LAVAL, QUE – Mathieu Bizier scored twice and added a pair of assists as Concordia staved off elimination with five unanswered goals in a 5-1 road victory over McGill before a capacity crowd of more than 500 at the Place Bell Community Rink, Friday.
 
The result halted McGill's seven-game win streak and knotted the OUA East men's hockey best-of-three semifinal series at 1-1, in the wake of a 6-1 Redbirds victory on Wednesday. The teams have less than 24 hours to prepare for Game 3, a do-or-die affair, slated for Saturday night in a 7 p.m. faceoff at the Ed Meagher Arena.
 
The winner advances to a divisional final against second-seeded Queen's, which swept fourth-place Ottawa 4-3 and 7-3. The Gee-Gees, however, have a trump card to the Nationals, as they are hosting the Final Eight tournament, March 21-23. They will be joined by the three medal-winning teams from the OUA, plus two teams apiece from the Atlantic and Canada West conferences.
 
The Stingers played a more disciplined game, combined with stifling defence to limit McGill's explosive offence, which was ranked third in the 19-team league. The Redbirds, who went-4-for-6 on the power-play in Game 1, went 0-for-2 in each of the last two contests. Concordia went 1-for-3 in each of their three games.

The Stingers had a 30-16 edge in shots, including an 11-2 margin in the third period. Both of McGill's shots in the final stanza occurred after pulling the goalie for an extra attacker with 9:25 remaining. The tactic was the earliest ever by a McGill team in school history (excluding delayed penalty scenarios) and eventually backfired when Alexandre Nadeau tallied an empty-netter with 2:35 remaining in the game.

"When we look at a game like that, the thing that we can take from it is that there is no time (to dwell on it) as we get right back on the ice in less than a day and can use this result as motivation," said McGill head coach David Urquhart. "So we can head into (Game 3) and make sure that we are ready from the opening puck drop, right down to the end, whatever it takes. We learned from this that we need to have a better response to the opposing team's strong moments and on Saturday, we want to come out, take the pace and make our own opportunities."
 
Redbirds team captain Alexandre Gagnon scored the game's opening goal at 16:55 of the first period but the Stingers roared back just seven seconds later, when Bizier replied at 17:02, followed by the go-ahead marker at 17:54 after Bizier set up Simon Lavigne.
 
The Redbirds drove into a deeper pothole after the first intermission as just 15 seconds into the second period, Bizier struck for his second of the game and third of the playoffs. Bizier then helped set up Kyle Havlena's goal at 18:14 of the middle frame as the Stingers took a commanding 4-1 stranglehold on the contest.
 
Winning goaltender Nikolas Hurtubise, who was yanked in Game 1 of the series, bounced back with 15 saves on 16 shots, including acrobatic stops on McGill sniper Brandon Frattaroli on the first shift of the game and again early in the second period.
 
Redbirds netminder Alexis Shank saved 25 of 29 shots and was charged with the loss.

McGill dropped to 118-118-14 overall in the lifetime series versus the Stingers, including a 23-17 edge in post-season play. The McGill men have won 11 of their previous 17 post-season series with the Stingers. While this series is going on, the same two schools are also confronting each other in the RSEQ women's hockey best-of-three semifinals. It marks only the fifth time in history that the cross-town rivals are in a same season playoff showdown and the first since 2014, when McGill swept both genders. Previous occurrences happened in 2007 (a McGill sweep), 2001 (a Concordia sweep) and in 2000 (McGill men won, Concordia women won), The Martlets dropped the opener 2-1 in their current series and will host the Stingers on Saturday (March 1) in a 3:30 p.m. faceoff at Place Bell, a few hours before the men's Game 3 at the Ed Meagher Arena.

FACES IN THE CROWD: Aside from two former team captains behind the McGill bench (David Urquhart, Patrick Delisle-Houde), there was a plethora of former captains on hand for Game 2. That group included Adam Pilotte (2023-24), Taylor Ford (2022-2024), Ty Fournier (2022-23), Ken Covo (1979-1981), Mike Nelson (1981-82) and Herb Madill (1971-72)... Other hockey alumni spotted included former goalies Dan Gubiani and Mike Farmer. 

SCORING SUMMARY

GAME 3 TICKETS AT CONCORDIA

U SPORTS NATIONAL STATS

OUA STATS & STANDINGS
 
SOURCE
Earl Zukerman
Sports Information Officer
Athletics & Recreation
McGill University
CELL: 514-983-7012
E-MAIL:earl.zukerman@mcgill.ca