MONTREAL – Veteran rearguard Scott Walford notched the overtime-winner and freshman William Rouleau scored twice as McGill nipped visiting Ottawa 4-3 in OUA men's hockey at McConnell Arena, Friday.
 
The result avenged a 6-1 loss in the nation's capital on Nov. 5 and improved McGill's lifetime record to 108-92-10 overall against Ottawa, including a 53-45-7 mark at home.
 
The Redbirds had a 47-24 edge in shots and held the upper-hand throughout the game, until the final 95 seconds of regulation time, when the Gee-Gees were trailing 3-1, pulled their goalie and struck twice in a 23-second span to force overtime.
 
Walford, a native of Coquitlam, B.C., who is known more as a play-making, stay-at-home defenceman, took a 2-on-1 pass from sophomore Alexandre Gagnon and found himself on a breakaway in the 4-on-4 overtime session. His game-winning tally was occurred just 64 seconds into the sudden-death seven-minute period. A third-round draft pick by the Montreal Canadiens in 2017, the 23-year-old economics junior is the top-scoring blue-liner in the OUA and ranks sixth in the nation, with 15 points, including a pair of goals, in 15 games.

"He's a guy that we rely on to play the big minutes, especially against the top lines and he plays in the high 20s in every game," said head coach David Urquhart. "Scotty brings a calming influence to the D corps and he is reliable in all situations, both offensively and defensively."
 
Brandon Skubel put the home team ahead 1-0 at just the 2:29 mark of the first period, assisted by freshman Patrick Larkin. It was the first career point in seven games overall for Larkin, whose father Bryan Larkin was a Hall of Famer and All-Canadian defenceman for McGill from 1988 to 1991.
 
Less than seven minutes later, Rouleau notched his first of two, making the score 2-0. But Ottawa cut the deficit in half when sophomore Andrew Aboumossa collected his first marker of the season.
 
Rouleau regained the two-goal margin for the Redbirds at 55 seconds of the middle stanza. It was his seventh goal of the season and moved him into a tie with linemate Brandon Frattaroli for seventh place in the OUA scoring race with 17 points in 15 games. Frattaroli, who assisted on both of Rouleau's goals, has an 8-9-17 dossier.

"Rouleau took a big hit early in the first and responded like a pro. He didn't retaliate, didn't take any penalties," Urquhart said. "Instead, he just increased his intensity and ended up with two goals at an important time in the game as we were pushing hard but not finding the net. Sometimes when you push hard and don't click, the other team comes back and scores. One of the good things about Rouleau is when he gets the puck on his stick, we expect him to make plays because he is poised has good vision and hockey IQ. He's able to calm things down in the offensive zone and make a big play."
 
Rounding out the scoring was Ottawa's Tommy Bouchard and Charles-Antoine Roy, who connected at 18:25 and 18:48, respectively, of the third period.
 
McGill sophomore goaltender Alexis Shank made 21 saves and registered the win, improving to 5-4 on the season. Gee-Gees goalie Jean-Philippe Tourigny made 33 saves as his record tumbled to 4-5.
 
There were only two penalties called in the game and both sides went 0-for-1 on the power-play.
 
The Redbirds maintained sole possession of second-place in the nine-team OUA East with a 9-3-3 record, one point ahead of Ontario Tech (9-4-2) and two ahead of both Carleton (8-3-3) and Ottawa (9-6-1).
 
McGill has less than 24 hours to recover before resuming hostilities with archrival Queen's (5-8-2) for the final time this season, when they lock horns in a 7 p.m. puck drop at McConnell Arena on Saturday (Dec. 3). The Redbirds will be looking for a series sweep after winning the first two meetings, 6-2 at home (Oct. 29) and 3-2 in Kingston (Nov. 11). The Gaels are coming off a 1-0 overtime loss to visiting UQTR on Friday night. In an often heated rivalry that began way back in 1892, McGill leads the all-time series with a 133-56-2 overall record.
 
SCORING SUMMARY
 
OUA STANDINGS

OUA SCOREBOARD

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