OTTAWA -- Christophe Lalonde of Mirabel, Que., celebrated his 25th birthday with one goal and an assist as McGill skated to a crucial 6-2 road victory over the No. 6 ranked Carleton Ravens in OUA men's hockey at the Ice House, Saturday.
 
The win catapulted McGill into a dead heat with Carleton for third place in the OUA East with identical 12-5-4 records and only seven games remaining before playoffs. The teams have split their two meetings thus far, with McGill holding a 10-7 edge in goal-differential and one game left to play -- at Carleton on Jan. 26. The six-goal outburst was McGill's highest-ever offensive road total against Carleton and the Redmen improved their head-to-head record to 35-24-2 in 61-lifetime meetings since first playing the Ravens in 1968.
 
McGill broke a scoreless tie with three goals in the second period and then outscored the Ravens 3-2 in the final stanza. The visitors outshot Carleton 35-32 in a contest that featured 22 penalties for 68 minutes, McGill went 1-for-5 on the power-play but conceded a shorthanded marker for the third time this season. The Redmen PK unit continued to shine, neutralizing all six man-advantage situations for Carleton. McGill now ranks fourth of 20 OUA teams in penalty-killing with an 87.0 per cent success rate.
 
Junior Guillaume Gauthier of Ste. Marthe-sur-le-Lac, Que., opened the scoring at 0:37 of the middle frame. It was his seventh goal of the season and he later added an assist to take over the team's scoring lead with 21 points in 21 league games.

Lalonde made it 2-0 at 6:32, and now ranks second on the team in scoring with a 9-11-20 record in 18 games. The 5-foot-9, 188-pound industrial relations senior owns a career mark of 48-45-93 in 119 contests overall.

Sophomore Keanu Yamamoto of Spokane, Wash., put the Redmen ahead 3-0 at 10:18 with a power-play marker. In the final period, Antoine Dufort-Plante, a sophomore from Montreal, upped the count to 4-0 with his seventh of the season at 7:03.
 
Carleton centre Brogan O'Brien broke the shutout bid at 8:24 of the final stanza.
 
Sophomore forwards Alex Renaud and Michael Cramarossa responded with back-to-back goals at 9:02 and 10:05 to make it a rout at 6-1.

Carleton defenceman CJ Garcia tallied a late shorthanded goal at 15:35 to close out the scoring.
 
McGill goaltender Louis-Philippe Guindon saved 30 of 32 shots for the victory, improving his record to 12-8. The science junior from St. Joseph du Lac, Que., is ranked third among league leaders in wins, sits ninth in goals-against average (2.34) and owns a save percentage of .914.
 
Junior netminder Francois Brassard started for the Ravens. He was beaten four times on 35 shots and took the loss, dropping to 11-6.
 
McGill has not yet clinched a playoff berth and could still finish anywhere from first to ninth in the 10-team OUA East. The Redmen will play Laurentian (5-13-1) on Friday, Jan. 18 at McConnell Arena, puck drop at 7 p.m. The two teams have only met once this season and McGill came away with a 4-1 victory in Sudbury on Nov. 23, 2017.

Carleton hosts eighth-place Nipissing (6-13-0) at the Ice House on Jan. 19. 

REDMEN RAP: Dominic Talbot-Tassi, a senior who hasn't missed a game over his McGill career, has now suited up in 152 consecutive contests overall, five shy of the school ironman record of 157, held by Yves Beaucage (1980-84)... Talbot-Tassi earned one assist against Carleton and now has a career scoring dossier of 32-119-151 overall, one point shy of Gilles Hudon (45-107-152 in 130 games, 1980-1984), who ranks second among the team's all-time top-scoring defencemen... The team record-holder is Marc-Andre Dorion (38-154-192 in 174 games, 2008-2012)... Former Redmen team captain Mark Reade became a grandfather on Friday at the age of 55... Originally from Willowdale, Ont., he now resides in Minnesota. "Reader" graduated in 1986 as the team's all-time point-scorer with a 97-121-218 record in 157 games, a record, which stood until 1990. He served as co-captain with Mike Babcock in 1986-87 and played with Team Canada in 1987. Reade was inducted to the McGill Sports Hall of Fame in 2004 at the age of 41, becoming the second youngest male inductee to the Hall (only football running back Michael Soles was younger at age 34).

LINK TO SCORING SUMMARY


2018-19 OUA Men's Hockey Standings
 

Pos.	OUA West	GP	W	L	OTL	PTS	PCT	GF	GA	STK	P10	PIM
1	Brock	21	15	5	1	31	0.738	65	46	5-0-1	7-2-1	260
2	Ryerson	20	14	5	1	29	0.725	98	69	2-0-0	6-4-0	285
3	Western	20	12	7	1	25	0.625	58	49	1-0-0	8-2-0	347
4	York	20	11	7	2	24	0.600	67	61	0-1-0	4-5-1	287
5	Lakehead	20	10	9	1	21	0.525	60	73	1-0-0	3-6-1	362
6	Windsor	20	10	10	0	20	0.500	65	61	0-1-0	3-7-0	348
7	Waterloo	22	7	10	5	19	0.432	59	91	2-0-1	5-3-2	436
8	Laurier	20	8	11	1	17	0.425	53	55	0-1-0	5-4-1	298
9	Guelph	20	7	10	3	17	0.425	52	54	0-1-1	5-4-1	224
10	Toronto	21	6	11	4	16	0.381	47	67	1-0-0	4-5-1	202
Pos.	OUA East	GP	W	L	OTL	PTS	PCT	GF	GA	STK	P10	PIM
1	Ottawa	20	16	1	3	35	0.875	81	47	6-0-1	7-1-2	287
2	Queen's	20	15	5	0	30	0.750	72	48	2-0-0	8-2-0	240
3	Carleton	21	12	5	4	28	0.667	71	61	0-2-0	6-3-1	441
4	McGill	21	12	5	4	28	0.667	80	59	2-0-1	5-2-3	319
5	UOIT	21	11	6	4	26	0.619	63	61	1-0-0	5-2-3	325
6	Concordia	20	12	7	1	25	0.625	71	70	3-0-0	8-2-0	376
7	UQTR	21	11	8	2	24	0.571	75	65	2-0-0	5-3-2	317
8	Nipissing	19	6	13	0	12	0.316	54	79	0-1-0	4-6-0	336
9	Laurentian	19	5	13	1	11	0.289	47	72	0-6-1	1-8-1	335
10	RMC	22	4	17	1	9	0.205	44	94	0-7-0	1-9-0	429