SUDBURY, Ont. -- Simon Tardif-Richard of Gatineau, Que., scored at 14 seconds of sudden-death overtime as No.3 McGill defeated Laurentian 5-4 to close the OUA men's hockey schedule, Saturday, at Countryside Arena.

It was the second fastest overtime winner in McGill history, lasting four seconds longer than a goal scored by Benoit Leroux in a 4-3 victory at York on Nov. 16, 1996, a play that was assisted by Pierre Gendron and future McGill head coach Kelly Nobes.

"I was happy that my shot got through," said Tardif-Richard, a 5-foot-11, 203-pound forward, who also recorded an assist on McGill's fourth goal. "To be honest, I was (upset) after getting punched in the face on the last shift of the third period, so when Kelly (Nobes) told me that I was starting the first shift in overtime, I just wanted to end it right away against those guys."

On the winning play, with both teams playing 4-on-4, Tardif won the centre-ice faceoff back into the McGill zone. Defenceman Nathanael Halbert passed the puck to forward Samuel Tremblay who fed Tardif-Richard near the right faceoff circle and the third-year finance major skated up ice, then fired a quick wrist shot after crossing the Laurentian blueline, which caught goaltender Charlie Millen off-guard.

"Tards had a good game tonight," said Nobes of his third-year centre who previously skated for Drummondville and Gatineau in the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League. "He was moving his feet well and when that happens, he makes good plays in the offensive zone."

Jerome Verrier of Drummondville, Que., put the Redmen on the board first with a power-play goal at 8:48 of the opening stanza. Laurentian's Nicolas Dionne tied it up at 19:05, but Christophe Lalonde of Mirabel, Que., netted a near buzzer-beater with two seconds left in the period to regain the lead.

Tremblay then collected his second of the evening, pushing the Redmen lead to 3-1 at 5:02 of the second but Voyageurs defenceman Scott Pederson narrowed the gap to 3-2 at 14:54.

Dylan Fitze opened the third period scoring at 5:26 to make it 3-3, but Tremblay restored McGill's advantage just 24 seconds later,assisted by Tardif-Richard. Laurentian's Nick Esposito knotted the score once again at 12:56, forcing the sudden-death session.

Jacob Gervais-Chouinard, a senior from Sherbrooke, Que., started in net for McGill and saved 11 of 12 pucks in the opening period before giving way to sophomore Joe Fleschler of Westfield, N.J., who earned the win in relief with 15 stops on 18 shots in 40:14. It was the first appearance of the season for the 6-foot-6, 223-pound management major.

"Joe practiced with us all season but hadn't dressed until last night (against Nipissing) when he was the back-up," explained Nobes. "It's never easy to get into a game when you haven't dressed all season but he deserved to get into a game and battled hard tonight."

Charlie Millen allowed five goals on 25 shots for the Voyageurs as his record dropped to 6-8.

McGill was 1-for-5 with the man advantage and killed off both penalties taken.

The Redmen improved their record to 16-5-2 in 23 lifetime meetings with the Voyageurs and got a preview of their first-round playoff match-up.  McGill, which finished atop the OUA East with a 21-4-3 record, will meet eighth-place Laurentian (11-12-5) in a best-of-three quarter-final series, which opens in Sudbury on Wednesday (Feb. 15). Normally, a playoff series opens at the home of the higher-placed team but the OUA has a rule, designed to reduce travel, which forces the higher-placed team to open on the road if the distance between the two teams is more than 350 kilometres. Since McGill was already in Sudbury, they were hoping that Laurentian would agree to start the playoff series earlier but the Voyageurs declined.

Game 2 will be played at McConnell Arena on Saturday (Feb. 18) at 7 p.m., followed by a rubber match on Sunday night (Feb. 19), if necessary.

REDMEN RAP: For the fifth straight game, McGill had to make-do without three of their top skaters in Mathieu Pompei, Etienne Boutet and Nathan Chiarlitti, who won a bronze medal with Canada at the FISU Winter Games in Kazakhstan. They are expected to rejoin the team for Game 1 of the playoffs... Also missing, for the 15th straight game, was forward Daniel Milne, who suffered an undisclosed injury in mid-November and was re-injured in December at the U SPORTS all-stars training camp.
 
LINK TO COMPLETE BOXSCORE

(NOTE: OUA FINAL STANDINGS & PLAYOFF MATCHUPS POSTED BELOW)

SCORING SUMMARY
McGill 5 at Laurentian 4 (OT)
(Saturday, February 11, 2017 - Countryside Arena)

GOALS BY PERIOD:
McGill 2-1-1-1 -- 5
Laurentian 1-1-2-0 -- 4

1st Period-
1, McGill, Jerome Verrier 6 (Talbot-Tassi, Delisle-Houde), 8:48 (PP).
2, Laurentian, Nicolas Dionne 4 (Tessier), 19:05.
3, McGill, Christophe Lalonde 12 (Talbot-Tassi, Bois), 19:58.
 
Penalties-Forslund Lu (slashing), 0:17; Wildman Lu (high sticking, dble minor), 6:40; Forslund Lu (cross checking, 10-minute misconduct), 8:22.

2nd Period-
4, McGill, Samuel Tremblay 5 (Lambert-Lemay, Verrier), 5:02.
5, Laurentian, Scott Pedersen 1 (Therrien, Fitze), 14:54.
 
Penalties-Bois Mcg (roughing), 3:38; Apperson Lu (roughing), 3:38; Ruest Lu (cross checking), 6:58; Talbot-Tassi Mcg (high sticking), 18:07; Richardson Lu (interference), 18:21; Lambert-Lemay Mcg (interference), 18:52.

3rd Period-
6, Laurentian, Dylan Fitze 8 (Llorca, Therrien), 5:26.
7, McGill, Samuel Tremblay 6 (Tardif-Richard), 5:50.
8, Laurentian, Nick Esposto 11 (Yeo, Richardson), 12:56.
 
Penalties-Gamelin Mcg (roughing after the whistle), 12:30; Fitze Lu (roughing after the whistle), 12:30; Delisle-Houde Mcg (roughing), 18:27; Ruest Lu (holding), 18:27.

1st OT Period (5-mins, 4-on-4) -
9, McGill, Simon Tardif-Richard 6 (Tremblay, Halbert), 0:14.
 
Penalties-No Penalties

Shots on Goal-
McGill 10-6-8-1 -- 25.
Laurentian 12-10-8-0 -- 30.

Power Play Opportunities-
McGill 1 / 5;
Laurentian 0 / 2.

Goalies-
McGill,
Jacob Gervais-Chouinard (Start; ND, 12 shots-11 saves; 20:00);
Joe Fleschler (W, 1-0-0, 18 shots-15 saves; 40:14).
Laurentian,
Charlie Millen (L, 6-8-0, 25 shots-20 saves; 60:14).

Attendance: 205
Start: 7:45 PM
End: 9:49 PM
Length: 2:04

Referees-Ken Smith, Matthew Davie.
Linesmen-Kevin Keyes, Cedric Belzile.
 
THREE STARS:
1. MCG - 8 Simon Tardif-Richard
2. LU - 13 Dylan Fitze
3. MCG - 18 Samuel Tremblay


2016-17 OUA EAST MEN'S HOCKEY FINAL STANDINGS
 

POS	OUA East	GP	W	L	OTL	PTS	PCT	GF	GA	STK	PIM
1	McGill	28	21	4	3	45	0.804	104	64	7-0-1	619
2	Concordia	28	19	7	2	40	0.714	118	75	4-0-0	438
3	Queen's	28	18	7	3	39	0.696	81	69	1-0-0	219
4	Carleton	28	16	9	3	35	0.625	98	62	0-1-1	425
5	UQTR	28	16	9	3	35	0.625	103	76	0-1-0	398
6	Ottawa	28	15	8	5	35	0.625	100	79	1-0-2	368
7	UOIT	28	16	11	1	33	0.589	88	83	2-0-0	375
8	Laurentian	28	11	12	5	27	0.482	78	104	3-0-1	382
x	Nipissing	28	8	18	2	18	0.321	57	93	0-1-1	415
x	RMC	28	5	21	2	12	0.214	50	112	0-3-0	446
POS	OUA West	GP	W	L	OTL	PTS	PCT	GF	GA	STK	PIM
1	Ryerson	28	22	4	2	46	0.821	136	76	9-0-1	431
2	York	28	18	6	4	40	0.714	81	59	5-0-2	318
3	Laurier	28	15	9	4	34	0.607	86	83	5-0-0	369
4	Guelph	28	15	12	1	31	0.554	102	98	0-3-0	377
5	Brock	28	14	13	1	29	0.518	87	100	2-0-0	495
6	Windsor	28	13	13	2	28	0.500	75	92	0-1-0	536
7	Lakehead	28	13	13	2	28	0.500	89	107	2-0-0	425
8	Waterloo	28	12	12	4	28	0.500	69	88	2-0-1	461
x	Western	28	8	16	4	20	0.357	79	117	0-2-2	452
x	Toronto	28	5	21	2	12	0.214	68	112	0-4-0	478

 

U SPORTS MEN'S ICE HOCKEY PLAYOFFS

ATLANTIC UNIVERSITY SPORT QUARTER-FINALS
(Best of Three; 3rd Place vs 6th Place & 4th Place vs 5th Place)

SERIES A
Game 1 - Wednesday, February 15: Moncton at St. Francis Xavier - 7:00 pm
Game 2 - Friday, February 17: St. Francis Xavier at Moncton - 7:00 pm
Game 3 - Sunday, February 19: Moncton at St. Francis Xavier - 7:00 pm (If Necessary)

SERIES B
Game 1 - Wednesday, February 15: Prince Edward Island at Saint Mary's - 7:00 pm
Game 2 - Friday, February 17: Saint Mary's at Prince Edward Island - 7:00 pm
Game 3 - Sunday, February 19: Prince Edward Island at Saint Mary's - 7:00 pm (If Necessary)

ONTARIO UNIVERSITY ATHLETICS CONFERENCE QUARTER-FINALS
(Best of Three; 1st Place vs 8th Place, 2nd Place vs 7th Place, 3rd Place vs 6th Place & 4th Place vs 5th Place)

SERIES A
Game 1 - Wednesday, February 15: Waterloo at Ryerson - 8:00 pm
Game 2 - Friday, February 17: Ryerson at Waterloo - 7:30 pm
Game 3 - Saturday, February 18: Waterloo at Ryerson - 7:00 pm (If Necesary)

SERIES B
Game 1 - Wednesday, February 15: York at Lakehead - 7:00 pm
Game 2 - Saturday, February 18: Lakehead at York - 7:00 pm
Game 3 - Sunday, February 19: Lakehead at York - 2:00 pm (If Necessary)

SERIES C
Game 1 - Wednesday, February 15: Windsor at Wilfrid Laurier - 7:30 pm
Game 2 - Friday, February 17: Wilfrid Laurier at Windsor - 7:30 pm
Game 3 - Saturday, February 18: Windsor at Wilfrid Laurier - 2:00 pm (If Necessary)

SERIES D
Game 1 - Thursday, February 16: Brock at Guelph - 7:30 pm
Game 2 - Friday, February 17: Guelph at Brock - 7:15 pm
Game 3 - Sunday, February 19: Brock at Guelph - 7:30 pm (If Necessary)

SERIES E
Game 1 - Wednesday, February 15: McGill at Laurentian - 7:35 pm
Game 2 - Saturday, February 18: Laurentian at McGill - 7:00 pm
Game 3 - Sunday, February 19: Laurentina at McGill - 7:00 pm (If Necessary)

SERIES F
Game 1 - Wednesday, February 15: Concordia at UOIT - 7:30 pm
Game 2 - Friday, February 17: UOIT at Concordia - 7:30 pm
Game 3 - Saturday, February 18 - UOIT at Concordia - 7:30 pm - (If Necessary)

SERIES G
Game 1 - Wednesday, February 15: Ottawa at Queen's - 7:30 pm
Game 2 - Friday, February 17: Queen's at Ottawa - 7:30 pm
Game 3 - Saturday, February 18: Ottawa at Queen's - 7:30 pm (If Necessary)

SERIES H
Game 1 - Wednesday, February 15: Trois-Rivieres at Carleton - 7:00 pm
Game 2 - Saturday, February 18: Carleton at Trois-Rivieres - 4:00 pm
Game 3 - Sunday, February 19: Trois-Rivieres at Carleton - 7:00 pm (If Necessary)

CANADA WEST HOCKEY QUARTER-FINALS
(Best of Three; 6th Place at 3rd Place & 5th Place at 4th Place)

SERIES A
Game 1 - Friday, February 17: UBC at Calgary - 7:00 pm
Game 2 - Saturday, February 18: UBC at Calgary - 6:00 pm
Game 3 - Sunday, February 19: UBC at Calgary - 3:00 pm (If Necessary)

SERIES B
Game 1 - Friday, February 17: Manitoba at Mount Royal - 7:00 pm
Game 2 - Saturday, February 18: Manitoba at Mount Royal - 7:00 pm
Game 3 - Sunday, February 19: Manitoba at Mount Royal - 7:00 pm (If Necessary)