News

Redmen stifle Gee-Gees, sweep semifinal series

Published: 24 February 2012

(GUILLAUME LANGELIER-PARENT LOOKS FOR REBOUND. PHOTO BY RICHARD WHITTAKER, COURTESY uOTTAWA)

OTTAWA - Nicolas Biniek, a sophomore centre from Montreal, tallied the game-winner at 6:35 of the second period as the No.2-ranked McGill men's hockey team skated to a 5-3 win over the Ottawa Gee-Gees at the uOttawa Sports Complex, Friday, to sweep their OUA East best-of-three semifinal series 2-0.

For the third straight game, five different players scored for McGill, who had a 29-27 advantage in shots. An impressive total of 11 different Redmen have now scored over the team's four playoffs contests.

"We had a very good start and maintained a good pace over the first two periods," said Redmen head coach Kelly Nobes. "Again our scoring was spread out five ways, which is what we need to do to win. The one thing that concerned me a bit was our power-play (0-for-7). We had some nice looks but we failed to capitalize for the third straight game and that's got to change."

McGill struck four times in an eight-minute span, to take a comfortable 4-1 lead before the seven-minute mark of the second period.

Team captain Evan Vossen scored at 18:56 of the opening period and defencemen Nicolas Therrien made it 2-0 at 2:23 of the middle stanza when he converted a rare 4-on-1 rush after an ill-timed line change by Ottawa.

"Our execution was just bad," said Ottawa head coach Réal Paiement, a former McGill defenceman and assistant coach in the early 1980s. "We just did not do what we needed to do defensively, and they are a good skating, hard working team. The difference between the two teams is the swagger and confidence that McGill has."

Maxime Chamberland gave the Gee-Gees a brief glimmer of hope when he made it 2-1 just before the five-minute mark but any spark they had was snuffed out moments later when forward Marc-André Daneau scored at 6:16, followed 22 seconds after that by Biniek's decisive goal.

Max Langelier-Parent, a senior centre from Léry, Que., made it 5-1 with a shorthanded effort at 16:29 of the middle period. It was the 12th career shorthanded marker (a school record) for the 6-foot-2, 225-pound speedster, who also added an assist. He is tied for second among the league's playoff scoring leaders with a 3-4-7 record in just four contests.

"McGill has an extremely high level of skill," Paiement added. "Man-to-man, their skill level is higher than ours at this given time. They are one of the hardest working teams and they are well coached, so it's a tough system to go up against."

Rounding out the scoring for the Gee-Gees was Stephen Blunden with two in the final period to make the score somewhat respectable.

Russell Abbott, Ottawa's starting goalie, was yanked after five goals on 21 shots and replace by Aaron Barton in the final stanza, who tuned aside all eight shots faced.

Goaltender Hubert Morin made 24 saves, improving to 20-5 lifetime in post-season play and 76-26-2 in 109 career games overall for McGill. The fourth-year engineering major is eight victories shy of the all-time school record set by Mathieu Poitras, who posted an 84-36-6 mark between 2004 and 2008.

McGill awaits the winner of the UQTR-Carleton series in Game 1 of the conference best-of-three finals, slated to open at McConnell Arena next Wednesday. The Patriotes won the opener 8-1 and the two teams are slated to tangle again on Saturday afternoon and Sunday night, if necessary. UQTR defeated McGill twice in three outings this season, while the Ravens took one of three meetings.

SCORING SUMMARY

McGill 5 at Ottawa 3

(Friday, February 24, 2012 - uOttawa Sports Complex)

GOALS BY PERIOD:
McGill 1-4-0 -- 5
Ottawa 0-1-2 -- 3

1st Period-
1, McGill, Evan Vossen 1 (A.Picard-Hooper, M.Langelier-Parent), 18:56.

Penalties-
Picard-Hooper Mcg (roughing), 5:26;
Touchette Ott (roughing, high sticking), 5:26;
Daneau Mcg (boarding), 8:16;
Picard-Hooper Mcg (hooking), 16:04;
Biniek Mcg (slashing), 20:00.

2nd Period-
2, McGill, Nicolas Therrien 2 (A.Picard-Hooper, P.Belzile), 2:23.
3, Ottawa, Maxime Chamberland 2 (G.Donovan), 4:58.
4, McGill, Marc-Andre Daneau 3 (B.Levesque), 6:16.
5, McGill, Nicolas Biniek 2 (P.Belzile), 6:38.
6, McGill, Max Langelier-Parent 3 (E.Vossen), 16:29 (SH).

Penalties-
Touchette Ott (slashing), 9:42;
McKiernan Mcg (cross checking), 16:13;
Krahenbil Ott (holding), 17:33.

3rd Period-
7, Ottawa, Stephen Blunden 2 (M.Leduc), 6:09.
8, Ottawa, Stephen Blunden 3 (J.Carnevale, M.Methot), 18:21.

Penalties-
Leduc Ott (interference), 1:45;
Hayes Ott (high sticking), 5:05;
Longpre-Poirier Mcg (interference), 5:21;
Blunden Ott (roughing), 6:44;
Langelier-Parent Mcg (tripping), 9:32;
Leduc Ott (slashing), 12:36;
Laporte Mcg (unsportsmanlike cnd.), 15:30;
Blain Ott (hooking), 15:30.

Shots on Goal-
McGill 8-13-8 -- 29.
Ottawa 8-10-9 -- 27.

Power Play Opportunities-
McGill 0 / 7;
Ottawa 0 / 5.

Penalties-
McGill 8 / 16;
Ottawa 9 / 18.

Goalies-

McGill,
Hubert Morin (W, 4-0, 27 shots-24 saves, 60:00).

Ottawa,
Russell Abbott (start; L, 2-2, 21 shots-16 saves; 40:00);
Aaron Barton (ND, 8 shots-8 saves; 18:58).
Empty-net: (0 goals, 1:02)

Attendance: 104

Start: 7:00 PM

End: 9:15 PM

Length: 2:15

Referee-Chad White.

Linesmen-Scott Garrod, Pat Smith.