MONTREAL -- William Rouleau scored with one second remaining in sudden-death overtime as the No.6 ranked McGill men's hockey team celebrated its 147th birthday with a thrilling 5-4 victory at Concordia in the Ronald Corey Cup contest, Wednesday. The 36th annual rivalry game was played before a capacity crowd of 600 at the Ed Meagher Arena

VIDEO OF GAME-WINNING GOAL

Five different players scored goals for McGill, which was celebrating the anniversary of its first-ever hockey game, played on Jan. 31, 1877.

The Redbirds extended their win streak to five consecutive contests and buttressed their grip on first-place in the OUA East with a 19-5-2 record and two games left before playoffs. McGill currently sits two points ahead of Ottawa (18-5-2), which holds a game in hand, and three points ahead of the UQTR Patriotes (18-5-1), who have four games remaining. The Stingers are fourth at 16-7-3. Six schools in the nine-team division will qualify for playoffs with the top two earning a first-round bye.

Concordia, which had a 34-30 edge in shots, rallied from a late 4-2 deficit with just 2:15 remaining in regulation. Tyler Hylland narrowed the gap to 4-3 at 17:45. The Stingers then pulled their goalie for an extra attacker with 66 seconds left and it took only 15 ticks until Mathieu Bizier scored his second of the soiree for the equalizer at 19:09 to force a seven-minute, 3-on-3 overtime.

There were numerous scoring chances In the extra session before Rouleau converted passes from defenceman Scott Walford and forward Brandon Frattaroli with a buzzer-beating backhanded shot from behind the goal line, near the faceoff circle, at 6:59. Despite missing eight games to injury, Walford, who had two assists in the game and a 4-19-23 record on the season, is now tied for the OUA scoring lead among rearguards with UQTR's David Noel.

"It was a greasy goal but we'll take it. Those two points were really important for us in the standings," admitted Rouleau, a 23-year-old management sophomore from Saint Basile de Portneuf, a small municipality of 2,700, located about 59 kilometres west of Quebec City. "I jumped on the ice with about 15 seconds left on the clock and knew that there was only a few seconds remaining when I got the puck, so I tried to throw it at the net just hoping for something to happen but didn't see it go in the net. When I saw the boys rushing towards me, that's how I found out that it was a goal."

It was the 13th goal of the season for Rouleau, who was named earlier in the day as the U SPORTS male hockey player of the week. He now shares the league lead with five game-winning goals and is fifth in the OUA scoring race with a 13-22-35 record in 26 games.

"We've built up a certain confidence by winning a lot of games in overtime this season and we're used to those situation because we've had so much success there," said Rouleau, whose squad is now 5-2 in overtime scenarios. "In that situation we know that we can just close those games... Part of our success this year is that everyone is chipping in. It's a different player scoring each game and a common effort by everyone on the team.. We've matured a lot over the season and it shows by how we have grown over these last few weeks."

Other McGill marksmen included Frattaroli, who opened the scoring at 11:30 of the first period. Rookie Xavier Fortin tallied his seventh goal to put the visitors ahead 2-1 at 8:31 of the middle stanza. Only two minutes later, junior Zach Gallant found the back of the net on a deflection of an Eric Uba shot for his 10th goal and a 3-1 McGill lead.

Only 91 seconds into the third period, Concorda's Charles-Antoine Giguere reduced the deficit to one. After the goal, there was a 12-minute delay in the game as it was brought to the attention of the referees that a panel, between two panes of glass, was broken behind the McGill net. Both teams were sent to their respective dressing rooms.

About 10 minutes after play finally resumed, McGill's Drew Bennett, a junior from Mount Pearl, Nfld., converted a nifty pass on a 2-on-1 break with Xavier Fortin. It was Bennett's second career marker in 54 OUA games. That set the stage for late game heroics by both teams.

Making his 50th career OUA start between the pipes was McGill goaltender Alexis Shank, a junior from Laval, Que., who saved 30 of 34 shots for the win as his record improved to 12-6 this season.

Concordia starter Nikolas Hurtubise conceded five goals on 30 shots as his record dropped to 8-5. Hurtubise survived a challenging moment while the game was scoreless midway through the first period when the top half of his goalie stick shattered when hit by a slapshot from Uba. Play continued for another two minutes and 30 seconds before the next whistle, where he was able to exchange his broken stick for a new piece of lumber. Goaltenders are the only players permitted to play with a broken stick.

The Redbirds were 1-for-3 on the power-play and killed off three of four shorthanded situations. McGill is now ranked second across the nation in both categories (behind undefeated UNB), with a power-play success rate of 32.6 per cent, while the PK unit is operating at 89.6 efficiency.

McGill improved its lifetime head-to-head record to 115-114-14 against Concordia and upped its tally to 20-11-3 in the annual rivalry contest for the Corey Cup. Team captain Taylor Ford of St. Lazare, Que., accepted the Cup at centre ice and then called out to his teammates for the customary group photo. It was the 149th career contest in OUA play for Ford, a fifth-year senior in physical and health education.

The Stingers are 12-21-3 in Cup play, including a 1-1 record against UQTR. The event is named after the former president of the Montreal Canadiens who donated the trophy in 1988, for an annual challenge game that represents local college hockey supremacy.

The Redbirds will close out the regular season with a home-and-home set against seventh-place Carleton (10-10-4). The Ravens are chasing Ontario Tech (13-9-3) for the last playoff berth with four games left. McGill will put it's 11-game home-ice win streak on the line against Carleton on Saturday (Feb.3) in a 7 p.m. face-off at McConnell Arena, then close out the schedule against the Ravens in Ottawa on Feb. 10.

FACES IN THE CROWD: The McGill Fight Band was on hand for its first-ever road game and added an electric buzz to a packed house. The band was competing with a noisy Concordia football team for "fan-of-the game" honours... Also spotted in the crowd was Herb Madill, a former McGill team captain who served seven seasons as bench boss from 1973 to 1979.

SCORING SUMMARY

OUA STANDINGS & STATS
 
HOW McGILL FARES NATIONALLY

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