The McGill Redmen (6-2-0) routed the Brock Badgers (2-5-0) 8-1 on a frosty Halloween evening at McConnell Arena.
One only had to look at the visitors’ bench in the third period to understand how thoroughly McGill had dominated Brock. Ashen-faced at the intermission, the Badgers saw a 6-1 deficit stretched to an 8-1 blowout over the course of the third period.
McGill dominated all three periods of the game. They never trailed the Badgers, and only gave up one goal–on a power play in the last five minutes of the first period. Redmen Assistant Coach David Urquhart was pleased with the performance.
“I think it was a good 60-minute game,” Urquhart said. “The entire team, all four lines and all 16 played the way we needed to play, the way we had talked about playing before the game.”
McGill have shown consistent improvement over the course of the season. This victory is its third in a row, and moves the team’s conference record to 6-2-0. The Redmen were exceptionally sharp on offence, outdoing Brock in almost every statistical category. They outshot the Badgers 41-33, and went 2-3 on their power plays in comparison to Brock’s 1-9. They also scored twice in shorthanded situations.
The Redmen’s skating and control of the puck was the most impressive facet of their game. The eight goals were shared amongst five players, demonstrating how willing the Redmen were to create high-percentage shots with puck movement.
McGill scored in every period, never letting up with its offensive onslaught. Junior wingers Max Le Sieur, Jonathan Brunelle, and David Rose scored in the sixth, 14th and 13th minutes of the first period, respectively. All three would then go on to tally another score in the second period. Finally, sophomore defenceman Etienne Boutet and senior centre Guillaume Langelier-Parent scored in the fourth and 19th minutes of the third period with McGill’s superiority well established.
“I think our skating was really effective tonight,” Urquhart said. “That was where we drew a lot of our success. We truly pushed the pace.”
The Badgers had to travel 660 kilometres to the McConnell Arena, and seemed sluggish in comparison to the sharp and quick Redmen squad.
“We had a team that had to travel a long way today to come play us,” Urquhart said. “They were on the bus for a long time today and I think our speed and our continued effort of skating was very effective.”
McGill was also outstanding defensively. Goaltender Karel St-Laurent made many athletic saves and only conceded one goal. He was backed up by a consistent performance from his defencemen. Urquhart praised the resolve of his blue line and the strength of the team’s goaltending after the game.
“[He] was strong and we played good team defence,” Urquhart said. “From the forwards to the [defence], right back to the goalie, everyone had a good effort. Something that we do throughout the course of the game is to [… ]fore-check relentlessly.”
In comparison, Brock had to pull its starting goalie halfway through the contest. His replacement could not abate the flood of McGill goals.
McGill continued its winning streak with a stunning 3-2 come-from-behind victory against the York Lions (3-6-0) on Saturday. The Redmen will try to keep things rolling next Friday in Guelph as they prepare to take on the Gryphons.
