TROIS-RIVIERES – Brandon Frattaroli of Pierrefonds, Que., potted a pair of goals and set up another as the visiting McGill men's hockey team rallied for a 5-3 road victory over No. 3 ranked UQTR at Le Colisee, Friday.

The victory, McGill's third in a row, perched the unranked Redbirds (7-2-2) into a first-place tie with UQTR (8-3-0), atop the OUA East standings. The defending national champion Patriotes have now dropped three of their last four games after winning their first seven.

"It's probably the bast place to win a game, besides at home, " said second-year bench boss David Urquhart, a former McGill defenceman whose troops have now won three of their last four road confrontations in Trois-Rivieres, a venue generally considered to be Death Valley for visiting teams. "It was one of those games where there weren't many scoring chances, on both sides, so we needed to take advantage of our chances and keep theirs to the outside. We did a good job defensively – limiting the chances of a very skilled, offensive-minded team – and capitalizing on ours."

McGill battled back from 1-0 and 2-1 deficits to take a 4-2 lead in the third period, then conceded a late power-play marker at 17:56 before polishing off the Pats with an empty-netter by defenceman Mitchell Prowse of Kelowna, B.C.

Frattaroli, a 22-year-old industrial relations sophomore, has a 9-14-23 record in 24 regular season games over the past two seasons. He tied the score 1-1 at 17:09 of the first period, putting in his own rebound on a rare backhanded shot. The 5-foot-11, 196-pound centre then put the Redbirds ahead 3-2 with an unassisted goal on a breakaway at 10:01 of the final frame. The goal came on the heels of the Pats failing to score on a 2-on-1 break.  Less than three minutes later, Frattaroli teamed with senior Jordan-Ty Fournier to set up the game-winning goal by Alexandre Gagnon, a junior from Gatineau, Que., giving McGill a 4-2 cushion with 7:15 remaining in regulation.

"Frattaroli played a big, strong fast game tonight and was very opportunistic," noted Urquhart. "He was off to a bit of a slow start to the regular season but has really picked up his game since he scored a goal in Ottawa (four games ago). He got the monkey off his back there and has gotten better in every game."

The other Redbirds goal was scored by William Poirier, a junior from St. Zotique, Que., to knot the score at 2-2 in the second.

The UQTR marksmen were Simon Lafrance, with his team-leading 10th of the season, Mathieu Boucher and Olivier Garneau.

McGill had a 34-31 edge in shots as senior goaltender Emanuel Vella of Toronto stood tall with 28 saves for the win, improving his record to 4-1. UQTR's Alexis Gravel saved 29 and suffered his first loss of the season as his record tumbled to 5-1.

McGill was 0-for-2 on the power-play and killed off two of three shorthanded scenarios.

Although the bitter foes split a pair of preseason confrontations in September, this was the first regular season meeting between the provincial rivals since UQTR edged McGill 1-0 in the sudden-death OUA East divisional final last March. The Pats have a lifetime record of 169-93-17 against McGill since they first met in 1969, including a 118-61-16 record in regular season play.

McGill (7-2-2) will look to extend their win streak when they play at Concordia (7-3-0) on Sunday (Nov. 20) at 7 p.m. in the 35th annual Ronald Corey Cup Game. The Redbirds have won two straight Corey Cup contests and have a 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: McGill hockey grad Lucas Madill (B.Ed '07) has been appointed as a mental performance consultant by Hockey Canada as part of the national team support staff for the IIHF world junior championships in Halifax and Moncton, Dec. 26 to Jan. 5.

SCORING SUMMARY

OUA STANDINGS & STATS


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