MONTREAL – Christophe Lalonde of Mirabel, Que., scored the overtime winner on a power-play as McGill snuffed out a late Carleton comeback to defeat the No.3-ranked Ravens 4-3 in an OUA men's hockey thriller at McConnell Arena, Friday.
 
It was the fourth straight win for McGill, which improved to 9-5-1 on the season and 37-29-1 in 67 lifetime confrontations against Carleton. The division-leading Ravens, who suffered only their third loss in 17 games (and first in overtime), dropped to 14-2-1.
 
Carleton, which had a 36-35 edge in shots, led 1-0 after the first period but succumbed to a second period blitz from McGill which left the visitors trailing 3-1 after two periods. The Ravens, however, returned the favour in the final frame, scoring two of their own to force a seven-minute, 4-on-4 overtime session. But Lady Luck smiled in McGill's favour at the 2:32 mark of the extra period, when Carleton centre Brogan O'Brien was penalized for interference, setting the stage for the winning tally.

Lalonde, a 25-year-old industrial relations senior, struck pay-dirt at 3:45 into the extra sudden-death session -- on a neat three-way passing play with Dominic Talbot-Tassi and Keanu Yamamoto -- to secure the victory. It was his fourth of the season and 54th career goal in 151 games played overall.
 
The first apple on the winning tally was the 100th career assist in regular-season play for Talbot-Tassi, who leads all OUA rearguards with 18 points and now has a lifetime 29-100-129 record in 127 OUA contests. He stands one shy of the McGill career regular season points record for defencemen, held by  Marc-André Dorion, who posted a 23-107-130 record in 105 league games from 2008 to 2012. The team's regular season record for most career goals by a rearguard is 33 by Ryan McKiernan (2010-2014).

"We're building every week and I thought today's win was a step in the right direction," said McGill head coach Liam Heelis. "It's a testament to the guys sticking to things each and every week and that we as coaches preach in practice. It is not only how well they execute the systems but how hard their effort is... It was good to see that tonight, forcing turnovers and pushing back against a team as strong as Carleton. (Our group) let themselves know they can play with the best teams in the country."
 
On another stroke of luck, Carleton was credited with the lone marker (shorthanded) of the opening frame, at 16:11, when McGill defenceman Dominic Talbot-Tassi accidently shot the puck into his own net while intercepting a crease-wide pass from Ravens forward Dakota Odgers.

But the tone was set by McGill who bounced back with three unanswered goals in the middle frame. The assault was led by defenceman Nikolas Brouillard of St. Hilaire, Que., who struck twice within a three-minute span, scoring at 6:08 and 9:01. The 25-year-old physical education sophomore now has seven goals in 15 games this season after leading the league's blueliners last year with a dozen in 26 contests.
 
"Nik was excellent tonight," said Heelis of his wiry, 5-foot-11, 168-pound blueliner who also collected one assist and now has 13 points in 15 contests. "He's a guy that blocks shots on penalty-kills too. He's also leading the rush or finishing plays in the offensive zone. The workload he and (Dominic) Talbot-Tassi have on them, its amazing what they give us for output every night."
 
Guillaume Gauthier then made it 3-1 for McGill nine minutes before the end of the second period with his seventh of the season and now shares the team's goal-scoring lead with Brouillard.

Dalen Hedges and Cole Carter replied for the Ravens in the final period of regulation -- at 2:48 and 11:50 -- to temporarily rattle the home crowd but it was all forgiven with Lalonde's eventual winner.
 
McGill goaltender Louis-Philip Guindon of St. Joseph du Lac, turned aside 33 of 36 shots to earn the win and improve his record to 8-4. At the other end of the rink, Mark Grametbauer allowed four goals on 35 shots in the Ravens net as his record fell to 7-2.
 
McGill went 1-for-5 on the power-play, while Carleton was 0-for-3. The McGill penalty-killing unit is now ranked second among all 20 OUA teams, with a stingy 89.6 per cent success rate, behind Ottawa (90.4)
 
Carleton (14-2-1) hosts Ontario Tech (6-8-2) on Saturday (Nov. 30) while the Royal Military College Paladins (5-11-0) visits McGill (9-5-1) at 7 p.m. That will be the final league game of the semester for McGill, which will be hosting their third annual Player's Parents Night. Their next contest will be an exhibition at Yale on Dec. 29, which will be preceded by an alumni game between the two schools.

FACES IN THE CROWD: Two members of the Montreal Canadiens were spotted in attendance at the game... No they weren't scouts looking to solve the Habs defensive woes but rather, two former McGill hockey captains, namely Patrick Delisle-Houde who skated for the men's team from 2012 to 2017 and Shauna Denis (2002-2007), who led the women's squad to their first-ever national championship in 2007.

"PDH" now serves as strength and conditioning coordinator with the Habs, while Denis is the NHL team's director of strategic content.
 
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