MONTREAL – Brandon Frattaroli scored the winning goal with 62 seconds remaining as McGill skated to a hard-fought 3-1 victory over the Royal Military College Paladins in OUA men's hockey at McConnell Arena, Saturday.
 
The result avenged a shocking 7-6 overtime loss to RMC in the regular season opener on Oct. 14 and improved McGill's lifetime record to 75-10-4 against the Paladins since the long-time rivals first crossed paths more than a century ago, in 1892.

The teams traded goals in the first five minutes,  then waited until the final two minutes of regulation before McGill exploded for a pair to avoid overtime.

"RMC is not the same team from several years ago, they're good and they work hard, play with good structure and they're in a lot of tight games," said McGill bench boss David Urquhart, whose troops were playing their second game in as many nights in the wake of a road win at Queen's on Friday, while RMC hadn't played since a mid-week confrontation with the Gaels.

"It was really good to see that we stuck with it through the whole game on a night where our execution was exactly where we wanted it to be,  we were still able to dictate the pace of the game and wait for an opportunity," noted Urquhart. "Despite having a young team, we're comfortable and patient in these tight, one-goal games. And that's a real positive thing coming out of this weekend with two close victories. Finding ways to win these type of games is important for success. Both nights, our power-play provided some key goals but tonight, we also killed off a critical two-man disadvantage early in the second period. Part of that was thanks to Mitchell Prowse on our blue-line who sacrificed his body to block a shot, had to leave the game and hopefully, he will be okay."

McGill rookie William Rouleau opening the scoring at 2:25 but RMC countered at 4:42 when Isaac Pascoal replied.

Just as the prospects of overtime were looming large, RMC took four penalties inside the final two minutes of regulation and World War 3 almost broke out in the dying moments. Paladins forward Austin Saint was nailed for high-sticking at 18:43. It took only 15 seconds for McGill's potent power-play unit, which leads the OUA with a 32.6 per cent success rate, to strike gold.

When Frattaroli converted a nifty three-way passing play from Rouleau and defenceman Scott Walford at 18:58, RMC head coach Richard Lim expressed his displeasure to the referees and was subsequently assessed a game misconduct, which will translate into a one-game suspension from being behind the bench.

With McGill leading 2-1, the Paladins pulled their goalie for an extra attacker but the move backfired when rookie Alexandre Gagnon took a pass from William Poirier and found the empty net. As Poirier skated past the RMC bench, Saint tried to provoke him and both players were penalized with Saint taking a double minor to all but extinguish any hopes for an RMC comeback.

The Paladins ended up with nine penalties for 26 minutes, compared to McGill, which had three infractions for six minutes. The Redbirds went 1-for-7 on the power-play and successfully neutralized both shorthanded situations. That translated into McGill holding a lopsided 38-21 edge in shots.

Redbirds goaltender Alexis Shank made 20 saves for the win, improving his record to 3-3 on the season. RMC's Joey May made 35 saves in a losing cause and dropped to 3-2.

RMC (3-6-1) returns to the ice on Nov. 18 when they take on the Gee-Gees (5-5-0) in Ottawa.

McGill, which improved to 6-2-2, is tied with Concordia (7-3-0) for second place in the OUA East, two points behind division-leading UQTR (8-2-0). The Redbirds will play both rivals next weekend, traveling to Trois-Riveres on Friday (Nov. 18) for a 7 p.m. faceoff against the defending national champions.

Then on Sunday (Nov. 20), McGill will confront Concordia at the Loyola campus with a 7 p.m. puck drop for the 35th edition of the Ronald Corey Cup rivalry game. McGill is 19-10-3 in the series, named after the former president of the Montreal Canadiens who donated the trophy in 1988, for an annual challenge game that represents local college hockey supremacy. The Stingers are 11-20-3 in Cup play, including a 1-1 record against UQTR.

REDBIRDS RAP: After the game, the entire McGill team skated over to the far boards to acknowledge and applaud the McGill Fight Band, which had a 21-member entourage, buttressed by a large brass section. The band added significantly to the soiree's entertainment, from the playing of the national anthem, to their final notes as the game concluded... Congrats to former McGill defenceman and assistant coach Adam Shell (BCom. '03) and his wife Ruby on the birth of their first child, a son, on Thursday.

SCORING SUMMARY
 
OUA SCOREBOARD
 
OUA STANDINGS
 
OUA SCORING LEADERS
 
SOURCE:
Earl Zukerman
Sports Information Officer
Athletics & Recreation
McGill University
514-398-7012
www.mcgillathletics.ca
earl.zukerman@mcgill.ca
@EarlZukerman (twitter)