MONTREAL – Five different players scored, including Connor Graham's shorthanded tally on a penalty-shot, to lead the Wilfrid Laurier Golden Hawks to a 5-2 triumph over McGill in OUA men's hockey at McConnell Arena, Saturday.
 
McGill slipped to 2-3-1 and eighth in OUA Eastern standings. The result also marked McGill's third consecutive loss to the Hawks since a 4-0 win on Nov. 13, 2015 and dropped the lifetime record against them to 13-14-1.
 
Despite a 41-38 advantage in shots for McGill, their offence never seemed to click and both goals were scored by defencemen -- Dominic Talbot-Tassi and Nikolas Brouillard.

Laurier opened the scoring when Matt McJannet struck at 7:47, followed by Graham's back-breaker at 19:27 to put the visitors ahead 2-0 lead after 20 minutes. McGill's rookie goaltender Emanuel Vella appeared to make the initial save on Graham's shot but the puck slowly trickled through the Toronto native's pads.
 
Anthony Conti, a junior left-winger from North Vancouver, made it 3-0 with what proved to be the game-winner at 6:50 of the second period. It was his fourth marker in six games, equaling his total output from his two previous seasons combined. 
 
McGill attempted a second period rally, outshooting Laurier 21-7. The effort paid off as Talbot-Tassi, a native of Mascouche, Que., rifled a shot from the blueline on the power-play at 13:09, narrowing the gap to two. But a Danny Hanlon goal less than four minutes later restored Laurier's three-goal advantage and disintegrated any momentum the home side had built.  
 
Right wing Ethan Wiseman of Mississauga, Ont., struck the final blow at 7:56 of the third period, as Laurier collected its first win this season and improved to 1-3-2 in OUA West Division standings.

McGill countered less than a minute later, when Brouillard struck for his second of the season. The physical education junior from St. Hilaire, Que., has two goals in six games thus far and 17 in 35 regular season games over his three years.
 
Vella, who stopped 33 of 38 shots dropped to 0-2. Hawks goalie Matt Williams of Upper Tantallon, N.S., kicked aside 39 of 41 shots for the win.
 
McGill, which took 37 of the 47 penalty minutes issued by the referees, went 1-for-5 on the power-play, blanked the Hawks on all seven of their PP chances and have now killed off 19 consecutive penalties.
 
Next week, Laurier (1-3-2) visits St. Catharines, Ont., to take on Brock University on Oct. 24, while McGill (2-3-1) will travel to the nation's capital on Oct. 25 for a rematch with the Ottawa Gee-Gees, who edged McGill 3-2 in the season opener.