MONTREAL -- Jade Downie-Landry scored the game-winner and added an assist and goaltender Tricia Deguire made 29 saves as McGill toppled sixth-ranked Montreal 5-2 in Game 2 of the RSEQ best-of-three women's hockey semifinals, at McConnell Arena on Saturday.

The win forced a rubber match, to be played on Sunday (Feb. 25 at 2 p.m.) at Arena CEPSUM, and improved the Martlets' record to 46-22 in 68 lifetime meetings with the Carabins, including a 13-8 mark in post-season play. The division-leading Carabins, who won Game 1 by a 5-3 score on Thursday, have taken four of seven meetings with the Martlets this season.

"We stuck with the plan and played with all kinds of energy for the full 60 minutes," said McGill bench boss Peter Smith, who improved his career record to 488-203-32 in 723 games overall behind the bench. "We've struggled with that in the past but today we did a really good job. Our forecheck was good, we had lots of energy, especially in the offensive zone. And certainly our specialty teams were in high gear."

The Martlets were 2-for-4 on the power play and perfect on five kills.

Downie-Landry, a 5-foot-8 sophomore forward from St. Jean sur Richelieu, Que., netted McGill's third of four consecutive goals, on the power play at 17:52 of the second. She also assisted on the game's final tally and was named first star for her efforts.

Deguire, a 5-foot-8 sophomore from Sherbrooke, Que., turned away all but two of 31 shots faced and was key in holding Montreal scoreless through 10 minutes of 5-on-4 play.

"Tricia was real good," praised Smith. "Especially on the penalty kill. Your goaltender needs to be your best killer and I thought she was today. She was really active back there, handled the puck well, was talking and gave her teammates a lot of confidence. She got the player-of-the-game helmet from the girls and that helmet could've probably gone to an awful lot of players out there. We got a strong effort from everybody."

Catherine Dubois had opened the scoring for the Carabins at 16:56 of the first, but Olivia Atkinson of Oakville, Ont., replied just 17 seconds later to even the mark.

"As coaches we're on the bench after the first goal, saying 'Okay, what's the bounce-back going to be like?' and before we could really think about it, the puck was in the net," said Smith of the sequence. "So obviously that was huge. Atkinson, she's just played so well and worked so hard and scored one of her classic goals with a shot, bar-down from the high slot. Not many goalies in our league are going to have a chance on that one. That was a huge bounce-back shift and that gave us momentum. It's so important to have that kind of shift after something bad happens on the ice."

Sophomore Sidonie Chard of Kingston, Ont., then put the hosts ahead 2-1 at 8:07 of the second before Downie-Landry made it 3-1.

Rookie Kellyane Lecours of Victoriaville, Que., increased the lead to 4-1 at 7:01 of the third period. Dubois potted her second of the game for Montreal at 19:10, but a power-play marker 25 seconds later by Marie-Philip Lavoie of Pohenegamook, Que., restored the four-goal margin of victory.

Marie-Pier Chabot was beaten five times on 25 shots to take the loss for Carabins goal.

The winner of Sunday's sudden-death contest will advance to the RSEQ conference final and, more importantly, earn a berth to the U SPORTS national championship tournament in London, Ont.

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