OTTAWA -- Jerome Verrier of Drummondville, Que., scored the game-winner and added an assist as No.5 ranked McGill stretched their win streak to four with a 3-2 come-from-behind victory over Carleton in a key OUA men's hockey matchup played at the CU Ice House in the nation's capital, Saturday.

The result, combined with other scores around the league, clinched a playoff berth for the 14th consecutive year as the division-leading Redmen improved to 17-3-0 but could still finish anywhere from first to seventh in the topsy-turvy OUA East, sometimes referred to as the "division of doom". McGill upped their lifetime record against the Ravens to 32-24-1, including a 2-1 overtime victory in Ottawa earlier this season. The teams will tangle two more times in Montreal during the coming month.

Carleton (11-5-2), which dropped to fifth place, 10 points behind McGill in the standings, led 1-0 after the opening period but the Redmen rallied for a 3-2 lead after two. The final frame was scoreless.

Forward Josh Burnside put the Ravens on the scoreboard just 98 seconds after the opening faceoff. But McGill, which killed off a late double minor assessed to Verrier at 19:45 of the first period, turned the tide on the Ravens with a flurry of second-period goals, by Christophe Lalonde (10th) at 3:40, defenceman Dominic Talbot-Tassi (7th) at 7:23 and Verrier (7th) at 11:37.

"Lally's getting to the blue paint in front of the net and is being rewarded for that," offered Nobes on Lalonde, a junior from Mirabel, Que., who has compiled a lofty 8-5-13 record in his last eight contests. "He needs to keep doing that as it will help us down the stretch."

A too-many-men penalty assessed to McGill late in the middle stanza proved fruitful for Carleton when sniper Brett Welychka converted at 19:37. But the Redmen played a near-perfect game the rest of the way and snuffed out any potential threats.

Verrier, who also assisted on a power-play marker by Talbot-Tassi, now ranks third in the OUA scoring race with 30 points in 20 games. He trails Concordia's Anthony Beauregard (13-30-43) and Ryerson's Matt Mistele (14-19-33).

"I liked our jump tonight. We played a well-structured game, with three good periods," said Redmen bench boss Kelly Nobes. "Our special teams were quite good. We were on the penalty-kill a lot and performed solidly there, as well as scoring once on the power-play. We made some mistakes that need to be cleaned up, but all in all, it was a pretty good weekend (including a home-ice win over Ottawa the night before)."

McGill went 1-for-5 with the man-advantage and killed off seven of eight shorthanded situations. The Redmen PK unit is now ranked third in the OUA with an .833 success rate. They sit fractions of a percentage point behind Laurier and York, who are tied atop the PK leaders at .885.

McGill, which leads the nation in shots on goal, had a 24-21 advantage in that department as goaltender Louis-Philip Guindon, a sophomore from St. Joseph du Lac, Que., made 19 saves, a number of them spectacular, to improve his record to 14-3. He continues to lead all OUA goalies in wins, has moved up to second place in goals-against average (2.20) and sits ninth in save percentage (.920).

"LP made some key saves and gave us good stability back there, especially on the PK," added Nobes.

Ravens sophomore Francois Brassard of Gatineau, Que., was beaten three times on 24 shots and took the loss, dropping to 8-5.

McGill continues to lead the league in both scoring (81 goals) and goal-differential with a plus-35 between goals for and against. The next closest teams are Concordia ( 29), UQTR ( 22), Carleton ( 22) and Ryerson ( 21).

The Redmen, who have eight games remaining before playoffs, will travel to Trois-Rivieres on Wednesday (Jan. 10) to take on the third-place UQTR Patriotes (12-3-4) in a 7 p.m. start that is slated to be streamed in French on OUA.tv.

McGill returns home on Friday (Jan. 12) to face fourth-place Queen's (11-4-3). A near-capacity crowd is expected at McConnell Arena as it will be the Gaels much-anticipated first return since they swept McGill 2-1 and 4-2 in the OUA Eastern best-of-three final last spring. This season, McGill won the only meeting between the longtime rivals, registering a 3-2 conquest in overtime at Kingston on Oct. 27.

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2017-18 OUA MEN'S HOCKEY STANDINGS (updated)
 

Rank	West	GP	W	L	OTL	PTS	PCT	GF	GA	STK	P10	PIM
1	Guelph	18	13	4	1	27	0.750	77	58	2-0-0	9-1-0	205
2	Ryerson	18	12	4	2	26	0.722	76	55	4-0-2	7-1-2	186
3	Laurier	18	11	5	2	24	0.667	62	47	1-0-0	6-3-1	162
4	York	18	11	6	1	23	0.639	57	52	0-2-0	4-5-1	230
5	Brock	18	9	6	3	21	0.583	54	49	0-1-0	7-2-1	203
6	Lakehead	17	8	8	1	17	0.500	41	48	2-0-0	5-5-0	176
7	Windsor	18	6	7	5	17	0.472	49	55	0-1-1	3-3-4	236
8	Western	18	7	9	2	16	0.444	65	70	3-0-0	4-4-2	146
9	Waterloo	18	5	10	3	13	0.361	51	75	0-5-1	2-7-1	367
10	Toronto	17	4	12	1	9	0.265	33	58	0-6-1	2-7-1	227
Rank	East	GP	W	L	OTL	PTS	PCT	GF	GA	STK	P10	PIM
1	McGill	20	17	3	0	34	0.850	81	46	4-0-0	9-1-0	277
2	Concordia	18	13	2	3	29	0.806	77	48	5-0-2	7-1-2	311
3	UQTR	19	12	3	4	28	0.737	67	45	2-0-0	5-2-3	383
4	Queen's	18	11	4	3	25	0.694	58	48	4-0-0	7-3-0	214
5	Carleton	18	11	5	2	24	0.667	65	43	0-1-0	5-4-1	264
6	UOIT	18	10	7	1	21	0.583	48	53	0-2-0	8-2-0	239
7	Ottawa	18	8	7	3	19	0.528	57	63	0-3-1	4-4-2	220
8	Nipissing	18	5	10	3	13	0.361	46	65	0-5-0	1-7-2	339
9	RMC	19	5	11	3	13	0.342	42	74	0-3-1	5-3-2	281
10	Laurentian	18	3	15	0	6	0.167	43	97	1-0-0	1-9-0	289