MONTREAL -- Jade Downie-Landry and Lea Dumais each scored twice while Tricia Deguire registered a 27-save shutout as McGill blanked the Toronto Varsity Blues 4-0 to open the Old Four women's hockey tournament at McConnell Arena, Saturday.

It was the third shutout in as many preseason outings for the undefeated Martlets, who opened their campaign last week with whitewashes over Moncton (3-0) and St. Thomas (2-0). The last time that McGill had back-to-back-to-back goose eggs was three years ago, when they skunked Carleton (Nov. 15/15), Concordia (Nov. 20/15) and RPI (Nov. 22/15).

The result also marked McGill's eighth consecutive victory over U of T, the third straight via shutout. These long-time rivals first started playing each other almost a century ago, in 1922. In the post-war era, the Martlets are 14-4-0 against the Varsity Blues, outscoring them 50-18.

McGill, which outshot Toronto 37-27, led 3-0 after the opening period and added their final goal in the third.

"We're playing some good hockey right now and showing improvement every game," said McGill head coach Peter Smith. "We came out strong in the first but then in the second, some of our shifts were a bit long. We got hemmed in our own end a couple of times and that kind of set the tone in that period. But we had some real jump in the third, with a lot of controlled exits from our zone and that produced a number of scoring chances. I was pleased with our structure and its very encouraging to see us play like that this early in the season. We're so much further ahead at this point in the schedule than we were a year ago."

Downie-Landry, who hails from St. Jean, Que., opening the scoring at 6:30 of the first with what proved to the game-winner. The 5-foot-9 power forward also tallied the second goal, assisted by Nicole Howlett at the 14:50 mark. She was making her season debut with the Martlets after spending last week at a Team Canada Fall Festival training camp, in Dawson Creek, B.C., Sept. 8-16.

Dumais, a management junior from Beaconsfield, Que., who now has 10 career markers in 77 games overall, made it 3-0 at 19:24 of the first stanza and then 4-0 midway through the final period.

"Her line, with Marika Labrecque and Kellyane Lecours, was very effective out there," noted Smith. "They created a lot of scoring chances... just kept coming over the boards and going hard."

Deguire, who attended Team Canada's Summer Showcase training camp in Calgary last month, has now posted shutouts in each of her two starts, turning aside all 46 shots faced. The 5-foot-8 kinesiology junior from Sherbrooke, Que., has racked up 13 career shutouts in 69 games overall with the Martlets.

Both teams went 0-for-3 on the power-play. With an unblemished 3-0 record, there is no cause for concern yet but in their three games played, the Martlets are 0-for-11 with the man-advantage. On the flip side, they have killed off all 11 shorthanded situations.

McGill will confront Queen's in the Old Four championship game on Sunday at McConnell Arena with puck drop slated for 2 p.m. The Gaels are 1-1 after opening their season with a 2-0 loss against the Montreal Carabins and defeating Western 3-2 in their Old Four opener on Saturday afternoon. Toronto (2-3) will play Western (0-1) in Sunday's consolation game at 11 a.m.

LINK TO SCORING SUMMARY