AROUND OUA: Power-play propels Pats to prevail in first-place showdown against Redmen
TROIS-RIVIERES, Que. -- Guillaume Asselin, a junior from Quebec City, registered a hat-trick and added an assist as the No.4-ranked Trois-Rivieres Patriotes skated to a 6-1 victory over No.6 McGill in a key OUA East men's hockey first-place showdown before a Winter Carnival crowd of 1,381 at Le Colisee, Wednesday.
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Guelph 5 @ Brock 4
Power-play propels Pats to prevail in first-place showdown against Redmen
TROIS-RIVIERES, Que. -- Guillaume Asselin, a junior from Quebec City, registered a hat-trick and added an assist as the No.4-ranked Trois-Rivieres Patriotes skated to a 6-1 victory over No.6 McGill in a key OUA East men's hockey first-place showdown before a Winter Carnival crowd of 1,381 at Le Colisee, Wednesday.
Asselin, who played four seasons in the QMJHL with Montreal and Chicoutimi followed by a brief stint with Greenville in the East Coast Hockey League, leads the CIS in goals with 23 in 24 games.
The Patriotes, now 20-3-1, took over sole possession of first-place in the OUA East, two points ahead of McGill, which dropped to 19-5-1 with three games left before playoffs. UQTR's magic number to clinch first ahead of McGill is four points with four games remaining on their schedule. The one positive out of this scenario is that the first-place team will have to open the OUA East best-of-three quarter-finals on the road against the eighth-place finisher, most likely Laurentian, which means a long road trip to Sudbury, followed by two home games, if necessary.
The Pats led 2-0 after one period and 3-1 after two, then added three unanswered goals in the final stanza. They went 2-for-5 on the power-play, while McGill went 1-for-5 but had four man-advantage situations quickly nullified by penalties. One of those was a borderline hooking call early in the second period on McGill rookie rearguard Dominic Talbot-Tassi, who was assessed his first penalty of the season. Those scenarios proved costly as McGill entered the contest with the No.1 power-play success rate in the country at 30.2 per cent.
Tommy Giroux potted a pair of goals for the Pats, who also added a marker from defenceman Jeremy Beaudry. UQTR, with 23 goals from their blueline, ranks second to McGill, which leads the CIS with 29.
Mathieu Pompei tallied the lone McGill goal with his 15th of the season, tying him with defenceman Samuel Labrecque for third in the country in that department. Labrecque, who collected an assist on the goal, continues to lead the CIS scoring race with a 15-26-41 record in 25 contests. But Carleton rookie Brett Welchka is second with 38 points in 21 games and Asselin and Giroux are in hot pursuit, with 37 and 36 points, respectively.
"You don't win many games, when you score only one goal," said McGill head coach Kelly Nobes, who dressed an injury-riddled lineup. "We didn't execute well offensively or defensively."
Among the seven injured players scratched from the McGill lineup was third-year goaltender Jacob Gervais-Chouinard, who has a 42-10-0 career record in OUA play. He hasn't suited up since suffering a lower-body injury early in the second period of last Saturday's 4-2 loss to Western.
Rookie Joe Fleschler started and saved 25 of 31 shots as his record dropped to 2-2-0. Filling in as an emergency back-up on the bench was Sean Kelly of Trois-Rivieres, a chemical engineering senior who had been playing intramural hockey until being called up the day before the game.
In nets for UQTR was rookie Sebastien Auger, who kicked out 32 of 33 shots and improved his record to 20-4-0. His back-up was Jimmy Appleby, also called up as an emergency replacement for Francois Desrosiers, injured in practice earlier in the week.
The six goals were the most the Pats have scored against McGill in 13 meetings, dating back to a 6-4 decision in Trois-Rivieres on Jan, 14, 2014. UQTR leads the all-time series with a 156-76-17 record against the Redmen since the series began in 1969 but McGill is 23-18 in the last 41 matchups.
The Redmen now turn their attention to Queen's, who will play at McConnell Arena on Saturday at 5 p.m. A capacity crowd is expected for the event, which is being billed as the "Renew the Rivalry Game". The Gaels are 13-6-1 and sit 12 points behind McGill in the standings but have five games in hand on the Redmen. McGill has won 30 consecutive meetings over the Gaels since their last loss 11 years ago, a 5-2 setback on home ice, Feb. 6, 2004. The Redmen are 124-50-2 in 176 lifetime contests with Queen's since these teams first crossed paths way back in 1895.
Source: McGill Redmen
