OAKVILLE, ONT – Eric Florchuk of the Alberta Golden bears scored twice and added an assist at the U SPORTS All-Stars rallied with six unanswered goals en route to a 6-1 victory over the Canadian Junior Prospects to salvage a split of the two-game series, Wednesday, at the Sixteen Mile Sports Complex.
 
The national junior hopefuls, who won Tuesday's opener 4-2, used these two confrontations in preparation for the IIHF world junior men's hockey championship, slated for Gothenburg, Sweden, Dec. 26 to Jan. 5. The junior squad announced its final cuts after the second game and will travel to Malmo, Sweden on Dec. 14 for a pre-tournament camp ahead of the IIHF tourney.
 
Hockey Canada's national juniors have faced various U SPORTS squads regularly since 1988, primarily against all-star teams from the OUA, Canada West or AUS conferences, on a rotating basis. However, since 2015, the U SPORTS all-stars were picked from across the country and the collegians now have a 7-9-1 record under that new format.
 
Brett Gibson, head coach of the Queen's Gaels, served as the team's bench boss. He worked alongside Calgary's Mark Howell, McGill's David Urquhart and RMC's Richard Lim.
 
"After the first game, the feeling in the dressing room was that we played well but just didn't end up on the right side of the scoreboard," said Urquhart. "It was a fun team to be a part of because 13 of our players were part of the U SPORTS All-Star team that won gold at the FISU world university games in Lake Placid last January. It felt like a team and even though we were up 5-1 in the third period, we had a lot of guys blocking shots, especially on the penalty-kill. That's something you don't typically see in this type of game. There was a lot of character in our lineup and that was perhaps a carry-over effect from the FISU Games. So despite not winning the first game, the guys were able to come together pretty closely through our two-day camp in preparation for this. The guys took a lot of pride in playing for U SPORTS and putting the brand of Canadian university hockey in the spotlight of the hockey world. Today we got to see just how good our level of hockey is."
 
On the ice, McGill was represented by defenceman Scott Walford, a senior from Coquitlam, B.C.
 
"Wally was an A-1 ambassador for our school," Urquhart said. "He wrote one of his final exams on Monday, played here Tuesday and Wednesday and has another exam on Thursday. You could see that he's got a lot of respect from his teammates and they see him as a high-quality person. He played two outstanding games here and has been on an arc of improvement all year long since coming back from an injury suffered during a pre-season game."
 
In Wednesday's game, Canada's Macklin Celebrini opened the scoring in the first period but the university squad bounced back with second period goals by Andrew Coxhead of the Saint Mary's Huskies and Florchuk. The U SPORTS side opened the floodgates in the final stanza, with four goals. Connecting was Riley Stotts of the Calgary Dinos, Dalton Duhart (Queen's Gaels), Florchuk and Matthew Struthers (StFX X-Men) into an empty net.
 
In Tuesday's series opener, the U SPORTS marksmen were Simon Lafrance of the UQTR Patriotes and Riley Stotts. Replying for the junior side was Matthew Wood, Denver Barkey, Jake Furlong and Furlong again, into an empty net.
 
Although two U SPORTS goaltenders were selected, they were deployed during practice only as Hockey Canada used their four goalies for both teams during the two-game series.

GAME NOTES: A number of former McGill players were on hand to watch the all-star series, including three who were teammates of McGill bench boss David Urquhart during his playing days (2004-2008).... That group included Lucas Madill (2003-2007), who is in his fifth year as a mental performance consultant with Hockey Canada and his second world junior tourney... Others included Doug Orr (2001-2006), Chad Blundy (2000-2005) and Michael Wells (1984-1989).
 
SCORING SUMMARY (GAME 2)
 
SCORING SUMMARY (GAME 1)
 
OUA STATS & STANDINGS
 
SOURCE
Earl Zukerman
Sports Information Officer
Athletics & Recreation
McGill University
514-983-7012 (cell.)
www.mcgillathletics.ca
earl.zukerman@mcgill.ca