MONTREAL –
Eric Uba scored the game-winner at 16:06 of the third period as No. 10 ranked McGill skated to a 5-3 victory over the York Lions in a rare men's hockey matinee, Saturday, at McConnell Arena.
It marked McGill's first meeting with York since 2017. The result improved McGill's lifetime record to 23-12-6 in 41 meetings with the Lions since they first crossed paths in 1981. The five goals was McGill's highest offensive output against the Lions since a 5-5 overtime tie on Nov. 28, 2003.
Uba, one of five McGill forwards to find the back of the net, extended his goal-scoring streak to six consecutive games. The 22-year-old management junior from Kitchener, Ont., now has a team-leading seven markers in 10 regular season contests and is tied for ninth among OUA leaders in that department.
Teammate
Brandon Frattaroli scored one and added a pair of assists. The industrial relations junior from Pierrefonds, Que., leads McGill in points and is tied for eight among league leaders with a 5-10-15 record in 10 games.
Other marksmen for the Redbirds included
Charles-Antoine Dumont of Levis, Que.,
Mikisiw Awashish of Mashteuiatsh, Que., and
Xavier Fortin, a native of Mirabel, Que., who tallied an empty-netter at 19:19 of the final frame, after York had successfully pulled its goalie to score at 17:55, reducing the gap to 4-3.
"It was a good bounce-back win for us after a tough loss in Trois-Rivieres three days ago," said McGill head coach
David Urquhart, who quietly celebrated his 39th birthday a day earlier. "We got back to our structured style of play and the game moved on and when we did that, were had success. Moving forward, that's the way we need to play to win games. Being tight on our structure and tight in the defensive zone. We still need to improve on our ability to execute offensively early on and having the instinct to put teams out when they are down."
Lions goals came from the sticks of
Jayden McCarthy,
Brandon McCartney and
Thomas Lacombe.
McGill had a 30-22 edge in shots as sophomore goaltender
Fabio Iacobo of St. Leonard, Que., made 19 saves and improved his record to 2-1. York goalie
Carter Serhyenko was beaten four times on 29 shots as his record dropped to 3-5.
The Redbirds continued their excellence on special teams, going 1-for-2 on the power-play and erasing both shorthanded scenarios. They lead the league in both departments, with a success rate of 32.5 on the power-play (13/40) and 94.4 per cent in penalty-killing (34/36).
York, which moved from the OUA West Division to the OUA East this season, dropped to 3-8-0. The Lions return to action next weekend with home games against Ontario Tech (6-5-1) on Nov. 15 and Lakehead (6-4-1) on Nov. 17.
The Redbirds, who have now won six of their last seven games, improved to 6-3-1 and sit three points behind league-leading UQTR (8-4-0), Queen's (8-4-0) and Concordia (7-3-2), with two games in hand. McGill will make a seven-hour bus-trip to southern Ontario next weekend for games at Laurier (3-6-2) and Waterloo (3-9-0), Nov. 17-18.
SCORING SUMMARY
OUA STATS & STANDINGS
SOURCE
Earl Zukerman
Sports Information Officer
Athletics & Recreation
McGill University
514-983-7012 (cell)
