MONTREAL -- Anthony Beauregard scored once, added an assist and was credited with the lone marker in a post-overtime shootout as Concordia rallied from a two-goal deficit midway through the third period to edge fourth-ranked McGill 4-3 in the 31st annual Ronald Corey Cup game to wrap up the regular season of OUA men's hockey for the Redmen, before a capacity crowd at Ed Meagher Arena, Friday.

McGill, which split their four-game season series with Concordia, are now 101-98-14 in 213 lifetime confrontations with the Stingers, including a 17-9-3 lifetime record in Corey Cup play since the annual battle for local college hockey supremacy was initiated in 1988. The Stingers are 10-18-3 in Cup play, including two games against UQTR.

The official shots on goal were even at 32-32 but the McGill count had it at 39-33 for the Redmen, including a 4-1 edge in overtime. Both  teams were tied at 1-1 after the opening period but McGill led 2-1 after two and went up 3-1 in the third before the Concordia comeback.

"We played a solid game," said McGill bench boss Kelly Nobes, whose troops could've coasted as they had already clinched the OUA's top seed with a 22-4-2 record, and are just awaiting to learn of their next opponent for the OUA best-of-three quarter-finals, slated to open on Valentine's Day. "Given the circumstance we wanted to play a solid game tonight and we did. In preparing for the upcoming playoffs it was a good amount of adversity for us tonight, with the way the game went and what we saw. It just helps to prepare us for next week and beyond."

The game featured 18 minor penalties, split evenly, and there could have easily been another dozen calls. The visitors were 3-for-8 with the man-advantage and 7-for-8 on the penalty kill. McGill finished second in the OUA and third in the nation with a stingy PK success rate of 88.4 per cent. The power-play ended up 10th in the OUA at 17.9 per cent.

"You could say good things about both our (special teams) units tonight," said Nobes. "Our power play got three goals and our penalty kill was real good. Those are where they should be at this point in the year. We keep tweaking them, but it's good to see the PP get going at the right time of the year."

Beauregard,  a sophomore who leads the country in scoring with a lofty 19-41-60 record in 27 games, was the sixth and final shooter and the only one to find the back of the net in the shootout.

Defenceman Nikolas Brouillard of St. Hilaire, Que., opened the scoring for the Redmen with his first of two, on a power-play goal at 2:18 of the first period, but Beauregard tied things up at 10:34.

Guillaume Gauthier, a sophomore centre from Ste. Marthe sur le Lac, Que., restored McGill's lead on the man-advantage at 16:24 of the second.

Brouillard, a 5-foot-11, 168-pound transfer from Orlando of the ECHL, added another power-play marker to make it 3-1 at 6:06 of the third.

"He comes as delivered," said Nobes of Brouillard, a two-time all-star rearguard in the QMJHL, who's recorded five points -- three of them goals -- in three games since becoming eligible to play in late January. "He's an offensive defenceman and he scores goals and creates offence. It's great to have him as an addition to the team at this point in the season."

Charles-Éric Légaré narrowed the gap to one at 9:41 and teammate Philippe Hudon forced overtime with a power-play goal on a disputed play at 15:23. McGill argued that Hudon had deflected the puck with his stick above shoulder height. A video replay appeared to sustain the Redmen objection but they are not used in college hockey. The officials met near the penalty box to discuss the play and eventually ruled that the goal was good.

After a highly-entertaining five-minute, 3-on-3 extra session solved nothing, the teams proceeded to the dreaded shootout.

Jerome Verrier, Keanu Yamamoto and Brouillard all came up empty for the Redmen, while Massimo Carozza and Philippe Sanche were turned away for Concordia before Beauregard sealed the result.

Verrier, a junior centre from Drummondville, Que., did collect a pair of assists in the game to finish second in the OUA scoring race with a 12-29-41 record in 28 games. It's the highest point total for a McGill player since 2015-16 when defenceman Samuel Labrecque registered a 16-28-44 total in 28 games. The last time that a McGill forward surpassed the 40-point plateau was in 2010-11, when both Alex Picard-Hooper (28GP: 11-47-58) and Francis Verreault-Paul (19GP: 28-14-42) accomplished the feat.

McGill netminder Louis-Philip Guindon of St. Joseph du Lac, Que., made 28 saves on 31 shots through 65 minutes as his record dropped to 18-6. The 6-foot-1, 183-pound science sophomore led the OUA in wins,  shutouts (3) and goals-against average (2.22). He ranks 11th in save percentage (.917) and fourth in minutes played.

At the other end of the ice, sophomore Marc-Antoine Turcotte of Chateauguay, Que., stopped 29 of 32 for the Stingers and improved to 15-9. The dueling netminders, who played against each other for years in the QMJHL, bumped fists in a sign of respect at centre-ice just before the shootout.

The Redmen (22-4-2) begin their playoff campaign with an OUA East quarter-final on Wednesday, Feb. 14. They will play the eighth-place team, which will be the winner of Saturday's season-ending game between RMC (7-15-5) and Laurentian (9-17-1). If RMC wins, McGill would host them in Game 1 on Feb. 14 but if Laurentian wins, the Redmen would play Game 1 in Sudbury on Feb. 14 because of the OUA travel policy, then host the final two games on Feb. 17 and 18 (if needed).

Fourth-place Concordia (17-7-3) rounds out their season against Carleton (17-6-4) on Saturday (Feb. 10) in a battle for third-place and home-ice advantage in post-season play.

GAME NOTES: Most of the Stingers used pink-tinted hockey sticks in support of Concordia's pink-themed "Shoot for the Cure" weekend, a fundraiser for breast cancer, which will feature six home games against McGill. On Saturday, the hockey Martlets play at 3 pm, sandwiched between a basketball doubleheader, with the women's game at 2 pm, followed by the men's matchup at 4 pm. On Sunday, McGill plays an indoor soccer doubleheader at Concordia's StingerDome, with the women's kickoff slated for 1 p.m., followed by the men's meeting at 3 p.m.

LINK TO COMPLETE BOXSCORE

2017-18 OUA MEN'S HOCKEY STANDINGS (28-game schedule)
 

Rank	OUA East	GP	W	L	OTL	PTS	PCT	GF	GA	STK	P10	PIM
1	McGill	28	22	4	2	46	0.821	112	66	5-0-2	7-1-2	403
2	Queen's	27	18	6	3	39	0.722	87	67	0-1-0	7-3-0	304
3	Carleton	27	17	6	4	38	0.704	97	72	2-0-1	5-3-2	422
4	Concordia	27	17	7	3	37	0.685	107	81	2-0-0	5-5-0	460
5	Ottawa	27	15	8	4	34	0.630	91	86	4-0-0	7-2-1	318
6	UOIT	27	15	9	3	33	0.611	78	74	2-0-2	5-3-2	402
7	Nipissing	27	9	14	4	22	0.407	69	93	0-2-2	2-6-2	507
8	RMC	27	7	15	5	19	0.352	64	105	1-0-0	2-6-2	427
9	Laurentian	27	9	17	1	19	0.352	69	132	0-1-0	5-4-1	417
10	UQTR	28	8	19	1	17	0.304	85	81	0-4-0	5-5-0	468
Rank	OUA West	GP	W	L	OTL	PTS	PCT	GF	GA	STK	P10	PIM
1	Guelph	28	21	6	1	43	0.768	122	82	2-0-0	8-2-0	360
2	Ryerson	27	16	8	3	35	0.648	108	90	0-1-0	4-4-2	268
3	York	27	16	10	1	33	0.611	85	79	0-2-0	5-5-0	358
4	Western	27	14	10	3	31	0.574	94	88	0-1-0	8-1-1	198
5	Laurier	27	14	10	3	31	0.574	85	76	1-0-0	4-5-1	258
6	Brock	27	13	9	5	31	0.574	74	72	1-0-0	4-4-2	329
7	Lakehead	27	12	10	5	29	0.537	69	89	2-0-1	2-4-4	256
8	Windsor	27	9	11	7	25	0.463	76	91	2-0-0	3-4-3	440
9	Toronto	27	11	15	1	23	0.426	67	85	0-1-0	7-3-0	351
10	Waterloo	28	9	15	4	22	0.393	80	110	0-2-1	4-5-1	527