Each Wednesday for a six-week period from June 15 to July 20, one of the newly-minted 2022 inductees to the McGill Sports Hall of Fame will be profiled. In our fifth installment, read about the 2011-12 national champion men's hockey team.
The 2011-12 season was a magical one for the McGill men's hockey program, which rebounded wonderfully from the previous year's heart-breaking loss to UNB in the gold medal final at the CIS Final Eight tournament. That setback set the bar for what followed en route to McGill's first-ever national title in men's hockey.
Guided by head coach
Kelly Nobes, a hungry McGill squad posted a 31-11-1 record overall, including a 22-4-2 first-place finish in the 10-team OUA East division, outscoring opponents by a lofty 104-62 margin in regular season play. In the post-season, the team registered an impressive 9-2 mark.
The campaign featured an 11-game win streak and McGill was ranked in all 18 of the Top 10 polls, including two weeks at No.1. Led by goaltender
Hubert Morin, McGill tied Alberta for the nation's best defensive record in league play with a stingy 2.20 goals-against average.
The road to Nationals began with an OUA East best-of-three quarter-final series against eighth-seeded Queen's, which McGill swept after a 3-2 victory on home ice and a convincing 5-1 conquest in Kingston.
Nicolas Biniek was credited with the series-winning goal in a hotly-contested game that featured 72 penalty minutes.
Biniek, a sophomore centre, also tallied the series winner in the divisional semifinal against sixth-seeded Ottawa, which produced another sweep with a pair of identical 5-3 victories.
The OUA East final series against second-seeded UQTR produced a third consecutive sweep, with a 5-3 decision in the opener at McConnell Arena and a 5-4 double overtime victory in Trois-Rivieres. Senior
Andrew Wright netted the winning marker at 4:08 of the second extra 10-minute period.
In the OUA championship game, played in London, Ont., No.2 ranked McGill skated to a 4-1 triumph over No.3 Western, the OUA West champion. Junior
Benoît Levesque was credited with the series-clinching goal as McGill captured their third consecutive Queen's Cup title in as many years and the fourth in five seasons after snapping a 62-year drought since their 1946 Cup title.
The CIS Final Eight tourney, held in Fredericton, was the site for the 50th edition of the University Cup. McGill opened with a 6-3 win over seventh-seeded Moncton, led by senior
Francis Verreault-Paul, who tallied twice, including the winner. McGill then suffered a 4-3 setback to third-seeded Saskatchewan but all three teams in the pool finished at 1-1 and McGill advanced to the gold medal game with the best goal-differential tie-breaker.
In a rematch against No.4 seeded Western, which had stunned top-seeded UNB in the semifinals, McGill skated to a 4-3 overtime victory when team captain
Evan Vossen connected for the Cup-clinching goal at the six-minute mark of the extra session. Three McGillians made the all-tournament team, including tourney MVP
Francis Verreault-Paul and
Alexandre Picard-Hooper up front and defenceman
Marc-André Dorion.
Dorion made the OUA East first all-star team, earned All-Canadian status, was named as the OUA East most valuable player, and took home the OUA and CIS defenceman of the year honours. He led McGill in regular season scoring and topped all rearguards in the nation with a 7-32-39 record in 28 games.
Verreault-Paul, who led the OUA with 21 goals in 23 league games, earned OUA second-team all-star honours along with goaltender
Hubert Morin, who posted a league-leading 2.04 goals-against average, to go along with a .921 save percentage, a 13-4 record and four shutouts.
The championship team roster featured, in alphabetical order: Patrick
Belzile, Nicolas
Biniek, Neil
Blunden, Jean-François
Boisvert, Vincent
Bourgeois, Daniel
Conacher, Marc-André
Daneau, Marc-André
Dorion (alt. capt.), Justin
Ducharme, Keven
Dupont, Hubert
Genest, Guillaume
Langelier-Parent, Maxime
Langelier-Parent (alt. capt.), Hugo
Laporte, Benoît
Levesque, Christophe
Longpré-Poirier, Ryan
McKiernan, Hubert
Morin, Benjamin
Morse, Alexandre
Picard-Hooper, Mark
Segal, Nicolas
Therrien, Marc-Olivier
Vachon, Francis
Verreault-Paul, Evan
Vossen (captain) and Andrew
Wright.
Joining
bench boss Kelly
Nobes on the coaching staff was Daniel
Jacob, Stephane
Fortin, Chris
Laperle and Jean
St-Pierre. Rounding out the support staff was Earl
Hawke (equipment manager), Alex
Lunan (equipment asst.), Patrick
Magee (strength & conditioning), Dr. Kathryn
Sun (team physician), Dr. Anne-Marie
Leblanc (physician), Dr. Thuraya
Al-Shidhani (medical fellow), Pierre-Luc
Gosselin (staff therapist), Laetitia
Mongeau (therapist), Angela
Stamiris (therapist), Catherine
Riendeau (therapist) and Caroline
Drouin-Tourville (therapist). Key supporters included Charlie
Hayward (honourary captain) and Mike
Nelson (president, Friends of McGill Hockey).
Other laureates in the 2022 McGill Sports Hall of Fame induction class include two-time hockey All-Canadian
Marc-André Dorion (BEd '12), two-time football All-Canadian
Ben Walsh (BA '08) of Vancouver, B.C., along with five-time hockey All-Canadian
Ann-Sophie Bettez (BCom '11) of Sept-Iles, Que., and basketball builder
George Lengvari (BCL '66) from Montreal West, Que. Also selected is the 2008-09 national championship-winning women's hockey team.
The hallowed Hall now has 169 honoured members, 30 of them Olympians, since the pantheon was initiated in 1996. The induction luncheon is scheduled during
Homecoming Week, on Thursday,
Oct. 20, 2022, from 11:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. at Le Centre Sheraton in downtown Montreal. Ticket information will be available in early September.
Profiles for previous inductees to the McGill Sports Hall of Fame are available online and submissions for next year's induction can be made by completing an online nomination form at:
www.mcgillathletics.ca/hof.aspx before April 1, 2023.
SOURCE:
Earl Zukerman
Sports Information Officer
Athletics & Recreation
McGill University
514-398-7012 (Off.)
m.athletics.mcgill.ca (mobile website)
www.mcgillathletics.ca
earl.zukerman@mcgill.ca
