MONTREAL -- Jerome Verrier of Drummondville, Que., tallied twice as McGill painted a picture-perfect performance en route to a 4-0 victory before a capacity Winter Carnival crowd of 1,012 at McConnell Arena, Friday.

It improved McGill's record to 15-1 in Carnival Game play, including a 4-0 mark against Carleton, since the long-standing event was re-born 16 years ago after a two-decade absence. The Redmen also improved their lifetime record against the Ravens to 33-24-1 since they first crossed paths in 1968.

Verrier, a 5-foot-11, 185-pound centre, opened the scoring on the power-play at 9:19 of the first period and put the Redmen ahead 3-0 on another PP marker at 6:40 of the middle period.

"I felt the puck (well) during the warm-up and I knew that I had to shoot it more... I like to pass but (assistant coach) Dave (Urquhart) is always telling me to shoot more on the power-play as it can create more scoring chances," said the 23-year-old economics junior, who moved into second place in the OUA scoring race with 34 points, including 10 goals in 23 games. "(We've played really well) in our last two games. It's near the end of the year and we're (already playing) like in playoff mode."

Verrier, who skated for Drummondville and Quebec in the QMJHL, joined the Redmen three years ago after suffering a broken leg in the Detroit Red Wings training camp. In 75 games overall, he has compiled a 20-47-67 record at McGill, including 16 goals and 55 points in 52 regular season games.

McGill dominated for long segments of the game and outshot the visitors 30-17. They led 2-0 after the first period and 3-0 after two, then added an empty-netter in the final stanza.

The Redmen took advantage of an undisciplined Carleton squad, which drew 44 of 72 penalty minutes dished out by the officials. Things got so testy in the final moments that the officials ordered both teams off the ice without the usual post-game hand shakes. McGill went 3-for-8 on the power-play and killed off all five shorthanded situations. Their PK unit now ranks first in the 20-team OUA conference with a lofty 88.8 per cent success rate. The PP unit, which was ranked last in the league after the first month of the season at 6.6 per cent, has now climbed to 13th place at a 16.8 success rate.

"Obviously our special teams were good tonight," said McGill head coach Kelly Nobes. "Our pace was real good, we were relentless and we played in their end for a lot of the game. So (when that happens) you're not defending. We had everybody going again tonight and that's been a key for us. It's not just one or two lines. It's everybody going, everyone contributing, both offensively and defensively."

Goaltender Louis-Philip Guindon turned aside 17 shots to merit his second consecutive and league-leading third shutout of the season. His shutout streak is now 132 minutes and 19 seconds. The last time that McGill posted back-to-back shutouts was Jan. 6-7, 2017, when they blanked Windsor 4-0 and 5-0.  With a 16-4 record, Guindon, a science sophomore from St. Joseph du Lac, Que., also leads all OUA netminders in wins and goals-against average (2.12). His .920 save percentage ranks seventh.

Samuel Tremblay, a kinesiology sophomore from St. Hubert, Que., contributed his ninth marker of the season, also on the power-play, to give the Redmen a 2-0 lead at 18:02 of the first period. Montreal native Antoine Dufort-Plante, an Arts freshman, rounded out the scoring with his fifth, an empty-netter at 16:50 of the final stanza.

McGill team captain Nathan Chiarlitti, a defenceman from Maple, B.C., collected a pair of assists.

Francois Brassard, the Ravens sophomore goaltender from Gatineau, Que., registered 26 saves on 29 shots and took the loss, falling to 8-7 on the season.

The Redmen have now assured themselves of a top-three finish in the OUA East and lead the division with a 19-4 record. With five games remaining before playoffs, McGill holds a comfortable seven-point lead ahead of second-place Concordia (14-4-3) and Queen's (14-5-3). The Redmen will host sixth-place Ottawa (10-7-3) on Saturday (7 p.m.) at McConnell Arena. The Gee-Gees are one of only four teams to defeat McGill during the regular season, along with UQTR, Concordia and Laurier.

Fourth-place Carleton, which dropped to 13-5-3, will host UQTR on Sunday night. The Patriotes dropped from second to eighth place this week after it was discovered that they had been playing with an ineligible player. They forfeited 19 points in the standings as their record was transformed from 15-3-4 into 7-14-1.

LINK TO COMPLETE BOXSCORE

 

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
2018	WON	4	0	(ENG)	Carleton	1,012
TOT	15-1-0	65	21		AVG.:  1,205	19,273

2017-18 OUA Men's Hockey Standings (28-game schedule before playoffs)
 

Rank	OUA West	GP	W	L	OTL	PTS	PCT	GF	GA	STK	P10	PIM
1	Guelph	22	16	5	1	33	0.750	93	64	0-1-0	8-2-0	249
2	Ryerson	21	13	6	2	28	0.667	86	65	0-2-0	5-3-2	198
3	Laurier	21	13	6	2	28	0.667	72	56	0-1-0	6-4-0	190
4	York	22	13	8	1	27	0.614	69	66	1-0-0	4-5-1	268
5	Brock	21	11	6	4	26	0.619	61	54	2-0-1	7-2-1	241
6	Lakehead	22	10	10	2	22	0.500	48	64	0-2-1	4-5-1	212
7	Western	20	9	9	2	20	0.500	74	73	5-0-0	6-3-1	160
8	Windsor	22	6	10	6	18	0.409	57	76	0-4-2	1-6-3	352
9	Waterloo	20	6	11	3	15	0.375	59	83	1-0-0	2-7-1	437
10	Toronto	21	7	13	1	15	0.357	51	71	2-0-0	3-7-0	291
Rank	OUA East	GP	W	L	OTL	PTS	PCT	GF	GA	STK	P10	PIM
1	McGill	23	19	4	0	38	0.826	92	51	2-0-0	8-2-0	321
2	Concordia	21	14	4	3	31	0.738	89	62	0-1-0	6-2-2	345
3	Queen's	22	14	5	3	31	0.705	69	54	2-0-0	7-3-0	266
4	Carleton	21	13	5	3	29	0.690	77	53	0-1-1	5-3-2	338
5	UOIT	20	12	7	1	25	0.625	55	56	2-0-0	8-2-0	277
6	Ottawa	20	10	7	3	23	0.575	65	68	2-0-0	6-3-1	236
7	Nipissing	22	8	11	2	18	0.409	55	72	0-1-0	2-7-1	393
8	UQTR	22	7	14	1	15	0.341	49	51	5-0-0	7-2-1	403
9	RMC	22	5	14	3	13	0.295	47	86	0-6-1	2-6-2	341
10	Laurentian	20	5	14	1	11	0.175	52	110	0-1-1	1-8-1	319

NOTE: Due to an ineligible player, UQTR forfeits 19 points from 8 wins and 3 OT losses. Teams that gain points in the standings: Lakehead (4), Laurentian (4), Nipissing (3), Carleton (2), Queen's (2).