MONTREAL – It was an unlucky Friday the 13th for McGill which threw everything but the kitchen sink at Carleton, only to see the Ravens fly the coop with a 4-2 victory in OUA men's hockey before a sellout Winter Carnival crowd of 1,029 at McConnell Arena, Friday.
It was the first Carnival Game on campus since 2020 due to the COVID pandemic and McGill's modern-day record in the event dropped to 16-3 since the contest was resurrected in 2003. McGill is now 40-33-1 lifetime against Carleton, including an 0-3 mark this season and a 4-1 Carnival Game record.
On a day where a snowstorm forced the postponement of two women's hockey games – Concordia at Carleton and Bishop's at Ottawa – the Carleton men's team took a plodding bus ride along Highway 417 and were happy they did, ending a four-game losing skid in the process.
Goaltender
Mark Grametbauer, a senior from Halifax, made 40 saves for the Ravens as McGill had a 42-19 edge in shots. He improved his record to 7-8 on the season.
The Redbirds held a 1-0 lead after the opening period when sophomore
Caiden Daley of Winnipeg struck for his fifth goal of the season at the 8:48 mark. But the Ravens rallied to take a 1-2 lead after two on markers by
Kieran Craig (1:32) of Hawkesbury, Ont., and
Madoka Suzuki, a native of Japan, connected on a power-play at 18:58. Craig then set-up centre
Alex Johnson of Ottawa at 5:21 of the final period and added an empty-netter at 19:40.
Also scoring for McGill was
William Rouleau, the team's leading point-getter, who potted his ninth of the season, on the power-play, at 9:31 of the third period, narrowing the gap to 3-2 before Carleton snuffed out any hope of a last-minute comeback.
"It was a great atmosphere in the arena and we built off that at the start, dictating the pace, especially in the first period but it could have been a lot more," said McGill head coach
David Urquhart. "We had some quality chances that we needed to convert at that point. We came out for the second period with a bit of a lull and Carleton converted their chances. That was the difference in the game. We had a big push in the third, which shows a lot of character but we don't want to be in that situation where we are down while outshooting our opponent (by a significant amount). We need to recognize these situations early on and capitalize on our chances."
Emanuel Vella of Toronto started between the pipes for McGill and took the loss. He conceded three goals on 14 shots and was relieved at the 5:21 mark of the third period by
Alexis Shank, who saved all four shots faced down the stretch.
One of the two referees was
Elizabeth Mantha, which marked the first time that a woman had officiated a men's game at McGill. The officials had their hands full, dishing out 12 minor penalties, five of them for roughing. Both teams went 1-for-4 on the power-play.
They also had to make a ruling on an administrative error by Carleton head coach
Shaun Van Allen that caused a three-minute delay with 13:24 remaining in the third period. It was discovered that defenceman
Kaleb Bulych (who had assisted on Carleton's second goal) was inadvertently omitted from the official scoresheet. As per Rule 2.2 (b) of the Hockey Canada rulebook, once it was determined that the player had indeed been dressed and on the bench from the start of the game, his name was added to the scoresheet and there was no penalty incurred.
McGill was missing stalwart defenceman
Scott Walford, who is playing for Canada at the FISU World University Games in Canton and Lake Placid, N.Y. It marks the first of three McGill contests that he is expected to miss. Carleton had no players picked for the Team Canada roster, which is essentially a national U SPORTS all-star squad.
With seven games remaining on the schedule, the result improved Carleton's sixth-place record to 9-7-3 and put them into a tie with Ottawa for the last two playoff berths in the nine-team OUA East. The Ravens will travel to Kingston to meet eighth-place RMC (6-12-1) on Jan. 20.
McGill dropped to fourth place with an 11-5-3 record, four points ahead of Carleton but only two points out of second in the tightly congested division. Only the top six make the playoffs this year, two less than last season.
Next on tap for the Redbirds will be a home-and-home confrontation with division-leading UQTR. McGill plays in Trois-Rivieres on Jan. 18, with the return match slated for Jan. 21 at McConnell Arena, in an event that will be promoting Mental Health Awareness.
SCORING SUMMARY
OUA STANDINGS & STATS
OUA SCOREBOARD
McGILL HOCKEY WINTER CARNIVAL GAME ATTENDANCE AT McCONNELL ARENA
| YEAR |
RESULT |
McG |
OPP |
|
OPPONENT |
ATTENDANCE |
| 2003 |
WON |
6 |
0 |
|
Toronto |
1,113 |
| 2004 |
WON |
4 |
3 |
|
UQTR |
1,103 |
| 2005 |
WON |
3 |
0 |
|
Concordia |
1,324 |
| 2006 |
WON |
3 |
1 |
|
Concordia |
1,415 |
| 2007 |
WON |
7 |
2 |
|
Concordia |
1,523 |
| 2008 |
WON |
4 |
1 |
|
Concordia |
890 |
| 2009 |
WON |
4 |
1 |
|
UOIT |
688 |
| 2010 |
WON |
12 |
3 |
|
Concordia |
1,080 |
| 2011 |
WON |
5 |
4 |
|
Carleton |
1,355 |
| 2012 |
WON |
1 |
0 |
(OTS) |
Carleton |
1,039 |
| 2013 |
WON |
4 |
2 |
|
UQTR |
1,139 |
| 2014 |
WON |
2 |
1 |
|
Queen's |
1,471 |
| 2015 |
WON |
2 |
0 |
|
Carleton |
1,269 |
| 2016 |
WON |
3 |
1 |
|
RMC |
1,663 |
| 2017 |
Lost |
1 |
2 |
|
Queen's |
1,189 |
| 2018 |
WON |
4 |
0 |
(ENG) |
Carleton |
1,012 |
| 2019 |
Lost |
4 |
5 |
(OT) |
Concordia |
1,029 |
| 2020 |
WON |
3 |
2 |
(OT) |
Concordia |
1,029 |
| 2021 |
(canceled) |
|
|
|
|
|
| 2022 |
(canceled) |
|
|
|
|
|
| 2023 |
Lost |
2 |
4 |
(ENG) |
Carleton |
1,029 |
| TOT |
16-3-0 |
74 |
32 |
|
AVG.: 1,177 |
22,360 |
SOURCE:
Earl Zukerman
Sports Information Officer
Athletics & Recreation
McGill University
514-398-7012
www.mcgillathletics.ca
earl.zukerman@mcgill.ca
@EarlZukerman (twitter)
