MONTREAL – Senior goaltender Emanuel Vella of Toronto made 31 saves to earn his first career shutout as McGill blanked Queen's 2-0 in OUA men's hockey at McConnell Arena, Saturday.
 
It was the final league game of the semester  for the unranked Redbirds, who sit second in the OUA East with a  10-3-3 record to maintain their one-point lead on third-place Ontario Tech (10-4-2).

Queen's, which dropped to 5-9-2, had a 31-29 edge in shots but were unable to solve Vella, a 6-foot-4, 191-pound brick wall in the McGill net. It was a timely goose-egg for the 24-year-old management senior as his family members were in attendance after making the six-hour trip from Toronto. He improved to 5-2 on the season and 17-15 in 36 lifetime appearances for the Red and White.

"Vella was outstanding," said McGill bench boss David Urquhart, whose troops registered their first whitewash since a 1-0 win at Carleton on Feb. 26, 2022 and the first one at home since a 2-0 win over Laurentian on Jan. 18, 2019. "He was at his peak in the playoffs last spring and he was right there tonight, keeping us in the game."

Among his key saves was when he thwarted forward Nolan Hutcheson on a breakaway with 8:25 remaining in the contest.

After two scoreless periods, Eric Uba of Kitchener, Ont., scored the winning goal just 35 seconds into the final stanza, assisted by Scott Walford and William Rouleau. It was the 11th marker of the season for Uba, who is tied for third among league leaders in that department.  Walford's assist improved his record to 2-15-17 as he continues to lead all OUA rearguards in scoring, with a two-point bulge over UQTR's Justin Bergeron.

The 1-0 lead stood until the final minute, when Queen's pulled goalie Luke Richardson for an extra attacker and McGill rookie Mathieu Gagnon added an empty-netter at 19:16, assisted by Evan Patrician. Richardson, a senior from Barrie, Ont., made 27 saves and was credited with the loss for Queen's as his record fell to 4-9.

"It was one of those games where our execution wasn't great," noted Urquhart. "But on the other side, we played really well defensively. especially with a short bench on defence as we lost Taylor Ford after he made a big blocked shot in the first period."

To make matters worse, while clinging to a 1-0 lead in the dying minutes, the Redbirds temporarily lost the services of Walford, their top blue-liner, who was penalized for a cross-checking minor with 3:17 remaining.

McGill, which entered the game with a nation-leading power-play success rate of 28.6 per cent, was 0-for-3 with the man-advantage but successfully snuffed out all six shorthanded scenarios.

The result gave McGill a three-game series sweep over their longtime foes from Kingston, in a rivalry that began 130-years ago, dating back to 1892. McGill leads the all-time series with a 134-56-2 overall record.

The Redbirds now enter a 26-day break for exams and the holidays before playing an exhibition game on Dec. 30 against a Quebec Jr. AAA all-star team, in Granby, Que., located about 80 kilometre east of Montreal. The Granby Inouk will host the all-star event in their home rink. Tickets can be purchased by clicking on this link or by visiting the Inouk box office in person one hour before the start of the game, at 601, Léon-Harmel Street in Granby (J2G 3G6).

The OUA schedule will resume on Jan. 6 when division-leading UQTR (13-3-0) will visit McConnell Arena.

REDBIRDS RAP: McGill's offensive output of 57 goals scored in 15 games is tied for second best in the 19-team OUA behind UQTR's 64.... With only 152 penalty minutes, the Redbirds are the second-least penalized team in the entire league, behind Brock's total of 138 PIMs in one less game.
 
SCORING SUMMARY
 
OUA STANDINGS & STATS
 
OUA SCOREBOARD
 

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