KINGSTON, ONT – Rookie Alexis Morin of Quebec City scored with 33 seconds remaining as McGill rallied from a three-goal deficit to escape with a 4-3 road victory against the RMC Paladins in men's university hockey, Sunday.
 
It was McGill's largest comeback win since overcoming a 3-0 deficit for a 5-3 victory at UQTR in Game 2 of the OUA East final series on Mar. 1, 2024. The school's most historic come-from-behind win occurred more than a century ago when McGill erased an incredible 10-3 disadvantage to defeat Toronto 12-10 in overtime on Jan. 19, 1912. In that era, they played two five-minute overtime periods, without sudden-death.
 
McGill, which improved its record to 14-8-0 in the OUA East, still hasn't clinched a playoff berth with only six games remaining. The Redbirds sit fifth in the nine-team division, one point behind Ontario Tech (13-7-3) and two in arrears of third-place Ottawa (14-6-2). McGill is also looking in the rear-view mirror as they are only two points ahead of UQTR (12-9-1) and Carleton (12-9-1). The top six teams qualify for post-season play.
 
RMC scored the only goal of the first period when Nathan Fox connected at 7:41. McGill ran into penalty trouble in the middle period and the Paladins upped the lead to 3-0 after striking for power-play goals from William Gallant (3:48) and Noah Matulu (17:07).
 
But Zachary Gallant cued the comeback for the Redbirds, scoring a PP marker to break the goose-egg with only 23 seconds remaining before the second intermission. And before the third frame was six minutes old, the game was deadlocked at 3-3 after markers from Xavier Fortin at 2:13 and Brandon Frattaroli at 5:49.

With overtime looming large, RMC's Matulu was nailed for tripping with 1:51 remaining in regulation time. Morin, a 5-foot-10, 172-pound management freshman responded on the power-play, converting a nifty three-way passing play from Fortin and Charles-Antoine Dumont.
 
McGill, which had a 41-26 edge in shots, went 2-for-6 on the power-play, while RMC was 2-for-8.
 
Goaltender Alexis Shank made 23 saves for the win and improved his lifetime record to 49-39 in 97 games overall for McGill. RMC netminder Michael Davis made 37 saves in a losing cause.
 
The result improved McGill's lifetime record over RMC to 80-10-4 since they first met way back in 1892 (see list of oldest hockey rivalries below).

The hard-luck Paladins (1-20-2) will host Guelph (11-11-0) on Jan. 31 before playing their two most important games of the season. RMC will host the U.S. Army team from Westpoint, N.Y., on Feb. 1 before resuming their historic series against long-time foe Queen's (18-5-0) in the annual Carr-Harris Cup rivalry game, on Feb. 6.

McGill will now prepare for a long road-trip to southern Ontario, with games at Windsor (13-9-0) on Feb. 1 and Western (12-9-1) on Feb. 2.

GAME NOTE: Long-time referee Duane Parliament worked his final game before retiring and was honoured in a pre-game ceremony. He officiated more than 1,200 games over the past 27 years... The coaches and players from both teams shook hands with him after the game.
 

OLDEST HOCKEY RIVALRIES IN NORTH AMERICA:

Mar. 10, 1886: Queen's 1, Royal Military College 0

Feb. 27, 1892: McGill 5, Royal Military College 1

Feb. 2, 1895: Queen's 6, McGill 5

Feb. 8, 1895: Queen's 19, Toronto 3

Feb. 1, 1896: Yale 2, John's Hopkins 2

Mar. 4, 1897: McGill 14, Harvard 1

Jan. 19, 1898: Brown 6, Harvard 0

Feb. 20, 1899: McGill 8, Toronto 4

Feb. 26, 1900: Yale 5, Harvard 4

SCORING SUMMARY
 
OUA STATS & STANDINGS

SOURCE:
Earl Zukerman
Communications Officer
McGill Athletics and Recreation
(514) 983- 7012
earl.zukerman@mcgill.ca
www.mcgillathletics.ca