MONTREAL -- Five different snipers found the back of the net as McGill rallied three times to silence Concordia 5-3 in an OUA men's hockey thriller, Sunday, at the Ed Meagher Arena.

The victory put some salve in the wound of Friday's season-opening shocker, a 7-6 overtime loss to RMC. McGill improved its lifetime record against Concordia to 112-109-14 in 235 meetings, including an 87-81-13 mark in 181 regular season contests.

"All the guys were in the wheelbarrow tonight," said McGill head coach David Urquhart, who is originally from the Niagara Falls area and was referencing an anecdote about Charles Blondin, a French tightrope walker who was the first person to cross the Falls and somehow convinced some onlookers to hop in a wheelbarrow which he precariously pushed across the Falls. "Everyone was in today, everyone jumped in the wheelbarrow and was pulling together.

"We've been looking for a complete 60-minute performance throughout the preseason and we got it today. The guys rebounded really well from Friday's loss to RMC."

Concordia grabbed three first period leads but the Redbirds answered each time, on markers by veteran forward Jordan-Ty Fournier, rookie defenceman Maxime Blanchard and freshman forward Mikisiw Awashish, who hails from the Innu community of Mashteuiatsh, Que. It was the first career goal in a McGill jersey for Awashish, who also added a pair of assists.

McGill finally took the lead for good late in the second period when sophomore Brandon Skubel connected for the winning tally at 18:12 to make it 4-3. Freshman Alexandre Gagnon gave his troops some breathing room when he added an insurance goal at 3:27 of the final stanza.

Concordia's first-period marksmen were Alexandre Katerinakis, defenceman Samuel Desgroseilliers and Tyler Hylland.

The Redbirds had a 39-26 edge in shots with sophomore goaltender Alexis Shank making 23 saves for the victory. Stingers netminder Jonathan Lemieux made 34 saves in a losing cause.

Concordia was 2-for-5 on the power-play, while McGill was 1-for-3.

The two teams will flip venues for their next meeting, slated for Thursday, Oct. 20, at McConnell Arena, where McGill has a 59-48-7 lifetime edge over Concordia. It will be part of Homecoming Week at McGill and a large alumni turnout is expected as the 2011-12 national championship winning hockey team will be in town for induction to the McGill Sports Hall of Fame and to celebrate the 10th anniversary of their historic victory.

REDBIRDS RAP: Two McGill Sports Hall of Fame inductees were spotted among the faces in the crowd at Concordia, namely Mike Richards and Bryan Larkin. Richards, a defenceman, won the Bobby Bowl Trophy as Team MVP in 1960-61, while Larkin was an all-Canadian blueliner, originally from Saskatoon but now living in England. He was visiting for a few days to see his son Patrick Larkin, a freshman forward in the Redbirds lineup.

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Earl Zukerman
Sports Information Officer
Athletics & Recreation
McGill University
514-398-7012 (Tel.)
www.mcgillathletics.ca
earl.zukerman@mcgill.ca