OTTAWA -- Six different Ottawa players scored as Ottawa upset No.5-ranked McGill 6-3 in OUA men's hockey, Saturday, at the Minto Sports Complex in the nation's capital.
The loss snapped McGill's win streak at four and also ended a six-game Redmen win streak over Ottawa dating back to a 4-3 overtime setback on Jan. 6, 2013. The Gee-Gees improved their lifetime record with McGill to 80-101-10 in 191 head-to-head meetings dating back to 1968.
The Gee-Gees led 3-0 after the opening period and 4-0 after two in a wild contest that featured a combined 83 shots (43 by Ottawa), a dozen penalties, two power-play markers, a shorthanded goal and two empty-netters. Four goals were scored over the last four minutes, all of them with the McGill goaltender pulled for an extra attacker.
Mathieu Newcomb got things started on the power play at 8:21 and
Kevin Domingue doubled Ottawa's advantage at 11:10 followed shortly thereafter by
Connor Sills, who made it 3-0 at 13:05 of the opening period.
Cody Drover gave the Gee-Gees a shocking 4-0 lead early in the middle stanza with a power-play marker that proved to be the game-winner at 3:10. That was enough to chase McGill goalie
Louis-Philip Guindon who was beaten four times on 17 shots and took the loss. He was relieved by sophomore
Joe Fleschler of Westfield, N.J., who stopped all 20 shots faced through 35 minutes, 27 seconds.
Defenceman
Nathan Chiarlitti of Maple, Ont., put the Redmen on the board with a shorthanded tally at 2:55 of the third to make the score 4-1. It was the first of the season for the McGill captain and his eighth career marker since he transferred to McGill from St.FX last season.
As the game clock wound down for the final five minutes, a flurry of activity ensued. McGill bench boss
Kelly Nobes elected to pull Fleschler from the net for an extra attacker at 15:08. But that move backfired when
Brendan Jacome then made it 5-1 with an empty-net goal at 15:48. Flescher went back in and McGill rallied as freshman
Antoine Dufort-Plante scored at 17:18 to narrow the gap to 5-2. Fleschler was pulled once more from the crease and again the move backfired as
Marc Beckstead replied with another empty-netter at 18:25. But McGill countered again when
Alex Renaud made it 6-3 with 48 seconds to go but it was too little, too late for the Redmen.
Graham Hunt made 37 saves and collected the victory for the Gee-Gees.
The Redmen were 0-for-5 on the power-play, while Ottawa connected on two of five chances.
The loss dropped McGill (6-2) into a tie atop the OUA East with UQTR (6-1). The Redmen return home next weekend to host RMC (0-6-1) and UOIT (2-3-1), Nov. 7-8 respectively. Faceoff for both games is 7 p.m. at McConnell Arena.
Ottawa (4-1-1), which sits in a four-way tie for third place, takes on Laurentian (1-5-0) on Nov. 7.
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