CIS men's hockey Monday roundup: Verreault-Paul explodes as Patriotes implode (VIDEO)

Photo credit Derek Drummond

MONTREAL - Forward Francis Verreault-Paul of Mashteuiatsh, Que., scored twice and added an assist as McGill skated to a 6-3 victory over the UQTR Patriotes in men's university hockey at McConnell Arena, Monday.

It was the second victory in four days over their archrivals from Trois-Rivieres as the Redmen improved to 9-0 overall under new head coach Kelly Nobes, including a 4-0 record in regular season play.

It was a fast-paced game that took just two hours and one minute to play. McGill outshot the Pats 47-24, including a 17-7 margin in the second period.

"The guys played a solid 60 minutes tonight," said Nobes, a former Redmen player who coached at RMC and Laurier, before returning to his alma mater this past summer. "Anytime you get close to 50 shots on a team as good as UQTR, you know you've played well. However, we still have aspects of our game that could be better and we will continue to improve in those areas."

McGill led 2-0 after one period on goals by Verreault-Paul and centre Alexandre Picard-Hooper of Boucherville, Que., then stretched that to 3-0 when Maxime Langelier-Parent of Lery, Que., hit pay-dirt at 14:52 of the middle frame.

The Pats finally awoke, however, just 61 seconds later when Olivier Donovan of Gatineau, Que., tallied his first of two. That marker gave UQTR some life and less than two minutes after that, Francis Charland of Victoriaville, Que., connected on a power-play, narrowing the gap to 3-2.

McGill came out of the intermission champing at the bit and it paid off before the period was four minutes old when all-Canadian defenceman Marc-Andre Dorion of St. Hubert, Que., connected on a power play, ripping a blueline blast past goaltender Jean-Christophe Blanchard, to restore McGill's two-goal lead.

The Pats made it 4-3 when Donovan netted his second marker, shorthanded, at 14:25 but three minutes later, Redmen rookie Benoit Levesque of Vaudreuil, Que., dashed UQTR's hopes for a comeback with his first official goal in CIS play. Verreault-Paul added an empty netter and the Redmen came away with their fourth consecutive victory over the Patriotes, dating back to a two-game sweep in the conference finals last spring.

Redmen netminder Hubert Morin, a third-year engineering major from St. Georges de Beauce, Que., made 21 saves and improved to 3-0, while Blanchard was credited with 42 saves in a losing cause.

With nine straight wins under their belt, the Redmen are chasing a 74-year-old school record for most consecutive wins (17) set in 1936-37. However, McGill needs one more victory to tie a school record for most consecutive wins from the start of season. That mark was set in 1939-40 and equaled in 1945-46. The Redmen can tie and break the long-standing standard this weekend when they host their annual Friends of McGill Hockey Homecoming. The event kicks off with a Redmen "old-timers" game on Friday afternoon, followed by an RMC-McGill matchup and a post-game meet-the-players reception. Then on Saturday, the Queen's-McGill rivalry heats up with a near sell-out crowd expected. Faceoff is slated for 7 p.m. both nights.

UQTR, which dropped to 1-3, will host RMC (0-3-1) and Toronto (0-1-2) this weekend.

REDMEN RAP: The game was webcast live on SSN and all games are archived at www.ssncanada.ca/games

... The back-to-back wins over UQTR improve McGill's lifetime record against the Pats to 63-140-17 in 220 meetings dating back to 1969... The Redmen have won 10 of the last 12 confrontations... With 24 goals scored in four regular season games, McGill is tied with Concordia as the highest scoring squads in the OUA, which is composed of 19 teams... Linemates Verreault-Paul and Picard-Hooper are tied for third place in the OUA scoring race with identical 3-7-10 records... Picard-Hooper has been named as the Quebec university male athlete of the week for his four-point performance in a 6-2 win at UQTR last week... Dorion, who led all rearguards in points last year, is the highest-scoring blueliner in the league this season with a 2-7-9 record in four games... Morin is ranked third among OUA starting goalies with a 2.33 goals-against average, to go along with a .900 save percentage.

Source:

McGill Sports Info