MONTREAL -- Defenceman Maximilian Daigle scored the winner and goaltender Louis-Philip Guindon posted a 10-save shutout as McGill blanked Royal Military College 2-0 in OUA men's hockey, Saturday, at McConnell Arena.
 
The result was McGill's 30th consecutive victory over the Paladins since a 2-1 loss in Kingston on Jan. 26, 2008. The Redmen improved to 72-8-4 lifetime against RMC since the long-time rivals first crossed paths in 1892. It is McGill's oldest active rivalry, followed by Queen's in 1895.
 
Daigle, a native of St. Lambert, Que., opened the scoring with a power-play goal at 13:07 of the second period, his second of the season. Only 37 seconds later, Frederic Gamelin of St. Polycarpe, Que., potted an insurance marker at 13:41. It was also Gamelin's second of the season, following in the wake of his first marker the previous night in a 7-1 victory over Nipissing.
 
The Redmen had a lopsided 47-10 edge in shots over RMC as Guindon, a kinesiology junior from St. Joseph du Lac, Que., improved to 10-6 and registered his sixth career goose egg in 81 contests overall with McGill. He currently ranks fourth among OUA goalie leaders with a 2.15 goals-against average, leads the league in minutes played (979), is tied for ninth in save percentage (.922) and tied for sixth in shutouts (1).
 
Paladins netminder Austin Hannaford of Calgary, Alta., made 45 saves on 47 shots in a losing effort.

"Clearly we weren't happy with (a loss to last-place Nipissing) last weekend and we needed to make some adjustments and I thought we did a good job of making those adjustments," said Kelly Nobes, who improved to 249-113-3 in nine seasons as head coach at McGill. "There is still room to grow, get better and we've got some time now to reflect on the first half and get ready for a real competitive schedule in the second half."
 
McGill's 10 remaining games has the team playing Concordia, Carleton, Ottawa, and UOIT twice each, then singles against Queen's and Laurentian.

"We played a solid game tonight and generated close to 50 shots on net. We moved the puck around well and I thought we could have generated more second-chance opportunities and get inside a bit more to take away the goalies eyes. But all in all, we played a solid six good periods this weekend."

McGill went 1-for-7 on the power-play and the unit has now scored in eight consecutive contests with 11 PP goals in that span. The Redmen also successfully killed off all five penalties taken. They enter the exam break with a 17.4 per cent success rate on the PP (16/92) and a stellar 88.3 rate on the PK (68/77)..

"Our penalty-kill was very good this weekend, we didn't give up any real scoring chances and it's been solid for us over the last seven-game stretch," offered Nobes, whose troops have allowed only one PP goal on the last 37 PP chances. "Our power-play generated a lot of good chances, had some great routes and just couldn't finish as much as we wanted. Overall, I'm pleased with our power-play. We struggled early on in the season so our success rate is lower than we'd like but over the last stretch, we have been moving the puck around well, running good routes, creating  opportunities and averaging over one power-play goal a game, which is where we want to be... We're right where we need to be at this point of the season."
 
McGill (10-4-3) returns to the ice against Ottawa (8-5-3) on Jan. 4 and will be looking to avenge a shocking 5-1 setback in the nation's capital on Oct. 14. The Paladins (4-13-1) are off until Jan. 5 when they will host Carleton (10-3-4).

REDMEN RAP: The game got off to slow start with five faceoffs in the first 90 seconds, including an icing call to McGill just four seconds after the opening puck-drop... Aaron Armstrong, a transfer from Ryerson and the team's second-line centre, underwent successful knee surgery earlier in the week. The native of Teeswater, Ont., missed the past 10 games after suffering the injury in a 5-3 victory at Toronto, Oct. 26... Armstrong, who had a 6-2-8 record in 11 games overall since joining the Redmen, is hoping for a return to the lineup in late February... After the game, the team held their third annual Family Night potluck holiday dinner, organized by the parents of brothers Hugo and Dominic Talbot-Tassi in the Alumni Lounge at McConnell Arena, with most of the players' parents on hand... The long-distance award, for the second straight year, went to the family of Keanu Yamamoto, who made the long trek from Spokane, Wash... Next on the long-distance category was Brendan O'Reilly's father who traveled from Dallas.
 
SCORING SUMMARY

McGILL SCORING LEADERS


2018-19 OUA MEN'S HOCKEY STANDINGS
 

Rank	OUA West Div.	GP	W	L	OTL	PTS	PCT	GF	GA	STK	P10	PIM
1	Ryerson	16	12	3	1	25	0.781	86	50	0-2-0	7-2-1	236
2	Brock	17	12	5	0	24	0.706	52	39	2-0-0	7-3-0	200
3	York	16	9	5	2	20	0.625	57	51	0-3-1	5-4-1	215
4	Western	16	9	6	1	19	0.594	48	42	5-0-0	6-3-1	282
5	Lakehead	16	8	7	1	17	0.531	48	57	0-3-1	4-5-1	310
6	Windsor	16	7	9	0	14	0.438	51	56	0-6-0	3-7-0	320
7	Laurier	16	7	9	0	14	0.438	44	45	1-0-0	6-4-0	256
8	Guelph	16	6	8	2	14	0.438	41	41	0-1-0	4-6-0	170
9	Waterloo	18	5	9	4	14	0.389	44	75	2-0-1	3-5-2	396
10	Toronto	17	5	9	3	13	0.382	42	59	0-1-0	3-6-1	164
Rank	OUA East Div.	GP	W	L	OTL	PTS	PCT	GF	GA	STK	P10	PIM
1	Ottawa	16	13	1	2	28	0.875	65	38	3-0-0	8-1-1	241
2	Queen's	16	12	4	0	24	0.750	61	39	0-1-0	7-3-0	206
3	Carleton	17	10	3	4	24	0.706	56	46	0-1-1	6-2-2	276
4	McGill	17	10	4	3	23	0.676	63	43	2-0-0	6-2-2	263
5	UOIT	17	9	5	3	21	0.618	54	54	1-0-2	6-2-2	289
6	UQTR	17	9	6	2	20	0.588	54	49	2-0-1	5-3-2	224
7	Concordia	16	9	6	1	19	0.594	56	59	4-0-0	6-3-1	305
8	Laurentian	16	5	10	1	11	0.344	42	60	0-3-1	4-5-1	276
9	RMC	18	4	13	1	9	0.250	37	70	0-3-0	2-7-1	329
10	Nipissing	16	4	12	0	8	0.250	46	74	0-2-0	2-8-0	275