OTTAWA -- Sophomore Keanu Yamamoto of Spokane, Wash., tallied twice as sixth-ranked McGill toppled the No.4 Ottawa Gee-Gees in an OUA men's hockey thriller at the Minto Sports Complex, Sunday.

It was McGill's first victory in three confrontations this season with the division-leading Gee-Gees (18-2-4), who skated to 5-1 and 4-0 wins earlier. The result improved McGill's lifetime record versus Ottawa to 105-84-10 in 199 meetings overall.

More importantly, the Redmen (15-6-4) leap-frogged over Carleton (14-5-5) and regained third place in the OUA East standings. With three games remaining before playoffs, McGill can still finish anywhere from second to seventh, while the Gee-Gees magic number to clinch first is just two points.

"I was really pleased with our performance and the grit we displayed tonight," said McGill head coach Kelly Nobes, who was missing a number of key injured veterans and dressed just 10 forwards with eight defencemen. "We were coming off a hard, emotional game at Carleton and wanted to have a smart game, manage it well and execute. We played a full 60 minutes today, everybody was on and (goaltender) L.P. Guindon had a great game. it was a good character win and a true team win."

After a scoreless first period, which featured no stoppages until after the six-minute mark, McGill exploded for three goals in the middle stanza. Yamamoto -- who's brother Kailer was a first-round draft pick by the Edmonton Oilers in 2017 -- connected at 10:14, then made it 2-0 on a power-play at 14:45. Only 68 seconds later, Antoine Dufort-Plante, a sophomore from Montreal, put the Redmen ahead 3-0 with what proved to be the winning goal.

"Yamamoto was a big-time performer for us tonight. He had taken two penalties (before his first goal) and wasn't happy, justifiably, with the calls," said Nobes of the 5-foot-6, 166-pound forward who was recruited from the Western Hockey League's Spokane Chiefs. "But he reset (his emotions) on the bench and used his energy in a positive way to bounce back back and score two key goals and had several chances for a third one. I'm really happy with how he responded."

Just when it appeared that a shutout was imminent for McGill's Louis-Philip Guindon, Ottawa pulled goaltender Anthony Brodeur for a 6-on-4 advantage on a late third period power-play. They finally broke the goose-egg at 16:18 when Cody Drover connected for his 14th of the season. With the goalie still on the bench, Kevin Dominigue narrowed the gap to 3-2 with his team-leading 18th goal.

McGill, which had a 32-28 edge in shots, went 1-for-4 on the power-play and killed off five of six shorthanded situations.

"Our PK was outstanding and the guys were really engaged, especially on the bench," added Nobes, whose troops were standing at the bench for most of the game. "Like last weekend's win at Carleton, the guys were playing for and supporting each other and showing a lot of enthusiasm. It's good to see that."

Guindon, a 6-foot-1, 188-pound kinesiology junior from St. Joseph du Lac, Que., improved to 15-9 with a 26-save performance. Brodeur, who posted a 33-save shutout the last time these teams met (Jan. 4), made 29 saves this time out as his record tumbled to 9-4.

McGill defenceman Dominic Talbot-Tassi played in his 156th consecutive game overall and can tie the school's ironman record on Friday, Feb. 1, when the Redmen host the UOIT Ridgebacks from Oshawa, in the final game of the regular season at McConnell Arena (7 pm). The Redmen will then close out their OUA schedule on the road, at Concordia in the annual Corey Cup game (Feb.2) and at Queen's (Feb. 9).

REDMEN RAP: Among the lineup scratches was team scoring leader Guillaume Gauthier (injured in practice on Friday) and forwards Jordan Fournier (injured Saturday at Carleton), Nicolas Poulin (injured last week) and Aaron Armstrong (had surgery in November)... The McGill ironman record is held by Yves Beaucage who only missed one game in his collegiate career and suited up in 157 straight contests from 1980 to 1984. Talbot-Tassi, an engineering senior from Mascouche, Que., has never missed a McGill game and owns a 33-119-152 record overall with 40 PIMs. He is tied with Gilles Hudon (1980-1984) for second place among the team's all-time top-scoring defencemen.

SCORING SUMMARY


2018-19 OUA Men's Hockey Standings (updated)
 

POS.	OUA West	GP	W	L	OTL	PTS	PCT	GF	GA	STK	P10	PIM
1	Brock	24	17	5	2	36	0.750	75	51	7-0-2	7-1-2	312
2	Ryerson	24	17	5	2	36	0.750	116	82	5-0-1	5-4-1	329
3	Western	24	14	9	1	29	0.604	71	65	1-0-0	7-3-0	409
4	York	23	12	9	2	26	0.565	81	77	1-0-0	3-6-1	325
5	Guelph	24	10	10	4	24	0.500	70	65	3-0-1	5-3-2	284
6	Laurier	24	11	12	1	23	0.479	69	66	0-1-0	5-4-1	334
7	Windsor	24	11	13	0	22	0.458	70	76	0-1-0	4-6-0	402
8	Lakehead	24	10	13	1	21	0.438	67	92	0-4-0	2-8-0	444
9	Waterloo	25	8	12	5	21	0.420	72	102	0-2-0	5-3-2	498
10	Toronto	24	8	12	4	20	0.417	54	71	0-1-0	5-4-1	257
POS.	OUA East	GP	W	L	OTL	PTS	PCT	GF	GA	STK	P10	PIM
1	Ottawa	24	18	2	4	40	0.833	97	59	0-1-0	7-1-2	323
2	Queen's	24	17	7	0	34	0.708	83	60	2-0-0	6-4-0	294
3	McGill	25	15	6	4	34	0.680	90	65	1-0-0	7-2-1	379
4	Carleton	24	14	5	5	33	0.688	85	72	2-0-1	5-3-2	509
5	Concordia	24	14	8	2	30	0.625	85	85	1-0-1	7-2-1	421
6	UOIT	24	13	7	4	30	0.625	73	66	1-0-0	5-2-3	361
7	UQTR	25	13	9	3	29	0.580	91	81	0-1-0	6-3-1	413
8	Nipissing	23	7	16	0	14	0.304	67	99	1-0-0	4-6-0	364
9	Laurentian	23	6	16	1	13	0.283	54	83	0-2-0	1-8-1	387
10	RMC	24	5	18	1	11	0.229	49	102	1-0-0	2-8-0	453