MONTREAL –
Max Grondin scored twice as the visiting Ottawa Gee-Gees rolled into town and skated away with a 5-3 victory over McGill in OUA men's hockey at McConnell Arena, Saturday.
In a wide-open contest, the two teams combined for seven goals -- five of them in the opening stanza -- and 89 shots, with Ottawa hold a slim 45-44 edge.
The Gee-Gees took an early 2-0 lead before the game was three minutes old, but McGill rallied to regain the advantage with three goals before the end of the first period. The Redbirds met their downfall late in the middle session, conceding back-to-back markers only 13 seconds apart. Ottawa then added an empty-netter to ice the contest.
"It was not the start that you want but we had a really great response to being down 2-0," said McGill head coach
David Urquhart. "We talked to the guys briefly on the bench after being down so early and asked them how were they going to respond. And coming back with three goals before the period was over is how we want them to respond. When we look at the game as a whole, we chalk this up as another learning experience for this young team. As we see the other teams in the league, we can see that we're in each game and they're all going to be tight."
Joining Grondin on the Gee-Gees side of the scoresheet was
Justin McRae,
Bradley Chenier and
Yvan Mongo.
The McGill marksmen included
Brandon Skubel, who hails from Niagara Falls, Ont., with his first career goal at the university level. Other markers came from the sticks of
Eric Uba of Kitchener, Ont., and
Alex Plamondon of Drummondville, Que., a first-year transfer from Laurentian University.
The Redbirds went 1-for-4 on the power-play, while snuffing out all four shorthanded scenarios. After two regular season contests, the McGill penalty-killing unit has now neutralized all 11 shorthanded situations.
Gee-Gees netminder
Tristan Berube turned aside 41 of 44 shots for his first career win, while McGill freshman
Alexis Shank kicked out 40 of 44 in a losing cause. Both goalies now own a 1-1 record.
Ottawa closed the gap in the all-time head-to-head series to
88-106-10 in 204 lifetime meetings against McGill.
The Redbirds (1-1-0) play at Carleton (1-0) on Nov. 12 at 7 p.m. , while Ottawa (1-0-1) travels to UQTR (0-1-0).
Although the final score put a damper on the Friends of McGill Hockey Homecoming Game, there were many positives. It was the team's first alumni event under their FMH 2.0 rebrand, which was initiated during the coronavirus pandemic. A large turnout of about 50 McGill hockey alumni showed up, dating back through every decade to the 1960s. Some played in the traditional alumni game earlier in the day, which was followed by a family skate and the varsity game between McGill and Ottawa.
"The turnout from our alumni was great," said Urquhart. "As a coaching staff, with
Patrick Delisle-Houde (PDH) and myself, it was great to see so many former teammates from our playing days at McGill and so many alumni that have been great contributors and part of the program for so long here. On a personal level, it fills my heart to see the support that we got from those people and from getting them back in the rink with smiling faces, especially with all the kids ripping around the ice during the family skate. Thanks to PDH and (alumni coordinator)
Jean St-Pierre for doing all the legwork to make that happen. They went the extra mile to send out emails and make the calls to ensure this event would be successful under the (COVID) safety restrictions that we have to deal with."
FACES IN THE CROWD: Among those spotted during the soiree, was current head coach David
Urquhart and associate coach Patrick
Delisle-Houde, who spent most of the evening behind the bench… Other alumni from the past included McGill Sports Hall of Fame inductees Martin
Raymond, Mike
Richards, Mathieu
Poitras and Pierre
Gendron, in addition to Herb
Madill, Greg
Fraser, Jerome
Verrier, David
Rose, John
Harris, Chris
Churchill-Smith, Teddy
Kyres, Luc
Vaillancourt, Stephane
Beaudoin, Paul
Theriault, Benoit
Rajotte, Leonard
Verrilli, Jocelyn
Perreault, Gianluca
Curcuruto, Vincent
Barnard, Alexandre
Page, Alex
Sills, Greg
Leblanc, Michael
Campoli, Joe
Fleschler, Alex
Chenevert, Max
Daigle, Ron
Warwaruk, Dave
Gourde, Cedric
McNicoll, Patrick
Belzile, Jonathan
Brunelle, Samuel
Labrecque, Francis
Lambert-Lemay, Michael
Farmer, Dr. Jim
Sproule, Brent
Bannerman, Martin
Laquerre, Marc
Vigneault, Mathieu
Leclerc, Allan
Kobelansky, Mike
Wells, Pierre-Antoine
Paquet, Eric
L'Italien, Hugo
Talbot-Tassi, Pietro
Antonelli, Guillaume
Langelier-Parent, Marc-Andre
Daneau, Pierre-Olivier
Bousquet, Simon
Tardif-Richard, Simon
Marcotte-Legare, Guillaume
Monast, Sam
Hodhod, Jan
Kaminsky, Quinn
Syrydiuk and Dan
Gubiani. Among the former staffers with the program were assistant coaches Jean
St-Pierre, Chris
LaPerle and Dino
Masanotti.
SCORING SUMMARY
OUA SCOREBOARD & STANDINGS
SOURCE:
Earl Zukerman
Sports Information Officer
Athletics & Recreation
McGill University
514-398-7012 (Off.)
m.athletics.mcgill.ca (mobile website)
www.mcgillathletics.ca
earl.zukerman@mcgill.ca
