(ALLAN FOURNIER PHOTO, COURTESY UOIT ATHLETICS)

OSHAWA, ONT – It was a night of quick starts for the McGill men's hockey team, in just about every period of a 4-3 road victory over the University of Ontario Institute of Technology, Saturday, at the Campus Ice Centre.

Defenceman Nikolas Brouillard scored the game-winner on the power-play at just 17 seconds of overtime as the No.4 ranked Redmen improved to 22-4-1 to clinch first overall in the 20-team OUA, ensuring that they will have "home-ice" advantage throughout the playoffs. Although OUA regulations do not allow McGill to host the Queen's Cup championship game, the Redmen would still get the last line change in the OUA final.
 
It was the first marker of the season for Brouillard, a 22-year-old native of St. Hilaire, Que., who became eligible to play earlier in the week after playing pro in the ECHL last year. The offensive-minded rearguard, who twice led all QMJHL defencemen in scoring, now has two points in two games and becomes the 19th player on the Redmen roster to score during the OUA campaign. The single-season team record is 22 players who reached that plateau, which was first accomplished in 2011-12 and matched last season.
 
McGill led 2-1 after the opening period and 3-2 after two but the Ridgebacks battled back to force overtime when Jack Patterson netted the equalizer with just 94 seconds remaining in the third.

Redmen rearguard Dominic Talbot-Tassi of Mascouche, Que., scored once and added a pair of assists. His tally from the blueline at just 14 seconds after the opening faceoff set a school record for fastest goal from the start of a game. It broke the previous mark of 16 seconds set by Patrick Delisle-Houde in a 5-2 home-ice win over Waterloo, Nov. 3, 2012. But it fell shy of the McGill record for the fastest goal from the start of a period, set by Martin Raymond (currently an assistant coach with the NHL's Ottawa Senators), who connected at the seven-second mark of the third period in a 5-2 win over Brock, Oct. 14, 1990.

"Urq (Redmen assistant coach David Urquhart) always tells me to shoot the puck as quick as I can," said Talbot-Tassi, who ranks second among OUA blueliners in goals and fourth in points, with an 8-15-23-record in 27 games. "So when I got the puck, I only thought about getting it on net quickly and it went in. We couldn't have had a better start than that."
 
Freshman Keanu Yamamoto of Spokane, Wash., netted his ninth of the season to make it 2-0 at 6:19 of the first period. The Ridgebacks narrowed the gap to 2-1 less than seven minutes later when defenceman Josh Carrick scored his third of the season.
 
The Redmen got off to a quick jump-start again in the second period when Frederic Gamelin, a junior from St. Polycarpe, Que., struck pay-dirt with his sixth of the year just 24 seconds into the stanza, which put McGill ahead 3-1.
 
But the pesky Ridgebacks battled back, when Alex Yuill converted on a power-play at 6:03 to make it 3-2, which set the stage for Patterson's tying goal late in the third.
 
"I like our start, we were ready to go right away," said McGill head coach Kelly Nobes, a native of West Hill, Ont., who had some family members in attendance at the game. "We got the early goal which gave us momentum, then had another good start in the second."
                                                                                                                             
Jacob Gervais-Chouinard made 31 saves to register the victory in his first start of the season between the pipes for McGill. The fifth-year economics senior recently returned to the Redmen lineup after graduating last year. The 6-foot-2, 185-pound goaltender improved his career record to 73-34 in 117 appearances overall with McGill, including a 53-13 record in 71 regular season games. The McGill goalie record for most career wins is 84 overall and 54 in the regular season. His next victory in league play would tie the standard set by Mathieu Poitras, who posted a 54-19-6 record in 79 regular season contests between 2004 and 2008.

"For a guy who hadn't played a competitive game in a year, 'Chewey' had a great game tonight," said Nobes. "He had lots of shots, played the puck well and was real composed in a tight game in a small rink. He's a veteran who has been in there before and a part of our nucleus. He played a role in getting us the win and gave us an opportunity in giving 'LP' (regular starter Louis-Philip Guindon) a (rare) night off."
 
Ridgeback netminder Tyson Teichmann, a sophomore from Belleville, Ont., was beaten four times on 40 shots and took the loss as his record dropped to 7-6.

McGill was 1-for-5 on the power-play and erased three of four shorthanded scenarios. The Redmen PK unit continues to lead the OUA and rank second in the nation with an 88.5 per cent kill rate. StFX leads all schools at 92.6.

Elsewhere around the OUA, Laurentian edged Nipissing 4-3 in overtime, which moved the Thunderwolves into the eighth and final playoff berth in the OUA East with a 9-16-1 record, two points ahead of UQTR (8-17-1) and RMC (6-15-5). If the season ended today, McGill would have to open their best-of-three semifinal series at Laurentian in Sudbury, likely on Valentine's Day, with Games 2 and 3 slated for McConnell Arena on the following weekend.

Laurentian has two games remaining on their schedule, at UOIT (Feb. 9) and at home to RMC (Feb. 10). UQTR, which forfeited 19 points in the standings last month, is in serious danger of missing the playoffs for the first time in decades. The Patriotes close out the season with road games at Ottawa (Feb. 4) and Carleton (Feb. 9). RMC plays at Nipissing (Feb. 9) and at Laurentian (Feb. 10).

McGill will close out their regular season schedule at Concordia (16-7-3) on Friday, Feb. 9 in the 31st annual Ronald Corey Cup contest. All three games this season between the cross-town rivals have been decided by one goal, with the Stingers winning the opener 3-2 at McConnell Arena, followed by  a 2-1 home-ice conquest for the Redmen and a 3-2 overtime win for McGill at Concordia.

McGill owns a 17-8-3 record in the Corey Cup, an annual game which has been presented since 1988 for college hockey supremacy in Quebec. The Stingers are 9-18-3 in Cup play, while UQTR is 1-1. Faceoff is slated for 7:30 pm at the Ed Meagher Arena.

LINK TO BOXSCORE
 
GAME NOTES: Defenceman Kyle Locke of UOIT received a rare triple minor, plus a 10-min misconduct on the same stoppage at 15:40 of the second period... There was a vocal group of McGill fans chanting throughout the game. Among them was a youth hockey team coached by Kelly Nobes's two brothers, Kent and Al... Other Redmen who had family in attendance were Ontario-born Michael Cramarossa of Markham, Quinn Syrydiuk of Toronto, Nathanael Halbert of Richmond Hill and Nathan Chiarlitti of Maple, Ont... Also on hand was former Redmen team physiotherapist Penny Lee, who now resides in the Oshawa area.

2017-18 OUA MEN'S HOCKEY STANDINGS
(28-game schedule; Top 8 in each division qualify for playoffs)
 

Rank	OUA West	GP	W	L	OTL	PTS	PCT	GF	GA	STK	P10	PIM
1	Guelph	26	19	6	1	39	0.750	110	78	0-1-0	8-2-0	310
2	Ryerson	26	16	7	3	35	0.673	106	84	3-0-1	5-3-2	262
3	York	26	16	9	1	33	0.635	83	73	0-1-0	5-5-0	328
4	Western	26	14	9	3	31	0.596	91	83	10-0-1	9-0-1	194
5	Laurier	26	13	10	3	29	0.558	81	74	0-5-1	3-6-1	250
6	Brock	26	12	9	5	29	0.558	71	71	0-2-0	4-4-2	313
7	Lakehead	26	11	10	5	27	0.519	64	85	1-0-1	2-4-4	246
8	Toronto	26	11	14	1	23	0.442	66	82	3-0-0	7-3-0	341
9	Windsor	26	8	11	7	23	0.442	71	88	1-0-0	2-5-3	440
10	Waterloo	26	9	14	3	21	0.404	74	101	0-1-0	4-6-0	505
Rank	OUA East	GP	W	L	OTL	PTS	PCT	GF	GA	STK	P10	PIM
1	McGill	27	22	4	1	45	0.833	109	62	5-0-1	8-1-1	385
2	Queen's	26	18	5	3	39	0.750	86	63	6-0-0	8-2-0	298
3	Carleton	26	16	6	4	36	0.692	93	70	1-0-1	5-3-2	416
4	Concordia	26	16	7	3	35	0.673	103	78	1-0-0	4-5-1	442
5	UOIT	26	14	9	3	31	0.596	73	73	1-0-2	4-4-2	380
6	Ottawa	25	13	8	4	30	0.600	83	85	2-0-0	5-3-2	288
7	Nipissing	26	9	14	3	21	0.404	66	89	0-2-1	2-7-1	495
8	Laurentian	26	9	16	1	19	0.365	68	127	2-0-0	5-4-1	401
9	UQTR	26	8	17	1	17	0.327	83	73	0-2-0	6-4-0	460
10	RMC	26	6	15	5	17	0.327	60	102	0-1-1	1-7-2	413