MONTREAL – Co-captain Maxime Murdoch of Westmount, Que., registered his third hat-trick of the season and added a pair of assists as McGill sunk the visiting Nipissing Lakers 11-7 in the Canadian University Field Lacrosse Association at Percival Molson Stadium, Saturday.
 
McGill improved their unblemished record to 8-0 and sits tied with Trent (8-1) atop the CUFLA East with two games remaining and a game in hand on the Excalibur. If the two teams finish tied in the standings, McGill currently holds an 8-7 lead in the head-to-head tie-breaker, with one confrontation left, the much-awaited season finale showdown on Oct. 26 in Peterborough, Ont.

Last season, both team's finished with an identical 9-1 record and split their two-game series but Trent outscored McGill 26-23 to take the top seed on the head-to-head tie-breaker. It marked the first time since 2011 that McGill had not won the East Division pennant.

Nipissing jumped into an early 2-0 lead but McGill roared back with eight consecutive goals before the Lakers could respond with three straight.

Murdoch, a 6-foot-4, 220-pound attackman, began his afternoon with back-to-back goals midway through the second quarter to put McGill ahead 6-2. He completed his hat-trick at 9:32 of the third, padding his side's lead to 9-5. The 23-year-old North American Studies senior remains McGill's scoring leader with 19 points, including 12 goals, in eight games.

"Our offence was really clicking. We just bounced back (from a sobering 22-2 exhibition loss at Vermont, Oct. 12) and worked well," said head coach Tim Murdoch, father of the team's leading scorer. "Nipissing has a very good offence and we were able to contain them. But essentially we just refocused on the challenge at hand. It is all going to come down to the McGill-Trent match in one week. It is going to be like a playoff game. Whoever wins that wins the East."

Freshman Cameron McGinnis, a native of Toronto, who returned after missing three weeks to an injury, sparked McGill's first quarter comeback, scoring at the 11:13 and 14:19 marks to tie the gae at 2-2.
 
The hosts then potted six unanswered goals to take a 8-3 advantage into halftime courtesy of a pair from both Murdoch and Kieran McKay of Richmond, B.C., along with singles from Seth Obadia and Tanner Baldin, who was credited with the game-winning goal at 9:05 of the second quarter.

An undisciplined second half from McGill, in which the team took eight of the 10 penalties called, allowed Nipissing to win the third quarter 3-1 but Kerry Kane and Hunter Zawada tallied in the final stanza to secure the victory.  

Will Craig provided Nipissing's primary threat on offence with four goals in a losing cause. The junior attackman from Midland, Ont., scored once in every period.
 
Rounding out the Lakers scoring was Scott Dominey with a pair and Tyler Poole with one.

Kai McDonald, a junior defensive midfielder from Coquitlam, B.C., was successful in the face-off circle in the absence of all three of McGill's face-off specialists due to injury. McDonald, who had never faced off in varsity lacrosse before, won 44 per cent of his duels (8/18) with teammates Hayden Middlebrook, Gardie Herr and Julian Smith-Voudouros all out of action.

Michael Gallo of Glen Rock, N.J., and David Pelliccione of Woodbridge, Ont., split the goalkeeping duties for McGill, with each playing one half. The 5-foot-7 Gallo started and was credited with the win. Both keepers faced seven shots with Pelliccione, an economics senior, allowing  four goals and Gallo, an architecture senior, giving up three.

Lakers netminder Andrew Wood was charged with the loss, conceding 11 goals on 21 shots.

McGill (8-0) will host Carleton on Tuesday at Molson Stadium (8:45 p.m.).

Nipissing concluded their schedule at 6-4 and will finish third in the six-team East Division. They must await next week's results to determine their playoff opponent.

SCORING SUMMARY

 
2019 CANADIAN UNIVERSITY FIELD LACROSSE ASSOCIATION STANDINGS
(10-game reg. season season; Top 4 teams qualify for post-season)
 

EAST DIV.	GP	W	L	GF	GA	PTS
McGill	8	8	0	73	48	16
Trent	9	8	1	97	53	16
Nipissing	10	6	4	96	85	12
Bishop's	9	4	5	100	65	8
Queen's	8	3	5	53	51	6
Ottawa	9	1	8	54	97	2
Carleton	7	0	7	33	107	0
WEST DIV.	GP	W	L	GF	GA	PTS
Brock	7	7	0	100	32	14
Western	9	7	2	106	46	14
Guelph	9	6	3	96	69	12
Toronto	8	4	4	56	86	8
Laurier	8	3	5	49	76	6
McMaster	7	2	5	53	56	4
Laurentian	10	0	10	53	148	0