OTTAWA – High-scoring freshman Maxime Pellerin collected three points for McGill but that was neutralized by Nick McCarry, who scored twice and added an assist as Carleton rallied from an early two-goal deficit for a 6-3 victory in a key OUA men's hockey confrontation at the Ice House arena in the nation's capital, Sunday.
 
The final score included a pair of empty-net goals for Carleton in the final two minutes. The result was a critical one for the Ravens, who improved their seventh-place record to 7-7-1 in the highly competitive nine-team OUA East Division. They moved to within one point of the Redbirds (8-6-0), who currently reside in the sixth and final playoff berth at the halfway mark in the league's 28-game schedule.
 
The Redbirds, who had a 33-24 edge in shots, got off to a great start, leading 2-0 on goals by Pellerin and veteran Zach Gallant before the game was 10 minutes old. But the momentum shifted after Carleton's McCarry set up Madoka Suzuki for a power-play marker at 19:01. The Ravens came out flying in the second stanza with goals by Alex Fournier, at 1:06, and back-to-back markers by McCarry at 10:39 and 14:15 for a 4-2 lead.
 
That prompted a goalie change for the Redbirds as starter Alexis Shank was replaced by Fabio Iacobo after conceding four goals on 16 shots. Iacobo shut the door, stopping all six shots faced the rest of the way.
 
McGill stemmed the tide early in the third period when Pellerin set up rookie defenceman Mathis Gauthier at 5:41 and appeared to have the wind blowing at their backs. Pellerin, a six-foot, 183-pound right-winger from Victoriaville, Que., was in on all three McGill goals, it upped his season tally to 6-11-17 in 14 games. That moved the 21-year-old management major into 11th place in the OUA scoring race, which also ranks 15th across the country and tops among all OUA rookies.
 
McGill outshot the Ravens 10-5 in the final stanza, pressing had for the equalizer until the dying minutes when Noland Seed and Felix Bedard each added empty-netters to put the game out of reach.
 
Carleton rookie netminder Steven Bacovsky kicked aside 30 of 33 shots to collect the win, improving his record to 3-3.
 
Both teams were 1-for-3 on the power-play.
 
The positive news for McGill, is a looming second-half schedule, which, on paper, features six of 14 games against teams with a lower winning percentage than the Redbirds currently own (.571). McGill (8-6-0) will close out the first semester with home games against York (2-7-4) and Toronto (8-7-0) on Nov. 29-30, respectively, at the Place Bell community arena.
 
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SOURCE
Earl Zukerman
Sports Information Officer
Athletics & Recreation
McGill University
514-983-7012 (Tel.)
www.mcgillathletics.ca
earl.zukerman@mcgill.ca