In the wake of a thrilling victory over the York Lions on Friday, the Redmen were back in action on Saturday evening to take on the Waterloo Warriors at McConnell Arena. From the drop of the puck it was clear that the men in red carried the momentum they had established a day earlier, as they defeated the Warriors 5-2.

McGill (5-3) came out flying, and remarkably capitalized twice in the first three minutes of the game. Patrick Delisle-Houde scored the fastest goal in Redmen history—only 16 seconds in—while Mathieu Pompei followed up with his first of the year, just two minutes later. The initial tally materialized when the puck was dumped into the attacking zone off the opening face-off. Delisle-Houde pounced on a juicy rebound and stuffed it into the open cage. The goal invigorated the team as well as the large crowd. The Redmen outshot Waterloo (5-3) 13-6 in the first period, en-route to a strong 3-0 lead.

In the second frame, McGill found itself in a bit of penalty trouble, but Redmen goaltender Hubert Morin was able to weather the storm for his teammates. He carried them through to the end of the period with a total of 11 saves, allowing just one goal. In particular, he answered the call on several occasions when the Warriors had the Redmen defencemen on their heels, deep in the zone. After the game, he talked about his performance and applauded his teammates’ effort on the penalty kill.

“The goalie has to step up when there is a [penalty kill],” Morin said. “[My teammates were] blocking shots, cutting the line, and doing a great job in front of me.”

Waterloo made things interesting in the third period as defenceman Steve Whitely cut McGill’s lead to 3-2. However, the Redmen persevered during the gut-wrenching moments of play as the Warriors pressed for the tying goal. The Redmen exemplified this determination by scoring two insurance goals in the final two minutes of the game. Marc-Olivier Vachon assisted both of these goals to cap off a three-point night, holding onto his status as McGill’s leading scorer. Vachon was named the first star of the game, but complemented his teammates’ abilities to finish plays.

“I have to give credit to my teammates, because they’re the guys that put it in the goal,” Vachon said.

Redmen Head Coach Kelly Nobes was pleased with his team’s effort and mentioned that McGill’s quick start helped pave the way to the victory.

“We wanted to get on [the Warriors] early,” he said. “They played Trois-Rivières into overtime last night and had a three hour bus ride afterwards, so we wanted to get off to a quick start.”

Nobes also noted that the team’s fatigue helped Waterloo generate some chances midway through the game. Fortunately, Morin was on his game.

“We stopped moving our feet a bit in second period but got back in it in the third,” he said. “Hubert [Morin] had another solid night tonight, in particular in the second period.”

The Redmen now have an opportunity to rest and recuperate for a few days before they hit the road to take on the Western Mustangs in a national championship rematch on Nov. 9 in London, Ontario.