MONTREAL -- Rookie Emanuel Vella set a single-game McGill  assist record for goaltenders but he was overshadowed by Austin Eastman, who scored twice and added a pair of helpers as the underdog Ontario Tech University Ridgebacks surprised 10th-ranked McGill with a 5-3 setback in OUA men's hockey in a Saturday matinee at McConnell Arena.

It was McGill's first loss to the Ridgebacks since a 5-2 decision on Oct. 8, 2016, ending a nine-game win streak with OTU. McGill is now 18-3 in 21 lifetime meeetings with the Ridgebacks.

Outshot 40-34, the home side led 1-0 after the first period but the visitors took a 2-1 advantage after two and claimed a wild final stanza 3-2, including an empty-netter.

Vella registered a pair of helpers in a losing cause to surpass the McGill goalie single-game record held by many. The 6-foot-4, 195-pound recruit from the OHL's Flint Firebirds kicked aside 35 of 39 shots as his record dropped to 4-4. The 20-year-old Arts freshman assisted on Jordan-Ty Fournier's shorthanded goal to put McGill ahead 1-0 at the 12-minute mark. He then set up veteran Antoine Dufort-Plante for a breakaway at 3:39 of the third period to cut the deficit to 3-2.

Fournier, a Canadian Studies sophomore from Dorval, Que., potted a pair and now has seven goals in regular season play and 10 markers in 29 contests overall. Four of them are shorthanded, which is one shy of the single-season school record set by Patrice Tremblay in 1991-92 and matched by Guillaume Demers in 2007-08.

Rounding out the scoring for the Ridgebacks was Jack Patterson, who tallied twice, including an empty-netter with 37 seconds remaining, and Jake Bricknell, who gave his troops a 3-1 lead just 52 seconds into the final stanza, only to see McGill battle back moments later with two goals in 32 seconds by Dufort-Plante and Fournier.

McGill, which went 0-for-3 on the power-play, had a chance to snap the 3-3 deadlock with 10 minutes remaining but failed to convert on back-to-back penalties assessed to the Ridgebacks, who also went scoreless with the man-advantage (0-5).

OTU netminder Michael Bullion turned aside 31 of 34 shots for the victory, upping his record to 6-9.

The result clinched the sixth playoff spot for OTU, which finished their schedule at 13-12-3 and owns a head-to-head tie-breaker over seventh-place Queen's (12-12-3). They Ridgebacks will await the third-place finisher, which could be McGill or Ottawa (16-7-4), in a best-of-three quarter-final series beginning Wednesday in Oshawa.

McGill, which dropped to fourth-place at 16-9-2, could still finish third or fourth. They trail third-place Ottawa by two points with both teams having one left to play. Should the teams end up tied in the standings, McGill would own the first tie-breaker with more wins.

McGill will close out their schedule with a rare 11:15 a.m. start on Sunday morning (Feb. 9) against second-place UQTR (18-6-3). The bitter provincial rivals had been slated to meet on Friday but that matchup was postponed due to the 40-centimetre snowfall that hit the Montreal area. A McGill victory over the Pats, combined with an Ottawa loss (in regulation time) at Queen's would clinch third-place for McGill and a first-round playoff matchup with the Ridgebacks, a series that would open on Wednesday in Oshawa, Ont.

Otherwise McGill would finish fourth and host fifth-place Concordia in their playoff opener on Wednesday, Feb. 12.

FACES IN THE CROWD: Among the former McGill players spotted in the crowd was Mike Bean (1984-1986), Jocelyn Perreault (1999-2004) and Eric L'Italien (2005-2009).... Also seen was former McGill football player Perry Koziros from the early 1980s, who later served as a strength & conditioning coach with the 1987 Vanier Cup national championship team

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