KINGSTON – William Poirier scored at 13:36 of overtime and goaltender Emanuel Vella made 47 saves as eighth-seeded McGill rallied from a late deficit and pulled off a stunning 3-2 upset over top-seeded Queen's in a sudden-death playoff opener, before about 400 at the Kingston Memorial Centre, Wednesday.

McGill, the OUA Eastern Conference quarter-final winners, now advance to a one-game semifinal against Nipissing on Saturday at 4:30 p.m. in North Bay, Ont. The Lakers, who were seeded fourth with a 10-7-1 record, advanced after posting a 4-0 quarter-final conquest at home against No. 5 Ottawa.

The high-scoring and heavily-favoured Gaels had a 49-43 edge in shots – including a 22-7 onslaught in the opening period – but only two of them eluded Vella, who also stopped a penalty shot called at 9:41 of the first period which would have given the Gaels a 2-0 lead. The 6-foot-4, 191-pound netminder from Toronto, stood tall between the pipes, reaching the 40+ save plateau for the third time in his collegiate career.

"Queen's is a good team, they came out flying in their home rink and we weathered the storm," said McGill head coach David Urquhart. "A big part of that was Vella, who was outstanding. He came up with some big saves at key moments early in the game. So to come out of that period with a young team – most of whom were playing in their first playoff game – we were in good shape. As the game went on, we started building confidence and settling in. It's a one-and-done type of game, so the intensity was there, the stakes were high and it takes some learning to be able to handle that pressure. And by the time we got settled in, we had changed the momentum."

Queen's took a 2-0 lead with a first period goal by defenceman Jack Duff of Kingston, and a second-period marker from forward Jonathan Yantsis of Markham, Ont.

Undaunted, McGill came from behind with two in the final stanza to force overtime. Brandon Skubel, a sophomore from  Niagara on the Lake, Ont., ignited the rally at 5:53, converting a three-way passing play with Blake Hayward of Vancouver, B.C., and defenceman William Cyr of St. Constant, Que.

"That was a big goal by Skubel to put them on their heels at a key point in the game," noted Urquhart. "We had been in that situation a number of times this season, so when we scored that goal, we had the confidence and knew that we could do this. We also knew that we were playing a team that hadn't faced a lot of adversity throughout the year because they won most of their games and maybe had not been in this situation as many times as we had."

The Gaels had posted a spectacular 17-1-1 record to finish first by 14 points in the OUA Mid East division, facing only Nipissing, Ontario Tech and RMC this season .

With 2:28 remaining in regulation, Vella was pulled for an extra attacker and freshman Eric Uba of Kitchener, Ont., scored the equalizer at 17:54. Senior Jordan-Ty Fournier of Dorval, Que., and rookie Brandon Frattaroli of Pierrefonds, Que., drew assists on the play.

It marked the fourth time this season that pulling the goalie paid off for the Redbirds, who previously accomplished that feat twice in an overtime victory at UQTR (Feb. 23) and in another OT-thriller versus Carleton (Feb. 25).

"When we got that tying goal (it was like a shot of adrenaline) and we came out really strong in the overtime and we had a ton of chances," Urquhart added. "We had a lot of gutsy performances throughout the lineup but the story of the game was Vella keeping us in it, staying calm and playing big."

On the game-winning play, sophomore forward Alexandre Gagnon of Gatineau, Que., led a 3-on-3 blueline entry, squeezed past a Queen's defenceman along the right-side boards and deftly kicked the puck behind the net, where Fournier tried a wrap-around on the far-side goal-post. When that attempt was thwarted by goaltender Luke Richardson, the 6-foot-1, 203-pound Fournier quickly reversed his course and his bank shot off the right-side goal-post found Poirier open near the bottom of the faceoff circle. The native of St. Zotique, Que., fired a shot from a near impossible angle, that deflected off the crouching goalie's shoulder and into the top left corner of the net.

"Poirier has scored a few clutch goals for us," offered Urquhart on the management sophomore who also scored with the goalie pulled in an overtime win at UQTR last month. "Normally we rely on him for his defensive game as he's matched up against the other team's top line every night. But he's chipped in with some big moments for us and that's very exciting to see. The energy and emotion after that goal tonight was outstanding."

Richardson, a junior from Barrie, Ont., made 40 saves in a losing cause.

McGill's victory avenged the last post-season confrontation between these long-time arch-rivals in 2017, when the seventh-seeded Gaels swept No. 2 seeded McGill in a best-of-three series, winning 2-1 and 4-2. The Red & White now own a 131-56-2 lifetime record against Queen's dating back to 1895, including a 7-3 lifetime playoff record.

Both teams went 0-for-3 on the power-play.

McGill only dressed five defencemen for the game as Scott Walford, their mainstay on the blueline, had been injured in practice earlier in the week. He is expected to be back in time for Saturday's semifinal.

The Redbirds improved to 10-14-0 overall this season, including a sizzling 8-3-0 road record. They could feasibly play as many as six more post-season contests, all on the road.

Opening night of the OUA playoffs featured four upsets in seven games with the implementation of a new one-game sudden-death format deployed this season due to pandemic-related protocols. Sixth-seeded Ontario Tech made the long trip to Montreal from Oshawa and surprised No. 3 Concordia 6-4. The Ridgebacks will return to Quebec on Saturday to play No. 2 UQTR in the other OUA Eastern Conference semifinal. The Patriotes advanced after disposing of seventh-seeded Carleton 6-1. 

In the OUA Western Conference sudden-death games, Brock upset Laurier 5-2, York surprised Windsor 4-2 and Ryerson escaped with a 5-4 decision over visiting Western in double overtime. The last OUA quarter-final is set for Thursday when Waterloo plays at Toronto. All semifinal games are scheduled for Saturday.

SCORING SUMMARY

OUA PLAYOFF SCOREBOARD


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