WATERLOO, ONT – Defenceman Scott Walford scored the game-winner and centre William Rouleau tallied four points as McGill outlasted Waterloo 6-5 in overtime to conclude a wild OUA men's hockey matinee that featured 71 penalty minutes at the Columbia Icefield Arena, Saturday.
 
The result, combined with Friday's 4-2 win over Laurier, marked the first time in school history that McGill had swept both Waterloo-based teams on their home ice, during the same weekend. It also extended their win streak to five since the last Waterloo victory in 2015 and McGill improved its lifetime record against the Warriors to 17-18-3 dating back to the teams first meeting in 1964.

"There's no easy game in this league, especially on a long road trip to southern Ontario, and we came away with four points," said a pleased McGill head coach David Urquhart, whose troops have now won eight of their last nine confrontations. "We've had some good momentum through the last few games and its good to see that the guys are all contributing in all kinds of different ways."
 
The Redbirds, who had a 39-28 edge in shots, scored first and built up a stranglehold 4-1 lead after the opening period. But Waterloo won the second period 3-1 and took the third frame 1-0, scoring a late power-play marker with 14 seconds remaining and an extra attacker on the ice to force the extra period.
 
"After they scored that late goal to tie it, our guys came to the bench and I could see that they were determined to keep pushing," said Urquhart. "We had a great overtime because we fought hard and were able to control the pace."

Walford, a 6-foot-1, 195-pound native of Coquitlam, B.C., corralled a long, high clearing pass from Charles-Antoine Dumont and found himself on a rare breakaway for a blueliner, during the 3-on-3 overtime session. It was the first goal of the season for Walford, an economics senior, and his eighth career goal in 64 games overall. He also assisted on first-period power-play markers by Eric Uba and Stephane Huard.
 
Rouleau, who snapped a seven-game scoring drought, found the net on two occasions and added a couple of helpers. The productive afternoon moved Rouleau into eighth place among OUA scoring leaders with a 5-13-18 record in a dozen games.

"Rouleau had a goal called back on Friday against Laurier because of a quick whistle when the ref thought that the goalie had the puck. We told him that it was a donation to the hockey gods and it would turn out positive for him," Urquhart said. "Then he scored an early goal today. That got him going and he was strong throughout the whole game."

Uba, who fired the puck so hard that that it actually needed to be pried out of the net, now leads the team with eight goals and ranks 10th among OUA leaders in that department. The red-hot winger also extended his point-scoring streak to eight consecutive games with an 8-5-13 mark in that span.

Huard, a freshman from Blainville, Que., now has six goals and nine points in nine games.
 
The other McGill marksman was Brandon Frattaroli, a junior from Pierrefonds, Que., who struck for his seventh of the OUA season.
 
Tate Popple led the Warriors with two goals, while singles were scored by Jesse Fishman and defenceman Matt Benson.
 
Goaltender Alexis Shenk collected the win in relief of starter Fabio Iacobo. Shenk, who improved to 6-2, kicked aside 18 of 20 shots in his 38-minute stint. Iacobo saved five of eight shots before being replaced at 4:36 of the middle stanza. Waterloo's Dan Murphy conceded six goals on 33 shots and took the loss, dropping his record to 2-9.
 
McGill went 2-for-6 on the power-play and erased two of four shorthanded situations. The Redbirds PP unit continues to lead the league with a 34.6 per cent success rate. The PK unit, has now slipped a couple of notches to third among OUA leaders at 86.7 per cent.
 
The four-point weekend moved the Redbirds in sole possession of fifth place in the nine-team OUA East Division despite a stellar 8-3-1 record. However, they sit just three points behind division-leading UQTR (10-4-0) and Queen's (10-4-0).
 
McGill will host third-place Concordia (8-3-2) in a key confrontation slated for Nov. 23 in a 7 p.m. puck-drop at McConnell Arena. The Stingers are playing a much-more disciplined game than they historically have done and rank last of 19 teams in penalty minutes with only 112 in 13 games. McGill has the 16th lowest total with 129 PIMs in 12 contests.
 
Waterloo, meanwhile, sits ninth in the 10-team OUA West with a 3-10-1 record, three points ahead of cellar-dwelling Western (2-11-0). The Warriors will host Guelph (7-6-0) on Nov. 24.
 
REDBIRDS RAP: McGill has scored 48 goals in 12 games, including a league-leading 18 on the power-play and one shorthanded marker… Sixteen different Redbirds have scored at least once, surpassing last year's total of 15… Seven skaters are still looking for their first goal of the campaign… The Redbirds have 42 goals from forwards and six from the blue line (they had 12 from the back end last year).
 
SCORING SUMMARY
 
OUA STANDINGS & STATS
 
SOURCE
Earl Zukerman
Sports Information Officer
Athletics & Recreation
McGill University
514-983-7012 (Tel.)
www.mcgillathletics.ca
earl.zukerman@mcgill.ca