MONTREAL – Alexis Shank registered a superb 40-save shutout and Zach Gallant tallied three points as McGill conquered Queen's 4-0 in a penalty-filled OUA men's hockey rivalry game at McConnell Arena, Friday.
 
The result gave McGill a sweep of the two-game season series and a sixth straight win against the longtime foes from Kingston. In a rivalry that began 131-years ago, dating back to 1892, McGill leads the all-time series with a 136-56-2 overall record.
 
The contest featured 82 penalty minutes, with 52 of them assessed to the visiting Gaels. The fourth-highest scoring team in Canada with a 4.47 average, Queen's went 0-for-3 on the power-play. They held a 40-23 edge in shots over the Redbirds, including a 19-5 margin in the final period.

McGill was 2-for-3 with the extra attacker as its league-leading power-play improved to a 35.1 per cent success rate. The Redbirds penalty-killing unit continues to rank third of 19 OUA teams and is operating at a very efficient 87.7 clip.
 
"We went back to the fundamentals in practice this week after a tough loss in Thunder Bay last weekend and you could see those details show up in the game today," said McGill bench boss David Urquhart. "We had good energy throughout the game but Queen's pushed back in the third period. It's a really strong team over there, especially with their top line being among the top scorers in the country. It was a group effort to be able to shut them down, from the back-end out. Shank was outstanding, especially in the third period, when there were more scoring chances."

Shank, a 5-foot-11, 182-pound native of Laval, Que., registered his third consecutive shutout on home ice, stopping all 100 shots faced over that span, including 44 in a 1-0 win over Concordia (Nov. 23) and 16 stops in a 3-0 decision over Guelph (Oct. 28). The last time he conceded a goal at McConnell Arena was in the first period of a 4-1 victory over Brock on Oct. 27, a shutout sequence of 267 minutes and 25 seconds. Shank, a 23-year-old industrial relations junior, now has an 8-4 record in league play with a 2.69 goals-against average and a .909 save percentage.
 
Gallant, a 6-foot-2, 200-pound centre from Oakville, Ont., netted McGill's last two goals, at 19:48 of the second period and into an empty-net at 16:43 of the third. The management junior also assisted on rookie Charles-Antoine Dumont's game-winning goal at 1:54 of the first period.
 
The other McGill marksman was Alexandre Gagnon, a management freshman from Levis, Que., who put the Redbirds ahead 2-0 at 12:39 of the opening frame, assisted by his younger brother Mathieu Gagnon and Mikisiw Awashish.

The latter was equipped with a fully-caged helmet in the wake of suffering seven broken teeth when hit in the jaw by an errant puck in a win over Brock on Oct. 27. A civil engineering sophomore from Mashteuiatsh, Que., Awashish missed only two games due to that injury and has had two visits to an orthodontist, with at least one more appointment to go.

"Mikisiw missed practice on Wednesday because he was undergoing more dental work but he came back hard in practice on Thursday and it showed in the game today; he was outstanding," noted Urquhart.
 
McGill's record improved to 10-4-1 and put the Redbirds within two points of Queen's (11-5-1), with two games in hand. McGill will host RMC (3-13-2) on Saturday (Dec. 2) on Military Appreciation Night. About 300 tickets have already been scooped up by RMC and CMR, their sister school in St. Jean, Que. Tickets are available online only and puck-drop is slated for 7 p.m.  

The Redbirds have won three straight against RMC since the Paladins pulled off a 7-6 overtime upset in last year's season opener. McGill leads the lifetime series 77-10-4 in a rivalry that dates all the way back to 1892. 
 
Queen's (11-5-1) will close out the first semester at UQTR on Saturday (Dec. 2) at 4 p.m. The division-leading Patriotes (12-4-0) defeated RMC 6-2 on Friday.
 
SCORING SUMMARY
 
OUA SCOREBOARD

OUA STATS & STANDINGS
 
SOURCE
Earl Zukerman
Sports Information Officer
Athletics & Recreation
McGill University
514-983-7012 (cell.)
www.mcgillathletics.ca
earl.zukerman@mcgill.ca