MONTREAL -- Christophe Lalonde tallied four points and team captain Jerome Verrier scored twice as No.10 ranked McGill outlasted the UQTR Patriotes 7-5 in a key OUA men's hockey matchup Saturday night, at McConnell Arena.
 
The Redmen victory improved their fourth-place record to 11-5-3 with nine games remaining before playoffs and moved them five points ahead of sixth-place UQTR, which tumbled to 9-7-2 in the OUA East Division. The result marked McGill's third win in four games against UQTR (excluding a preseason loss), with each team winning only on home ice. The bitter rivals will not meet again this season unless in post-season play. McGill, which has now taken 12 of last the 16 meetings, improved their lifetime record to 88-160-17 overall against the Pats, including a 57-63-8 home-ice mark.
 
The Redmen had a 47-24 edge in shots, including a lopsided 22-6 margin in the second period. The teams were tied 1-1 after the opening period but McGill jumped into a 5-2 lead after two.The Pats then rallied to tie the score at 5-5 before defenceman Maximilian Daigle of St. Lambert, Que., netted the game-winner for McGill on a power-play with a rocket to the top shelf at 14:33 of the final period.

"We played well tonight and it was good for us to get rewarded offensively. It was a good response (after losing 4-0 to Ottawa the night before)," said head coach Kelly Nobes, who improved to 250-114-3 overall in nine seasons behind the McGill bench. "We had a very strong second period, then gave up a few goals in the third but maintained our composure. Despite letting them back in the game, we stuck to the plan. It was a big two points against a tough opponent. We had good efforts from a lot of guys and that's one of the reasons we were sucessfull. All four lines contributed offensively and it was good to see them step up. We're going to need that going forward."
 
Deven St-Hilaire opened the scoring for UQTR with a goal at 4:15 of the first period. McGill forward Nicolas Poulin of Blainville, Que., responded with a power-play goal to tie it up 1-1 at 19:32.
 
The Redmen exploded for four goals in the middle frame, from the sticks of Michael Cramarossa, Alex Renaud, the aforementioned Chris Lalonde, who added three helpers and Verrier, who put his team up 5-2 with a buzzer-beater at 19:59 of the second. The economics senior also added an empty netter at 18:06 of the final period. Verrier, a 5-foot-11 play-making centre from Drummondville, Que., now owns a 36-74-110 record in 113 career contests overall. Lalonde, a senior from Mirabel, Que., has a 47-44-91 record in 117 games.
 
UQTR forward Christophe Boivin scored two back-to-back power-play goals, at 6:24 and 9:44 of the final period, narrowing the gap to 5-4.  Teammate Mathieu Lemay from Hawkesbury, Ont., then scored a shorthanded goal at 10:57 of the third period to tie the game at 5-5.
 
McGill went 2-for-6 on the power-play but conceded one shorthanded marker. The Pats went 2-for-3 with the man-advantage.
 
Losing netminder Sebastien Auger of St. Augustin de Desmaures, Que., blocked 40 of 46 shots faced as his record fell to 5-7. In his previous meeting with McGill, he registered a 49-save shutout in a 2-0 victory on Nov. 2 in Trois-Rivieres.
 
McGill goaltender Louis-Philippe Guindon, a junior from St. Joseph du Lac, Que., turned away 19 of 24 shots as his record improved to 11-7 on the season and 55-26 in 84 lifetime appearances overall.
 
UQTR (9-7-2) hosts the division-leading Ottawa Gee-Gees (14-1-2) on Sunday (Jan. 6) at Le Colisée.
 
McGill (11-5-3) returns to the ice next Friday, Jan. 11 when they host Concordia (9-7-1) in the much-anticipated Winter Carnival Game, which normally draws a sellout crowd at the 950-seat McConnell Arena. Tickets are available online and cost $10 for adults and $5 for students, seniors and McGill staff. Children 12-and under are admitted free.

REDMEN RAP: Dominic Talbot-Tassi was injured while blocking a shot in the third period and did not return. The 5-foot-9 defenceman from Mascouche, Que., was playing in his 150th straight contest for the Redmen, seven shy of the team record for consecutive games overall, held since 1984 by Yves Beaucage (Oct. 29/80 to Feb. 26/84)... Talbot-Tassi has a career scoring dossier of 32-118-150 overall, two points shy of second-place among McGill defencemen held by Gilles Hudon (45-107-152 in 130 games, 1980-1984)... The school's all-time points record for rearguards in 192 by Marc-Andre Dorion (38-154-192 in 174 games, 2008-2012)... The combined 12 goals scored in the game matched the season-high at McConnell Arena, achieved in a 7-5 loss to Lakehead on Oct. 20, 2018... The seven McGill markers was one shy of the season-high scored in an 8-1 win over Lakehead the previous night (Oct. 19, 2018)... Dick Irvin (BCom '53), a Hockey Hall of Fame broadcaster who skated for the McGill Redmen from 1951 to 1953 was spotted at McConnell Arena earlier in the afternoon to watch his grandson Ben Koehler score twice as the Lac St. Louis Tigers, a boys midget espoirs team, defeated the McGill women's hockey squad 6-2, in their annual battle of the sexes... The Séminaire St-François Blizzard of the Quebec Midget AAA league announced earlier this week that they will be retiring the jersey number of Patrick Delisle-Houde, a former Redmen team captain (BSc'15, MSc'17) who is now serving as the Montreal Canadiens' strength and conditioning coordinator. The ceremony is slated for their home game in Quebec City on Feb. 8.

SCORING SUMMARY


2018-19 OUA MEN'S HOCKEY STANDINGS
 

Rank	OUA West	GP	W	L	OTL	PTS	PCT	GF	GA	STK	P10	PIM
1	Brock	19	14	5	0	28	0.737	61	42	4-0-0	8-2-0	230
2	Ryerson	18	12	5	1	25	0.694	88	61	0-4-0	6-4-0	275
3	Western	18	11	6	1	23	0.639	55	43	7-0-0	7-2-1	300
4	York	18	10	6	2	22	0.611	62	56	0-1-0	5-4-1	245
5	Lakehead	18	9	8	1	19	0.528	56	64	0-1-0	3-6-1	340
6	Windsor	18	9	9	0	18	0.500	56	57	2-0-0	4-6-0	328
7	Guelph	18	7	9	2	16	0.444	48	47	1-0-0	5-5-0	204
8	Waterloo	20	6	10	4	16	0.400	51	83	1-0-0	4-4-2	418
9	Laurier	18	7	10	1	15	0.417	45	50	0-1-1	6-3-1	272
10	Toronto	19	5	10	4	14	0.368	43	64	0-2-1	3-6-1	172
Rank	OUA East	GP	W	L	OTL	PTS	PCT	GF	GA	STK	P10	PIM
1	Ottawa	17	14	1	2	30	0.882	69	38	4-0-0	8-1-1	259
2	Carleton	19	12	3	4	28	0.737	66	49	2-0-1	7-2-1	373
3	Queen's	18	13	5	0	26	0.722	64	45	0-1-0	7-3-0	220
4	McGill	19	11	5	3	25	0.658	70	52	1-0-0	6-2-2	285
5	UOIT	19	10	5	4	24	0.632	60	57	2-0-3	5-2-3	299
6	UQTR	18	9	7	2	20	0.556	59	56	0-1-0	4-4-2	248
7	Concordia	17	9	7	1	19	0.559	58	63	0-1-0	5-4-1	344
8	Laurentian	17	5	11	1	11	0.324	43	65	0-4-1	3-6-1	296
9	Nipissing	17	5	12	0	10	0.294	51	75	1-0-0	3-7-0	283
10	RMC	19	4	14	1	9	0.237	38	76	0-4-0	2-7-1	365