MONTREAL – To quote a famous line, "revenge is a dish best served cold". That said, it only took a year for the McGill University men's hockey team to avenge last-season's two-game playoff sweep to Concordia.

The Redbirds accomplished that feat on Saturday with a 3-1 come-from-behind victory over the Stingers before a standing room only crowd of 600 at the Ed Meagher Arena. That result, combined with a 6-4 home-ice victory in Game 1 last Wednesday, gave McGill a sweep of its best-of-three OUA East semifinal series.
 
The result extended McGill's win streak to nine and qualified the Redbirds for a berth at the U SPORTS Final Eight championship tournament, scheduled for March 14-16 at the Mattamy Athletics Centre, formerly known as Maple Leaf Gardens. The OUA conference has four berths at Nationals this year, so both of the OUA East finalists, as well as the two OUA West finalists will advance to the dance. The only thing left to decide is how high the four OUA teams get seeded and that depends on the who goes in as OUA Queen's Cup champions. Each of the other conferences will qualify two teams. The three league champs (OUA, AUS, Canada West) will be seeded among the top three teams and will play the lower-seeded squads to open the Nationals.
 
Concordia opened the scoring when Gabriel Proulx struck early, at 1:21 of the first period, but McGill rallied with three unanswered goals.
 
Zach Gallant of Oakville, Ont., assisted on a shorthanded goal by rookie Charles-Antoine Dumont of Levis, Que., just 58 seconds into the middle period, then the 2017 Detroit Red Wings draft pick scored the game-winner on a power-play at the 16:05 mark. Eric Uba  a senior from Kitchener, Ont., completed the scoring splurge with an empty-netter at 19:38 of the final frame.
 
Despite leading the nation in penalty-killing, McGill hadn't scored a shorthanded goal over the first 36 games of the season, including six preseason contests.

"We were actually talking about that during a meal at Altos (the team-sponsored restaurant) on Thursday night," laughed Gallant, a management junior, referring to the key play of the game. "It was about time. 'Doomy' and I had a lot of chances for a shorty this year. The (Concordia) defenceman kind of baited me to pass and I slipped the puck through, put it right on Doomy's tape in front of the net and he was able to bury it.

"We were kind of on our heels in the first and third period. Playing in this building is always tough and they had another great crowd tonight. Kudos to Concordia, they had a lot of chances down the stretch in the third but Shank really responded to the challenge... he really stood up and was our best player tonight, in my opinion."

Goaltender Alexis Shank, an economics junior from Laval, Que., sparkled between the pipes for McGill with 35 saves on 36 shots, many of them of a superb nature. Jordan Naylor, who was the backup in Game 1, started for the Stingers and saved 21 of 24 in a losing cause.

The Redbirds continued to shine on special teams, going 1-for-3 on the power-play, snuffing out all three penalties taken and adding that killer shorthanded marker.
 
"There's something really special about this team," added Gallant. "We've put the work in all year and all that is finally paying off. We're really looking forward to pushing towards a Queen's Cup championship. So we're going to have some fun tonight and then regroup to get ready for the next round."

McGill, which won five of six meetings with Concordia this season, improved its lifetime head-to-head record to 117-114-14 in 245 lifetime confrontations. They have met in 17 different playoff series, and McGill has won 11 of them, with a 22-16 post season record in the 38 games played.

"We've got a good brotherhood on this team," said captain Taylor Ford, a physical education senior from St. Lazare, Que. "Every guy is committed to each other and you can see it on the ice too. It was a gutsy win tonight, from everybody. The guys were sacrificing their bodies for each other. I took a holding penalty (late in the second period) and I knew that our PK unit would take care of it. Our brotherhood is the key going forward in the playoffs. It was a hard-fought series, we knew that Concordia was really good, that they weren't going to lie down tonight. They play really hard in their barn. But like I said, the guys just came together. There are no cliques on this team and we're all enjoying this together and that's what helped us win tonight."

McGill will now focus on preparations for the OUA East best-of-three finals against the winner of Sunday night's Game 3 match-up between Ottawa and UQTR. The upcoming series is slated to open at McConnell Arena, where McGill has a 13-game win streak, on Wednesday (Feb. 28) at 7 p.m. The series winner will travel to Ontario to confront the OUA West winner for the Queen's Cup, a one-game series slated for Mar. 9. The two losing teams will meet in an OUA bronze medal game before heading to Nationals

"Coming down the stretch in the second half of the season, we found ways to win and every game had a different story," said David Urquhart, who will be making his first trip to the Nationals as head coach but his fifth appearance overall, including two as a player and two more as an assistant coach with the team. "Tonight, Concordia was pressing hard and we needed the guys to play well defensively, block shots.and get a good game from our goalie, and that's exactly what we had. We were able to lock down a one-goal lead and that's the sign of a team that's committed to those good habits. Now our goal is to get in the front door at Nationals, to enter with the highest-seed possible. So our next series is incredibly important to win. We want to go in as Queen's Cup champions to give us our best chance."

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