Courtesy of host organizing committee / Photo credit Josh Schaefer
SASKATOON (CIS) – The fourth-seeded McGill University
Redmen used a pair of second-period goals to power past the No. 6
seeded Carleton Ravens 3-2 in Pool A action at the CIS men’s
hockey championship Friday afternoon in front of 8,304 fans at
Credit Union Centre.
First place in Pool A and a spot in Sunday’s national final
will be on the line Saturday at 2 p.m. Saskatchewan Time when
McGill (1-0) faces the top-ranked Alberta Golden Bears (1-0), live
on Sportsnet 360 and on www.cis-sic.tv.
Carleton sees its season come to an end after going 0-2 in its
first-ever appearance at the University Cup tournament. The Ravens
lost by an identical 3-2 score against Alberta on Thursday.
The Redmen, who edged Carleton in three games two weeks ago in the
best-of-three OUA East final, took a 2-1 lead at 2:05 of the second
period on a Patrick Delisle-Houde power-play marker. Ryan
McKiernan, the CIS defenceman of the year, received a cross-ice
pass and quickly centered the puck for Delisle-Houde, who deflected
it past Carleton netminder Francis Dupuis.
McGill extended its advantage to 3-1 five minutes later when
David Rose pounced on a rebound and slid the puck through Dupuis
pads.
Carleton came out strong in the third period with their backs
against the wall. Joey West cut the Redmen’s lead in half
when he potted home a Jacob Gervais-Chouinard rebound.
Unfortunately, for the Ravens, two late penalties dampened their
chances of tying the game.
Jean-Philippe Mathieu opened the scoring at 7:49 of the first
period when he caught Dupuis out of position after his goal stick
was knocked out of his hands. Dupuis tried to recover his stick
after making a kick save on a Neal Prokop attempt, the puck went to
the corner where Mathieu collected it and fired a wrist shot over
the shoulder of the Ravens goalie.
Carleton tied the game in the closing seconds of the opening
stanza. The 7,000 school kids in attendance counted down the final
10 seconds of the period, but unfortunately for the Redmen, they
were a second too fast. Timothy Billingsley took a shot from the
blue line that got past Gervais-Chouinard, who appeared to let up
as the kids counted “zero.” The officials went upstairs
to look at the replay and confirmed the puck crossed the red line
with 0.3 seconds remaining.
Kelly Nobes, head coach of the Redmen, preferred to see the humour
in Carleton’s first goal in the post-game press
conference.
“We played the kids count and not the clock but we came out
in the second and I thought the second was our best period. I
thought we were good, we had a good start today, we weathered the
storm a bit at the end of the first and in the third.”
The Redmen know they will be in tough against the Golden Bears
Saturday but they are prepared for the challenge.
“They are a good team they proved it throughout the year, we
will need to stick to our game tomorrow, said Rose. “We need
to play hard and be on the puck all the time. For us we approach it
like a semi-final, it’s a single game and we need to be ready
for it.”
The loss officially eliminated the Ravens but their bench boss was
proud of his troops.
“I’m happy with how our guys worked. We lost to two
really good hockey teams, they have a rich history and I think that
showed,” said head coach Marty Johnston.
Gervais-Chouinard celebrated his 22nd birthday with 34 saves in the
winning effort, while Dupuis made 35 saves.
“It’s pretty special to get my first University Cup
win on my birthday. The guys gave me a great gift today,”
said Gervais-Chouinard, who played in the AHL before joining the
Redmen this season.
Rose was named player of the game for McGIll while West claimed the
honour for Carleton.
The PotashCorp University Cup, presented by Co-op resumes Friday at
7 p.m. local time with Pool B action between the host and No. 5
University of Saskatchewan Huskies (0-0) and the No. Acadia Axemen
(0-1).
SCORING SUMMARY
FIRST PERIOD
1. McG Jean-Philippe Mathieu (1) (Neal Prokop, Benoit
Lévesque), 7:49
2. CAR Tim Billingsley (1) (unassisted), 19:59.
PENALTIES:
Mathieu (McG) roughing, 3:49;
McKiernan (McG) tripping, 14:28.
SECOND PERIOD
3. McG Patrick Deslisle-Houde (1) (Ryan McKiernan, Cedric
McNicoll), 2:05 PP
4. McG David Rose (1) (Jean-Philippe Mathieu, Neal Prokop),
7:27
PENALTIES:
Durocher (CAR) holding, 1:20;
Laporte (McG) hooking, 3:59;
Cardwell (CAR) high sticking, 5:17.
THIRD PERIOD
5. CAR Joe West (1) (Tim Billingsley), 3:42.
PENALTIES:
Durocher (CAR) slashing, 17:33;
Werthner (CAR) cross checking, 19:10;
Stanisz (CAR) slashing, 20:00;
Deslisle-Houde (McG) slashing, 20:00.
GOALS (by period)
McG 1-2-0: 3
CAR 1-0-1: 2
SHOTS ON GOAL (by period)
McG 12-15-11: 38
CAR 17-10-9: 36
POWER PLAY:
McG 1-4
CAR 0-3
GOALTENDERS
McG – Jacob Gervais-Chouinard (W, 1-0, 36 shots, 34 saves, 2
GA, 60:00)
CAR – Francis Dupuis (L, 0-2, 38 shots, 35 saves, 3 GA,
59:46)
CAR – Empty net (0 GA, 0:14)
PLAYERS OF THE GAME:
McG: David Rose
CAR: Joe West
REFEREES: Pascal St. Jacques, Derek Zalaski
LINESMEN: Nick Bilko, Kelsey Mahoney
ATTENDANCE: 8304
START: 1:02
END: 3:25
LENGTH: 2:23
POOL STANDINGS, SCHEDULE & RESULTS (LOCAL TIME)
Pool A standings (after 2 of 3 games)
GP W L GF GA PTS
1. ALB 1 1 0 3 2 2
1. McG 1 1 0 3 2 2
3. CAR 2 0 2 4 6 0
Pool B standings (after 1 of 3 games)
1. WSR 1 0 0 4 2 2
2. SSK 0 0 0 0 0 0
3. ACA 1 0 1 2 4 0
Thursday, March 20
13:00 Pool A #1: Alberta 3, Carleton 2
19:00 Pool B #1: Windsor 4, Acadia 2
Friday, March 21
13:00 Pool A #2: McGill 3, Carleton 2
19:00 Pool B #2: No. 2 Acadia vs. No. 5 Saskatchewan (www.CIS-SIC.tv)
Saturday, March 22
14:00 Pool A #3: No. 1 Alberta vs. No. 4 McGill (Sportsnet
360 & www.CIS-SIC.tv)
19:00 Pool B #3: No. 3 Windsor vs. No. 5 Saskatchewan (Sportsnet
360 & www.CIS-SIC.tv)
Sunday, March 23
13:30 Final (Sportsnet & www.CIS-SIC.tv)
* The webcasts of the 3 televised games will be on pay-per-view basis.
About Canadian Interuniversity Sport
Canadian Interuniversity Sport is the national governing body of university sport in Canada. Every year, 11,000 student-athletes and 700 coaches from 55 universities and four regional associations vie for 21 national championships in 12 different sports. CIS also provides high performance international opportunities for Canadian student-athletes at Winter and Summer Universiades, as well as numerous world university championships. For further information, visit www.cis-sic.ca or follow us on:
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