mcg (holding), 4:34; Stevens Gph (slashing), 7:11; O'Connor Gph (holding), 12:26; Gauthier Mcg (roughing), 20:00; Sills Mcg (major-slashing, game misconduct; 2 PP), 20:00; Stevens Gph (slashing), 20:00.

3rd Period-
5, Guelph, Seth Swenson 8 (Thompson, Lepine), 9:03 (PP).
6, McGill, Rock Regimbald 3 (Talbot-Tassi, Boutet), 9:27.

Penalties-Nichol Gph (holding), 0:37; Verrier Mcg (tripping), 7:37; Kohler Gph (roughing), 11:24; Gervais-Chouinard Mcg (delay of game), 16:59.

Shots on Goal-
McGill 9-15-8 -- 32.
Guelph 15-6-12 -- 33.

Power Play Opportunities-
McGill 1 / 5;
Guelph 1 / 7.

Goalies-
McGill, Jacob Gervais-Chouinard (W, 9-2-0, 33 shots-31 saves; 60:00).
Guelph, Keith Hamilton (L, 5-4-0, 32 shots-28 saves; 57:18).

Attendance: 105
Start: 7:33 PM
End: 9:45 PM
Length: 2:12

Referees-Daniel Ransom, Steve Picco.
Linesmen-Justin Tang, Marc Benedetti.

THREE STARS:
1. MCG - 6 Nathanael Halbert
2. MCG - 27 Dominic Talbot-Tassi
3. GPH - 18 Michael Stevens


2016-17 OUA MEN'S HOCKEY STANDINGS (updated after games on Jan. 27)
 

POS.	OUA East	GP	W	L	OTL	PTS	PCT	GF	GA	STK	PIM
1	McGill	24	18	4	2	38	0.792	91	53	4-0-0	557
2	Queen's	23	16	5	2	34	0.739	70	55	0-1-0	187
3	Concordia	23	15	6	2	32	0.696	90	64	0-2-1	382
4	Carleton	24	15	8	1	31	0.646	91	53	0-1-0	391
5	Ottawa	24	14	7	3	31	0.646	87	64	8-0-1	334
6	UQTR	23	14	7	2	30	0.652	88	61	1-0-0	328
7	UOIT	25	14	10	1	29	0.580	80	75	0-2-0	325
8	Laurentian	23	8	11	4	20	0.435	58	80	0-3-2	296
9	Nipissing	23	6	16	1	13	0.283	48	79	0-5-0	318
10	RMC	23	4	17	2	10	0.217	39	90	0-1-1	386
POS.	OUA West	GP	W	L	OTL	PTS	PCT	GF	GA	STK	PIM
1	Ryerson	23	18	4	1	37	0.804	105	62	5-0-0	379
2	York	24	16	6	2	34	0.708	69	49	3-0-0	244
3	Guelph	23	13	9	1	27	0.587	84	72	0-1-1	325
4	Laurier	24	11	9	4	26	0.542	75	76	1-0-0	337
5	Windsor	26	12	12	2	26	0.500	70	87	1-0-0	506
6	Brock	24	11	12	1	23	0.479	70	91	0-3-0	439
7	Lakehead	22	10	10	2	22	0.500	68	82	2-0-1	346
8	Waterloo	23	9	11	3	21	0.457	51	76	2-0-0	349
9	Western	23	7	14	2	16	0.348	57	89	0-1-0	335
10	Toronto	24	5	17	2	12	0.250	63	96	3-0-0	396