OTTAWA – Mathieu Gagnon of Gatineau, Que., tallied twice and assisted on two others as No. 4-ranked McGill closed out a stellar regular season by doubling Carleton 6-3 in men's hockey, Saturday, to capture the OUA East division pennant.

With a 21-5-2 record, the Redbirds also finished as the top team in the entire 19-team league. They finished two points ahead of Brock, which won the OUA West with a 21-7-0 mark. This is McGill's first divisional title since 2018, when the team posted a 22-4-2 record en route to capturing its last Queen's Cup league championship.
 
The result was also the seventh consecutive victory for McGill, which outshot Carleton 46-24, including a lopsided 23-3 edge in the first frame, five shy of the school record for most shots in a period. The Redbirds led 3-1 after one and 5-3 after two.
 
The McGill hockey program, currently in its 148th year of operation, reached the 21-win plateau for the 10th time in team history and the first since 2017-18. The Redbirds also merited a first-round playoff bye and home-ice advantage throughout each of the OUA East best-of-three playoff rounds. The team has won its last 12 home games and own a 13-2-1 overall record at McConnell Area.

Once again, potent special teams was a factor as McGill went 4-for-6 on the power-play against Carleton and erased three of four shorthanded situations.
 
Gagnon, a 22-year-old management sophomore,  has now tallied seven points, including three goals, in his last two games. The 5-foot-11, 190-pound centre ended up fifth on the team in OUA scoring with a 7-17-24 record in 28 contests.

"It was great to see Gagnon contribute offensively, he has that element in his game," said McGill head coach David Urquhart. "He a guy that does a lot of the heavy lifting every night on the PK, gets all the tough match-ups defensively and he's always up to the task. Mat contributes on both sides of the puck, plays a 200-foot game, plays physical and wins battles. On a lot of nights when he is not on the scoreboard, he's one of the main contributors to the success of the team. If you look at the success of our penalty kill this year, he's a huge part of it because he's the first guy to come over the boards when we get a penalty. He takes the draws and plays a huge chunk of those minutes."

Other McGill marksmen included Xavier Fortin with two, Zach Gallant and defenceman Maxime Blanchard. The Redbirds blue-line corps finished with a combined 16 goals over the season.

"One of the key things about our team this season is that on any given night, guys step up from different parts of the lineup and that's what we had again today," Urquhart said. "Every game tells another story and it needs someone different to step up for the team to have success. Its been a great plus to have that. We got to a point this season where our fate was in our own hands and that's where you want to be. Tonight, it was another important game and we wanted to win that to earn the first-round bye. Home ice advantage is so important in the playoffs, especially in a best-of-three series."
 
Goaltender Alexis Shank kicked aside 21 of 24 shots for the victory, improving his regular season record to 17-6 in 24 appearances. The 5-foot-11, 182-pound junior from Laval, Que., posted three shutouts, a 2.59 goals-against average and a .908 save percentage.
 
Replying for the Ravens were forwards Parker Aucoin, Olivier Castleman and Reese Belton.
 
Carleton finished seventh in the OUA East, seven points behind the sixth and final playoff berth. The Ravens last missed post-season play in 2022.
 
McGill swept its season series 2-0 with the Ravens and now leads the all-time head-to-head series versus Carleton at 42-34-1 in 77 lifetime meetings, including a 17-21-0 mark at Ottawa.
 
This marked the final day for regular season play across the country. Playoff schedules are expected to be posted by each conference on Sunday. The only playoff spot yet to be settled is in the OUA West, where a new rule calls for a sudden-death "play-in" game between sixth-place Laurier (13-13-2) and seventh-seeded Nipissing (10-13-5). They will meet in Waterloo on Sunday at 7 p.m., going directly opposite the Super Bowl game.
 
In the OUA East, McGill and UQTR will each have a first-round playoff bye. The OUA East quarter-finals, all best-of-three series, are slated to begin on Wednesday. Sixth-seeded Ontario Tech will going against third-place Ottawa,  with the winner advancing to play UQTR. in the other series, fifth-seeded Concordia against No. 4 Queen's, with the winner advancing against McGill, which has now qualified for playoffs in 19 consecutive seasons (excluding the canceled campaign during the COVID pandemic).

"It's been a fun ride in the second semester and the guys will get a few days to enjoy the victory but but we've still got a lot of work to do," noted Urquhart, whose troops are four wins away from a berth at Nationals. "On Monday, we will get back to work and put our foot forward. We still have a lot of growth to do to be able to win in the playoffs. A lot of the pieces of the puzzle are there and the habits that we have been building on all season are in place."
 
REDBIRDS RAP: McGill ended up second in the nation with a power-play success rate of 34.0 per cent, behind undefeated UNB (30-0-0) which registered a lofty 35.7... The Redbirds finished with 34 PP goals in 28 games and tied with Calgary for second-most in the country. The only team with more was UNB, which scored 51 PPGs in 30 games. McGill's numbers are quite impressive as it was ranked 32nd of 35 U SPORTS teams in PP chances with only 100... McGill's PK unit was tops in the country, operating at a stifling 89.1 per cent, just edging out UBC (89.1)... The Redbirds ended up with 116 goals, their highest total since 2015-16 when they also had 116... The team record is 156 goals scored in 2009-10... Five McGill players ended up averaging at least one point per game, including one defenceman... An indicator as to the type of team the Redbirds have, is a statistical oddity that each of McGill's top nine point-getters have more assists than goals... In fact, only three players on the entire roster have scored more goals than assists... Sophomore William Rouleau, who led McGill in scoring for the second consecutive season, finished sixth in the OUA scoring race with a 14-23-37 record in 28 games... Teammates Eric Uba (16-18-34) and Brandon Frattaroli (11-23-34) placed eighth and 10th, respectively... Rearguard Scott Walford ended up fourth among OUA defencemen in scoring with a 4-20-24 record in 20 games, one point shy of tying for the lead. Despite having missed eight games due to an injury suffered in a preseason game, Walford did manage to lead all OUA blue-liners in points per game (1.20) and in overtime winning goals (3).
 
SCORING SUMMARY

OUA FINAL STANDINGS & STATS
 
McGILL REG. SEASON SCORING LEADERS

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