MONTREAL -- Samuel Tremblay of St. Hubert, Que., rammed home a rebound on a power-play at 3:08 of overtime to cap a last-minute rally as No.8 ranked McGill posted a 3-2 victory over the University of Ontario Institute of Technology in an OUA men's hockey thriller at McConnell Arena, Friday.

The result was a belated birthday present for the McGill hockey club, which turned 142 years old on Jan. 31. The team, which has now won five of their last six outing, swept their season series over UOIT, extended their win streak to four straight over the Ridgebacks and improved their lifetime series record to 14-2-0.

Despite a 31-20 edge in shots for the home side, UOIT held a precarious 2-1 advantage on the scoreboard heading into the final two minutes of the game. McGill pulled their goaltender with two minutes to go and it only took three seconds for team captain Jerome Verrier to knot the score at 2-2 with his ninth of the season.

Playing 3-on-3 in the five-minute overtime session, Ridgebacks defenceman Kyle Locke was penalized for slashing at 2:38. That translated into a 4-on-3 advantage and it only took 30 seconds for Tremblay to convert on a rebound from Keanu Yamamoto.

McGill had opened the scoring midway through the first period when defenceman Nikolas Brouillard snapped a nine-game scoring slump at the 12:40 mark. It was his 12th of the season and he continues to lead all rearguards across the nation in that department.

The Ridgebacks tallied twice in the second stanza -- with Locke connecting at 5:58 and Brett Harasymuk at 10:21 -- setting the stage for the home team's late third-period rally.

McGill was 1-for-4 on the power-play and snuffed out both UOIT man-power advantages.

Goaltender Louis-Philip Guindon, who has seen action in all 26 McGill games, 24 of them starts, made 18 saves for the win and improved his record to 16-9. Ridgebacks netminder Michael Bullion had 28 saves in a losing cause as his record tumbled to 10-4.

Defenceman Dominic Talbot-Tassi, who also drew an assist on the game-winner, is two games shy of tying the school's ironman record held by Guillaume Doucet (2007-2011) for most consecutive regular season games played (112). A clerical error initially listed Talbot-Tassi on the verge of breaking the team's overall record, which includes non-conference games. He missed two preseason contests in 2016-17 and thus has currently played in 114 consecutive games overall, 43 shy of the standard of 157 set by Yves Beaucage (1980-1984).

McGill's next game is on Saturday (Feb.2) in the 32nd annual Ronald Corey Cup contest, a 7:30 p.m. start at Concordia's Ed Meagher Arena. A win over the Stingers would clinch a top-four spot and home-ice advantage in the first round of the playoffs.

The result improved McGill's record to 16-6-4 as they kept pace with second-place Queen's (18-7-0) in the OUA East Division. McGill can finish anywhere from second to sixth in the division. Although there are three games left to play, if the season ended today, McGill would meet sixth-place Concordia (14-9-2) in the first round of the playoffs, slated to open on Feb.13.

McGILL MEMENTOS: Two former McGill hockey teammates -- Leonard Patrick Kelly (BEng '85) and Mike Babcock (BEd '86) -- had a mini-reunion in Detroit on Friday night, watching a pre-game ceremony to see Kelly's 91-year-old Hockey Hall of Fame father Red Kelly, have his jersey No.4 retired by the Red Wings...Babcock, in his fourth season as head coach of the NHL's Toronto Maple Leafs, patrolled the McGill blueline from 1983 to 1987, while Kelly skated for McGill from 1981 to 1984 before becoming a speedskater and competing in the 1992 Winter Olympics in Albertville, followed by the 1994 Games in Lillehammer.

SCORING SUMMARY


2018-19 OUA men's Hockey Standings
(28-game schedule; Top 8 in each division qualify for post-season)
 

Pos.	OUA West	GP	W	L	OTL	PTS	PCT	GF	GA	STRK	P10	PIM
1	x-Ryerson	25	18	5	2	38	0.760	122	84	6-0-1	6-3-1	341
2	x-Brock	24	17	5	2	36	0.750	75	51	7-0-2	7-1-2	312
3	x-Western	25	14	10	1	29	0.580	73	70	0-1-0	6-4-0	419
4	York	25	12	11	2	26	0.520	85	88	0-2-0	3-7-0	337
5	Guelph	25	11	10	4	26	0.520	75	69	4-0-1	5-3-2	298
6	Windsor	25	12	13	0	24	0.480	75	79	1-0-0	5-5-0	418
7	Laurier	25	11	13	1	23	0.460	71	72	0-2-0	5-4-1	346
8	Waterloo	26	9	12	5	23	0.442	77	104	1-0-0	6-3-1	523
9	Toronto	25	9	12	4	22	0.440	60	72	1-0-0	5-4-1	265
10	Lakehead	25	10	14	1	21	0.420	71	97	0-5-0	2-8-0	454
Pos.	OUA East	GP	W	L	OTL	PTS	PCT	GF	GA	STRK	P10	PIM
1	x-Ottawa	25	19	2	4	42	0.840	101	60	1-0-0	7-1-2	337
2	x-Queen's	25	18	7	0	36	0.720	86	62	3-0-0	6-4-0	321
3	x-McGill	26	16	6	4	36	0.692	93	67	2-0-0	7-2-1	385
4	x-Carleton	25	15	5	5	35	0.700	87	73	3-0-1	5-3-2	517
5	x-UOIT	25	13	7	5	31	0.620	75	69	1-0-1	5-2-3	371
6	x-Concordia	25	14	9	2	30	0.600	86	89	0-1-1	6-3-1	435
7	x-UQTR	26	13	10	3	29	0.558	92	83	0-2-0	5-4-1	419
8	Laurentian	24	7	16	1	15	0.313	57	85	1-0-0	2-8-0	399
9	Nipissing	24	7	17	0	14	0.292	69	102	0-1-0	3-7-0	378
10	RMC	25	5	18	2	12	0.240	51	105	1-0-1	1-8-1	463

x-clinched a playoff berth