GAME 2 POOL B: CIS championship: No. 3 Huskies come back, eliminate McGill

Photo credit Mike Lajoie / Courtesy of McGill University sports information

THUNDER BAY, Ont. (CIS) – The Saint Mary's Huskies rallied for three goals in less than five minutes en route to a 4-2 victory over McGill on Day 2 of the CIS men's hockey championship at Fort William Gardens, Friday afternoon.

University Cup website: http://english.cis-sic.ca/championships/mice

Game photos http://english.cis-sic.ca/championships/mice/2009-10/files/photos_3

Highlights http://english.cis-sic.ca/championships/mice/2009-10/releases/20100325-videos

The Huskies, seeded third as the Atlantic champions, improved to 1-0 and will meet the Manitoba Bisons (1-0) on Saturday at 2 p.m. for the right to play in Sunday's gold medal game at 7 p.m. Both games will be televised on Rogers Sportsnet and webcast on SSN Canada.

The OUA champion Redmen, who had been seeded second in the tourney, relinquished an early two-goal lead for the second time in as many days and were eliminated from the tourney with an 0-2 record, including a 5-4 overtime loss to Manitoba on Thursday.

In the wake of blowing a 4-1 third period lead in their loss on opening day, the Redmen jumped into a 2-0 lead against Saint Mary's by the 12-minute mark of the opening period, on goals by sophomore Maxime Langelier-Parent of Lery, Que., and freshman Christophe Longpré-Poirier of Longueuil, Que.

Saint Mary's took control of their destiny with four unanswered goals, beginning with Cody Thornton of Woodstock, Ont., who trimmed the deficit to 2-1 at 13:38.

"It was very frustrating as we had a good lead early in both games," said Langelier-Parent, who was named as McGill's player of the game. "We killed ourselves with penalties."

The Redmen spent 22 minutes in the penalty box against Saint Mary's, who connected on one of five power-play opportunities. In Game 1 against Manitoba, the Redmen were shorthanded nine times.

The Huskies turned up the heat in the middle stanza with three goals in less than five minutes. Scott Brophy of Torbay, Nfld., scored at 9:25, followed by Thornton again at 10:30 and Justin Munden's power-play marker at 14:07.

Rookie goalkeeper Neil Conway of Concord, Ohio registered 23 saves for the win, while Hubert Morin, a sophomore from St. Georges de Beauce, Que., made 22 saves and took the loss.

"We're very disappointed as we had a great season and high expectations for this team," said McGill's Marc-André Dorion, named earlier in the week as the most outstanding defenceman in CIS hockey. "We won our league and came into the tournament thinking we could win. We were ahead in both games but the bounces didn't go our way."

Huskies coach Trevor Stienburg was very satisfied with his team's performance. "There's no question that our game plan was to forecheck, take the body and pressure them as much as possible. I thought we did a real good job of it in the first 10 minutes but I won't lie to you, I was a little concerned when we fell behind 2-0," he said.

Langelier-Parent opened the scoring from the high slot at 7:49, converting a behind-the-net pass from rookie Patrick Belzile.

The Huskies almost tied it at 1-1 a few minutes later when they pressed on a two-man advantage, which lasted 55 seconds. A wrist shot from defenceman David MacDonald appeared to have beaten Morin but hit the goalpost.

McGill doubled its lead at 12:12 thanks to a similar pass-out from behind the net from Guillaume Doucet to Longpré -Poirier, who buried a wrist shot past Conway.

Saint Mary's replied less than two minutes later when Thornton pounced on a rebound from a Colby Pridham shot and found a wide open net staring him in the face.

Both teams had numerous coring opportunities after that but McGill's propensity for retaliation penalties gave the Huskies the momentum they needed.

Brophy tied the score at 2-2 when he deflected a shot by Tyler Hawes just before the midway mark of the middle stanza. Thornton gave Saint Mary's the lead 65 seconds later with a wrist shot from 20-feet out, which beat Morin on the glove side. The Huskies closed out the scoring at 14:02 of the second when Andrew Hotham, a defenceman, found Munden on a picture-perfect pass to Munden, who one-timed the puck past Morin.

The third period was a quiet affair as the Huskies seemed content to protect their lead and focussed on a suffocating defensive system, which resulted in McGill having a 6-3 edge in shots.

GAME NOTES: The two-game sweep of McGill marked the first time that they hadn't earned a split in four appearances at the CIS tourney. The Redmen had posted identical 1-1 records at the University Cup tourney in 2006, 2007 and 2009... The Huskies improved to 4-0 lifetime against McGill, winning 8-3 at Troy, N.Y., in 1977, 3-2 at Halifax in 2003 and 4-1 at the Nationals in Thunder Bay last year... The bulk of McGill's team will be back next year as the team is expected to lose only five veterans, including blueliners Yan Turcotte, Ben Gazdic and Glenn Tindle, plus goaltender Danny Mireault and forward Tim Drager.

SCORING SUMMARY

Saint Mary's 4, McGill 2

FIRST PERIOD

SCORING:

1. McG Maxime Langelier-Parent (1) (Patrick Belzile), 7:49
2. McG Christopher Longpré-Poirier (1) (Guillaume Doucet), 12:12
3. SMU Cody Thornton (1) (Colby Pridham), 13:38

PENALTIES:

Andrew Wright (McG) roughing, 8:26;
Evan Vossen (McG) cross checking, 9:32;
Francis Verreault-Paul (McG) roughing, 14:58;
Tyler Hawes (SMU) goaltender interference, 17:06.

SECOND PERIOD

SCORING:

4. Scott Brophy (1) (Tyler Hawes, Shawn O'Donnell), 9:25
5. Cody Thornton (2) (Colby Pridham), 10:30
6. Justin Munden (1) (Andrew Hotham, Mike Danton), 14:07 PP

PENALTIES:

Francis Verreault-Paul (McG) slashing, 3:08;
Yan Turcotte (McG) hooking, 12:20;
Patrick O'Keefe (SMU) hooking, 15:26.

THIRD PERIOD

SCORING:

No scoring.

PENALTIES:

Francis Verreault-Paul (McG) 10-minute misconduct, 5:15;
Mike Danton (SMU) cross checking, 11:06;
Tyler Hawes (SMU) tripping, 16:33;
Maxime Langelier-Parent (McG) slashing, 18:11;
Andrew Hotham (SMU) cross checking, 18:11.

GOALS (by period)
SMU: 1-3-0:4
McG: 2-0-0:2

SHOTS ON GOAL (by period)
SMU: 13-10-3: 26
McG: 12-7-6:25

POWER PLAY:
SMU: 1-5
McG: 0-4

GOALTENDERS
SMU – Neil Conway (W, 1-0, 25 shots, 23 saves, 2 GA, 60:00)
McG – Hubert Morin (L, 0-2, 26 shots, 22 saves, 4 GA, 58:11)
McG – Empty net (0 GA, 1:49)

PLAYERS OF THE GAME:
SMU: Cody Thornton
McG: Maxime Langelier-Parent

REFEREE: Graham Skilliter

LINESMEN: Jesse Wilmot, Matt Carr

ATTENDANCE: 2,686

START: 2:01
END: 4:11
LENGTH: 2:10

POOLS, SCHEDULE & RESULTS

Pool A
1. Alberta
4. Lakehead
6. UQTR

Pool B
2. McGill
3. Saint Mary's
5. Manitoba

Pool A standings (after 1 of 3 games)

GP W L GF GA PTS
1. Alberta 1 1 0 4 2 2
2. Lakehead 0 0 0 0 0 0
3. UQTR 1 0 1 2 4 0

Pool B standings (after 2 of 3 games)

1. SMU 1 1 0 4 2 2
2. Manitoba 1 1 0 5 4 2
3. McGill 2 0 2 6 9 0

Thursday, March 25
Pool B #1: Manitoba 5, McGill 4 (OT)
Pool A #1: Alberta 4, UQTR 2

Friday, March 26
Pool B #2: Saint Mary's 4, McGill 2
19:30 Pool A #2: Lakehead vs. UQTR (SSN Canada webcast)

Saturday, March 27
14:00 Pool B #3: Saint Mary's vs. Manitoba (Rogers Sportsnet / SSN Canada webcast)
19:00 Pool A #3: Lakehead vs. Alberta (Rogers Sportsnet / SSN Canada webcast)

Sunday, March 28
19:00 University Cup Final (Rogers Sportsnet / SSN Canada webcast)

-CIS-