MONTREAL – Zach Gallant glittered with two goals and gathered in a pair of assists as No.6 ranked McGill skated to a 6-2 triumph over the visiting Carleton Ravens in an OUA men's hockey thriller at McConnell Arena, Saturday.

This event also served as the team's annual Black Heritage game, in honour of Black History Month. The result was a sixth consecutive victory for the Redbirds and extended their home-ice win streak to a cool dozen.
 
More meaningful was that the Redbirds improved to 20-5-2 to maintain its grip on first place in the tightly-contested OUA East. It is the team's first 20-win season since racking up 22 in 2017-18 when they won their 18th Queen's Cup league championship. Carleton was eliminated from post-season play with a 10-11-5 record.

McGill, which had a 44-23 edge in shots, rallied from an early 2-1 deficit to lead 3-2 after a wild first period. The teams were scoreless in the middle frame and the Redbirds took the final stanza 3-0, capping the soiree with five unanswered goals.

"We're growing as a team, especially in the second semester and we showed that especially this week facing difficult games against two really good teams that were intense and motivated," said third-year head coach David Urquhart. "Concordia (on Wednesday) and Carleton were both fighting for their playoff lives and our focus for the week was discipline and structure. The big thing about these type of games is to control your emotions and I thigh that we did a good job of that. We're still building on playing a playoff brand of hockey with a defensive focus and we've put ourselves into a position where we can earn a bye through the first round of the playoffs.With another win next week, we can assure ourselves of a top-two finish."

Gallant set up Mathieu Gagnon to give his troops a 1-0 lead at 2:34 of the first period, then tied the score at 2-2 at the 18:27 mark. He also added a third period helper by winning a defensive zone faceoff that led to William Rouleau's 14th of the season to give the home side a 4-2 advantage at 4:47, then tallied his 12th of the season to give McGill a commanding 5-2 lead with less than seven minutes remaining in the contest.

Rounding out the McGill scoring was Eric Uba, with his team-leading 16th goal to put the Redfbirds ahead 3-2 and defenceman Maxime Blanchard, with an unassisted empty-netter, a lengthy shot that was fired from deep in the McGill zone. It was Blanchard's third of the season and the team's 15th marker from the blue-line corps. Blanchard also saved a sure goal that would have knotted the game at 3-3 early in the third period when Carleton's Reese Belton deked around McGill goaltender Alexis Shank and his shot was heading into the net when Blanchard scooped it out as it was about to cross the line. Video replays, which aren't used in U SPORTS, later confirmed that the puck did not cross the line.

TWITTER VIDEO OF MAXIME BLANCHARD SAVING A SURE GOAL

FACEBOOK VIDEO OF MAXIME BLANCHARD SAVING A SURE GOAL

Shank saved 21 of 23 shots and improved to 16-6 while extending his personal win streak to five. In 23 outings, he has a league-leading three shutouts, with a 2.57 goals-against average and a .910 save percentage.

Replying for the Ravens were forwards Aaron Boyd and Scott McKenzie, both in the first period. Senior goaltender Mark Grametbauer saved 38 of 43 shots as his record tumbled to 10-14.

McGill continued its excellence on special teams, going 1-for-5 on the power-play and erasing both shorthanded situations. The Redbirds PP is operating at 31.9 per cent and, ranked second in Canada behind UNB (33.6%). The PK unit now tops the nation at 89.8 per cent efficiency.

This was the first meeting in exactly a year between these clubs and McGill's victory snapped a four-game losing streak to the Ravens. McGill now leads the all-time head-to-head series versus Carleton at 41-34-1 in 76 lifetime meetings, including a 16-21-0 mark at Ottawa.

With one game left to play before playoffs, McGill has clinched a top three spot in the nine-team division. The first two berths earn a first-round playoff bye. The Redbirds have a two-point lead over Ottawa (19-5-2), which has a game in hand. Third-place UQTR (19-5-1) sits just one point behind Ottawa with three games left to play. One of those will be a critical head-to-head confrontation on Sunday (Feb.4) with the Gee-Gees heading into Trois-Rivieres. Both teams have a four-game win streak.

The Ravens will play Ottawa in the Colonel By Classic rivalry game at TD Place Arena on Feb. 8 before hosting McGill in the nation's capital on Feb. 10 at 7 p.m.

REDBIRDS RAP: The McGill hockey team was wearing a new sponsorship patch on the top left side of its jerseys from Alto restaurant, on Avenue du Parc, which has been been in the news of late with attention-grabbing promotions. Among them, hiding cash prizes in various locations and earning the title of Montreal's best pizza... More details about this sponsorship deal will be announced next week.... Among the alumni spotted on hand was Larry Ruch, who traveled in from Ottawa especially for the game, then headed back to the nation's capital. He played goal for McGill from 1979 to 1982, then served three seasons with the team as an assistant coach before embarking on a professional coaching career in Switzerland... Other former McGill hockey grads on hand included Greg Fraser from Toronto, Ken Covo, David Boucher, Mike Nelson, Charles Gauthier, Alex Sills, Jan Kaminsky and former assistant coach Chris LaPerle... The current 12-game home win streak is third longest in school history, behind the team record of 24 (over two seasons) set between 2010 and 2011. The other longer streak was 17 games, accomplished twice, in 1936-37 and again over two seasons between 2009 and 2010.

SCORING SUMMARY

OUA STANDINGS & STATS
 
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