LAVAL, QUE. – Rookie defenceman Igor Mburanumwe of Chambly, Que., snapped a 2-2 deadlock with his first career goal at 9:37 of the third period as McGill skated to a 5-2 victory over Ottawa in OUA men's hockey at Place Bell, Friday.
 
The Redbirds erased early 1-0 and 2-1 deficits for a victory that kicked off a Friends of McGill Hockey alumni Homecoming weekend that included former NHL coaches Mike Babcock and Guy Boucher. The result was McGill's first win in three attempts against Ottawa this season (including an exhibition game) and improved their lifetime record to 113-95-10 against the Gee-Gees since the series began in 1968.
 
Moments after scoring the go-ahead goal, the 6-foot-4, 210-pound Mburanumwe was nailed for a tripping penalty but his horror turned to glee as teammates Mathieu Gagnon and Charles-Antoine Dumont added a pair of shorthanded goals – the second one into an empty net – to assure the victory.
 
"We started a bit slow but when we began to move our feet and get going on the forecheck, that's when the game turned around in our favour," said McGill head coach David Urquhart. "The momentum swung our way and even though they scored a late goal to take a 2-1 lead into the intermission, we had done a really good job of fighting our way back into the game and taking control with our speed and that carried over into the second period." 

McGill which had a 38-32 edge in shots, went 0-for-4 on the power-play and neutralized both Ottawa infractions with the two shorties that tied the single-game school record. It was the first such occurrence of goals on the PK in five years, since Nov. 16, 2019, when Ty Fournier potted a pair in a 6-2 win against Laurentian. This also marked the fourth time ever that McGill had two shorthanded markers on the same penalty. The last occurrence was 35 years ago when they tallied a pair against Queen's on Nov. 18, 1989. The previous times were against McMaster on Jan. 22/88 and UQTR on Oct. 27/84.
 
Other McGill marksmen were Stephane Huard and Brandon Frattaroli with his fourth of the season.

"With goals from five different players, it was nice to get contributions from different parts of the lineup," Urquhart noted. "And to have some momentum going into our next game on Saturday afternoon. The last couple of games, we've started to play a brand of hockey that's better defensively and that's what we need to do going forward."
 
Gee=Gees marksmen were Alexis Bonefon and Bradley Chenier, both in the first period.
 
Redbirds netminder Alexis Shank made 30 saves, several of them acrobatic, for the win, improving his record to 3-3. Ottawa's Franky Lapenna had 33 stops in a losing cause as his record tumbled to 4-4.
 
McGill (4-3) now sits two points behind fourth-place Ottawa (5-4) with two games in hand. The Redbirds will conclude their two-game homestand by host the Wilfrid Laurier Golden Hawks, from Waterloo, Ont., on Saturday (Nov. 2) at 5:30 pm. That will be preceded by an alumni game and is slotted to begin after the Martlets game against Bishop's, which is slated for a 12:30 p.m. faceoff..
 
SCORING SUMMARY
 
OUA STATS & STANDINGS
 

SOURCE

Earl Zukerman
Sports Information Officer
Athletics & Recreation
McGill University
CELL: 514-983-7012
E-MAIL:earl.zukerman@mcgill.ca