MONTREAL – The top-seeded McGill men's hockey team opens the OUA East best-of-three final series against second-place UQTR on Wednesday (Feb. 28) at 7 p.m. Game 2 is set for Friday (Mar. 1) at the Colisée Jean-Guy Talbot in Trois-Rivières. If a rubber match is needed, the teams will duke it out on Sunday (Mar. 3) in a 7 p.m. faceoff at McConnell Arena.
Tickets must be purchased online and are $20 for general admission, $13 for McGill students, staff and senior citizens (65+); and $5 for youths (16 and under).
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Both teams have also qualified for the U SPORTS Final Eight national championship in Toronto, Mar. 14-16, but the league champions will be seeded among the top three teams at the tourney and have a more favourable schedule.
McGill, which swept Concordia 2-0 in the previous playoff round, enters the series with a nine-game win streak and 13 consecutive victories on home ice. UQTR which won its playoff round 2-1 over Ottawa, enters with a one-game win streak and six straight conquests at home. In post-season play, McGill has seven different players who have found the back of the net in two games, compared to UQTR, which has four different goal scorers in three contests. During the 28-game regular season, UQTR led the league with 121 goals spread across 17 different snipers, while McGill was second with 116 goals from 19 different marksmen. Both sides had four players score at least 10 goals.
This series will pit Redbirds head coach
David Urquhart against Patriotes bench boss
Marc-Etienne Hubert, both former players for their respective squads. Each side features a lineup with two NHL draft picks. McGill's roster has defenceman
Scott Walford (Montreal, 3rd round, 2017) and forward
Zach Gallant (Detroit, 3rd round, 2017). UQTR has defenceman
David Noel (St. Louis, 5th round, 2017) and goaltender
Alexis Gravel (Chicago, 6th round, 2018).
This season, UQTR (21-6-1) won three of five meetings against McGill (21-5-2). They split two preseason games, with McGill winning 4-3 on the road (Sept. 15) and UQTR taking the rematch 6-3 in Montreal. The teams reversed trends in the regular season, with UQTR winning 5-1 at home (Oct. 18), McGill winning 4-1 at home (Oct. 20) and the Pats taking the last meeting 11-5 in Trois- Rivières (Nov. 8). Both squads are among the league leaders on special teams. In the five head-to-head meetings, the Redbirds went 4-for-22 (18.1%) on the power-play, while UQTR was 3-for-18 (16.7%), along with a shorthanded goal.
Since these teams first confronted each other in 1969, they have met 288 times, with UQTR holding a 175-96-17 overall record. But over the last 20 years, McGill has had the upper-hand with a 58-49-3 record in 110 matchups.
These rivals have crossed paths in 21 previous playoff series, with UQTR winning 13 of them but McGill has prevailed in eight of the last 10 series. In 49 post-season games, the Pats have a 28-21 advantage. This week will be their first playoff rendezvous since Mar. 23, 2022, when UQTR won the OUA East final by a slim 1-0 decision, a one-game series during the post-COVID season. McGill, which last won the league banner in 2018, has captured 18 Queen's Cup championships. UQTR, the defending league champs, have won the Cup a dozen times.
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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
