CIS men's hockey Wednesday roundup: Redmen rule rivals, run record to 22-0-2; Win streak now at eight

It was the eighth straight victory for the Redmen who iced a depleted lineup but nevertheless improved to 22-0-2, good enough for 46 points in the OUA East standings, which breaks the McGill record (44) and ties the school record for most wins, both of which had been established last year.

McGill, which was missing the services of six regulars, had a 45-30 advantage in shots over the Stingers (12-11-1). The Redmen went 1-for-4 on the power-play and snuffed out all three shorthanded situations.

"We showed great discipline and stayed out of the box for the third straight game," said Redmen head coach Kelly Nobes, whose troops have gone 5-for-16 with the man-advantage during that span and have killed off 10 of 11 opposition PP opportunities. "It is one of our objectives to focus on maintaining our discipline as the playoffs approach."

Marcotte-Légaré, a 6-foot-1, 205-pound finance senior, gave McGill a 3-1 lead at 8:41 of the middle period with a blast into the top right corner that knocked the water bottle off the net.

"It was great to see Simon finally shoot the puck," said Nobes of the 6-foot-1, 205-pound centre who owns a 5-16-21 record in 24 contests. "He has a great shot but doesn't use it enough. He took a nice pass from (defenceman) Ben Morse and fired an absolute rocket."

After Concordia defenceman Jesse Goodsell narrowed the gap to 3-2 only 87 seconds later on a seeing-eye shot through a forest of bodies, Marcotte-Légaré assisted on Ryan McKiernan's marker just 42 seconds after that to put the Redmen ahead 4-2 by the mid-way mark of the period. McKiernan, a freshman rearguard who was recently moved up front to fill-in for a number of injured forwards, now has a six-game point-scoring streak. He was credited with his seventh of the season after his point shot rattled off the backboards and bounced off Concordia goalie Raffaele D'Orso, a rookie from Laval, Que.

The Stingers made it 4-3 when Michael Stinziani of Lorraine, Que., found the back of the net at 19:42 but Marcotte-Légaré then set up what proved to be the game-winner by Montrealer Neil Blunden, a rookie blueliner, at 7:40 of the third period. Blundon's shot was a case of déjà-vu all over again as his point-shot hit the backboards and then deflected off the skate of D'Orso.

Trailing by two with less than six minutes remaining, the Stingers lost their cool and were assessed eight of the next 11 penalties called by referee Marc Muylaert, including a costly fighting major, aggressor and game misconduct called on Goodsell, their top defenceman who will have to serve an automatic three-game suspension as a result of his actions.

Concordia pulled their netminder in the final minute and Marc-Andre Element of Cadillac, Que., scored with 43 seconds remaining on the clock to give the visitors some hope but McGill netminder Antoine Tardif, a rookie from Daveluyville, Que., was solid the rest of the way and finished with 31 saves, improving his record to 8-1.

Also scoring for McGill was Christophe Longpre-Poirier (9th) of Longueuil, Guillaume Doucet (10th) of Anjou, Que. For Doucet, it marked the eighth straight contest with at least one point. The first Stingers goal was tallied by Kyle Kelly of Pointe Claire, Que.

Among the six missing Redmen was team captain Evan Vossen, centre Maxime Langelier-Parent and all-Canadian blueliner Marc-Andre Dorion, each of whom are currently with the CIS all-star team at the World University Winter Games in Turkey. Also missing were three injured players, including starting goaltender Hubert Morin (upper body injury), plus forwards Patrick Belzile (hand) and Jean-Francois Boisvert (upper body).

Concordia (12-11-1) was without head coach Kevin Figsby, who is serving as an assistant with the CIS team in Turkey. Peter Bender, a McGill grad and former Redmen football player, filled in as bench boss for the Stingers. Concordia plays the Gee-Gees (10-10-3) in Ottawa, Friday, while McGill, which has four games remaining before playoffs, travels to Carleton (13-7-2) on Saturday afternoon.

REDMEN RAP: Alex Picard-Hooper picked up one assist to extend his point-scoring streak to 10 consecutive games... He leads the CIS scoring race by seven points with a 10-41-51 record in 24 contests... Redmen sniper Francis Verreault-Paul, who tops the nation with 28 goals, was held pointless for only the second time this season... It ended his six-game goal-scoring streak, the most by any OUA player this year... McGill improved their lifetime record to 666-645-110 in 1,421 regular season games dating back to 1902-03, the first year of the Senior Intercollegiate Hockey League... The Redmen have finally surpassed the .500 mark in their lifetime series with Concordia. After spotting the Stingers a 1-36-1 head start in the first 38 meetings, McGill has finally erased that deficit and now owns a 68-67-13 record in regular season play. Including playoffs and exhibition games, the Redmen are 80-89-14 lifetime in 183 lifetime confrontations overall.

Source: McGill Sports Info