Mighty Max masterful as Redmen ambush Patriotes
(Photo of Maxime Langelier-Parent by Gary Rush)
TROIS-RIVIERES - Maxime Langelier-Parent of Lery, Que., registered a hat-trick and two school records as the No.1-ranked McGill men's hockey team celebrated their 135th birthday with a 7-3 rout over 10th ranked UQTR, before 417 at Le Colisée, Tuesday.
It was a near flawless performance for the Redmen, who had played their first official game on Jan. 31, 1877, a 2-1 win over the Victorias, a skating club from the now-defunct Victoria Rink in Montreal. McGill has played UQTR seven times on their birthday and owns a 4-2-1 record on that date.
It also marked McGill's first win in three meetings against UQTR this season and the team's largest offensive output in 83 consecutive regular season or playoff games at Trois-Rivieres since a 9-4 victory on Jan. 31, 1979. McGill improved their lifetime record versus the Pats to 67-144-17, including a 14-6 mark in their last 20 confrontations.
The Redmen held a 42-22 margin in shots against the Pats, their long-time archrivals, including a lopsided 17-2 advantage in the middle period. McGill went 3-for-6 on the power-play, killed off all five UQTR man-advantage situations and tallied their league-leading 10th shorthanded goal.
"Our special teams were real effective tonight," said Redmen head coach Kelly Nobes, who collected his 196th career victory in 392 CIS games behind the bench overall, including a 55-15-2 mark over his two seasons at McGill. "We were very happy with the performance of our power-play and especially pleased with our penalty-killing. Our PK unit takes great pride in shutting down the opposition and tonight they did a great job against Trois-Rivieres which is ranked as the third-best power-play in the league."
The teams were tied at 2-2 after one period before McGill took what appeared to be an insurmountable 5-2 lead after two.
Francis Verreault-Paul of Mashteuiatsh, Que., scored four points, including a pair of goals, but his offensive outburst was overshadowed by Langelier-Parent, who blew out the candles on the team's historic birthday celebration.
Each time the Patriotes scored, the fourth-year economics major answered with one of his own. The smooth-skating, 6-foot-2, 225-pound centre tied the game at 1-1 on a power-play midway through the opening stanza, gave the Redmen a 3-2 lead with an even-strength marker at 2:17 of the second period and made it 6-3 with a shorthanded effort at 19:05 of the final period.
"Max clearly had a great game tonight and he was doing a lot of little things," said Nobes. "Tonight I asked him to win faceoffs on the power-play and he was near perfect in that area. I asked him to be a good middle driver and he did just that every time his line rushed up the ice. And I asked him to give us a good net-front presence and he did that as well. He certainly was rewarded for doing all the little things right and it paid off with three goals."
He netted his league-leading sixth shorthanded tally of the season and the 11th of his career, both McGill records, breaking the previous standards of five and 10, respectively. The single-season mark of five had previously been set in 1992 by Patrice Tremblay and was matched by Guillaume Demers (2008), Christophe Longpre-Poirier (2010) and Langelier-Parent himself in 2010. The career record of 10 had stood for two decades, set initially by Tim Iannone in 1990 and equaled by Patrice Tremblay (1992).
Verreault-Paul, who despite missing five games, now owns a 17-12-29 record in only 19 contests and is only two shy of leading the CIS in goals for the third straight season. He has 83 career goals in 89 regular season games, 10 short of the school record held by Iannone.
Redmen netminder Hubert Morin made 19 saves and improved his record to 11-3 on the season and 70-25-2 overall since joining the Redmen in 2009. The engineering senior from St. Georges de Beauce, Que., is ranked second in the OUA with a 2.04 goals-against average. He is sixth in wins, second in shutouts (3) and fourth in save percentage (.918).
Guillaume Nadeau, the Pats goalie from St-Jean-Chrysostome, Que., made 35 saves in a losing cause and his record fell to 14-7.
Rounding out the scoring for McGill was team captain Evan Vossen of Swift Current, Sask., and defenceman Ben Morse of Toronto.
McGill senior Marc-Andre Dorion, a two-time all-Canadian who was named CIS defenceman of the year in his sophomore season, earned three assists and moved up to fourth-place in the OUA scoring race with 35 points (including six goals) in 24 games, just six shy of league leader Keaton Turkiewicz from Western. Dorion leads all CIS rearguards in both assists and points. Almost as impressive is the fact that he has only been assessed four penalty minutes all season long.
Charles Bety, Felix Lefrancois and Maxime Levesque replied for the Pats, who needed a victory to tie the Redmen for first place in the OUA East Division. Instead, McGill now leads the Pats by four points with a 19-3-2 record and four games remaining before playoffs.
UQTR, which dropped to 17-6-2, will host Queen's (12-10-2) on Feb. 3. The Redmen will host Concordia (12-10-2) and Carleton (13-9-2), Feb. 3-4, respectively, then close out their regular-season schedule with road games at Concordia (Feb. 8) and Ottawa (Feb. 10).
REDMEN RAP: Three McGill regulars did not dress against the Pats, including rearguard Keven Dupont (serving an automatic one-game suspension for a fighting major), along with veteran Andrew Wright and rookie forward Marc-Olivier Vachon, both of whom suffered upper-body injuries in McGill's previous game, a 4-2 loss at Carleton... The Redmen are one victory away from reaching the 20-win plateau for the fourth time in school history, including an unprecedented third straight season.
SCORING SUMMARY
McGill 7 at UQTR 3
(Tuesday, January 31, 2012 - Le Colisee)
GOALS BY PERIOD:
McGill 2-3-2 -- 7
UQTR 2-0-1 -- 3
1st Period-
1, UQTR, Charles Bety 9 (Levesque, Gravel), 6:18.
2, McGill, Max Langelier-Parent 8 (Verreault-Paul, Dorion), 8:58 (PP).
3, UQTR, Felix Lefrancois 7 (Donovan, Petit), 9:21.
4, McGill, Francis Verreault-Paul 16 (McKiernan, Dorion), 14:37 (PP).
Penalties-
Longpre-Poirier McG (slashing), 2:21;
Gravel UQTR (tripping), 7:12;
Robichaud UQTR (high sticking), 12:46;
Laporte McG (roughing after the whistle), 13:13;
Levesque UQTR (inter. on goaltender), 13:13;
Vossen McG (hooking), 15:30.
2nd Period-
5, McGill, Maxime Langelier-Parent 9 (Dorion, Levesque), 2:17.
6, McGill, Evan Vossen 11 (Verreault-Paul, Picard-Hooper), 3:47.
7, McGill, Francis Verreault-Paul 17 (unassisted), 12:28.
Penalties-
Morse McG (interference), 4:32;
Tremblay UQTR (roughing after the whistle), 13:05;
Daneau McG (roughing after the whistle), 16:10;
Therrien McG (roughing after the whistle), 16:10;
Demers UQTR (roughing after the whistle), 16:10;
Joncas UQTR (roughing after the whistle), 16:10;
Gravel UQTR (interference), 17:38;
Lefrancois UQTR (interference), 18:11.
3rd Period-
8, UQTR, Maxime Levesque 5 (Lacasse, Tremblay), 9:34.
9, McGill, Max Langelier-Parent 10 (unassisted), 19:05 (SH).
10, McGill, Ben Morse 2 (Longpre-Poirier, Boisvert), 19:59 (PP).
Penalties-
Boisvert McG (hooking), 6:50;
Picard-Hooper McG (boarding, roughing), 17:12;
Verreault-Paul McG (roughing), 17:12;
Boudreau UQTR (roughing), 17:12;
Hotte UQTR (roughing, 10-minute misconduct), 17:12;
Beauchemin UQTR (high sticking), 19:29;
Longpre-Poirier McG (slashing), 19:59;
Gravel UQTR (slashing), 19:59.
Shots on Goal-
McGill 14-17-11 -- 42.
UQTR 6-2-14 -- 22.
Power Play Opportunities-
McGill 3 / 6;
UQTR 0 / 5 (1 SHG against).
Penalties (No./Mins.)-
McGill 11 / 22;
UQTR 13 / 34.
Goalies-
McGill, Hubert Morin (W, 11-3-0, 22 shots-19 saves; 60:00).
UQTR, Guillaume Nadeau (L, 14-7-0, 42 shots-35 saves; 60:00).
Attendance: 417
Start: 7:02 PM
End: 9:20 PM
Length: 2:18
Referee-Francois Fortin.
Linesmen- Yanick Pothier and Maxime Joanisse.
THREE STARS:
1. MCG - 16 Max Langelier-Parent
2. MCG - 18 Francis Verreault-Paul
3. UQTR - 21 Maxime Levesque
SOURCE:
Earl Zukerman
McGill Athletics & Recreation
514-398-7012 (Tel.)
m.athletics.mcgill.ca (mobile website)
@EarlZukerman (twitter)