NORTH BAY, ONT -- Goaltender Michael Herringer made 46 saves and Harrison Caines tallied twice in the final 10 minutes as the last-place Nipissing Lakers rallied for an unlikely 4-2 victory over visiting McGill in OUA men's hockey at Memorial Gardens, Friday.

The result avenged a 6-1 loss at McGill last Oct. 30 and the Redbirds now have a lifetime record of 26-6 against the Lakers.

McGill had a 48-23 edge in shots but went 0-for-2 on the power-play, while Nipissing was 1-for-4.

Rookie Mathieu Gagnon gave the Redbirds a 1-0 lead at 17:41 of the first period but Nippising evened the count at 14:26 of the middle stanza when Payton Vescio connected. McGill appeared to be in the driver's seat when Brandon Skubel scored at 2:06 of the final period. But Caines netted his first marker on a power-play at 7:21 to square things at 2-2. Then defenceman Devyn Mayea put the Lakers ahead at 13:26 and Caines added an empty-netter at 18:36.

Sophomore goaltender Alexis Shank turned aside 30 of 33 shots and was saddled with the loss as his record dropped to 7-5.

It was a costly setback for McGill, which dropped to 12-7-3 and slipped to fourth place in the OUA East, two points behind Ontario Tech (13-8-3) and sit just two points ahead of fifth-place Carleton (11-8-3). Four games remain before playoffs. The top six teams qualify for post-season, with the first two getting a quarter-final bye.

McGill will remain in town to play a rubber match on Saturday at 2 p.m., which will be streamed for free on OUA.tv.

REDBIRDS RAP: The McGill lineup was bolstered by the addition of Maximilian Daigle, a 5-foot-9, 193-pound defenceman who has returned to the active roster after a two-year absence. Daigle, who had been serving as the team's assistant strength and conditioning coach for the past two seasons, hadn't played since early in the 2019-20 campaign. He entered the Nipissing tilt with a career total of 11 goals, 44 points and 16 penalty minutes in 80 McGill games overall. Daigle originally enrolled at McGill in 2017 after one season in the NCAA with Vermont. He graduated from McGill with a science degree in 2021 but has stayed on to work towrds a master's degree in exercise physiology

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