Sam Reynolds

Sam Reynolds

It was a rainy, cold Saturday evening at Molson Stadium when the Redmen registered their most resounding victory of the season, a 15-6 trampling of second- ranked University of Toronto. Fifteen goals is the second highest number of goals McGill (7-0) has scored in a game this season, after netting 16 against Toronto (3-2) earlier in the year.

McGill opened up the scoring with a goal by Alex Rohrbach 55 seconds into the game. Toronto came back quickly with three unanswered goals in the next nine minutes to jump out to a 3-1 lead. McGill’s Nolan Prinzen brought the team within one by scoring with three minutes and 10 seconds left in the first quarter. The first quarter was a sloppy one for McGill, as the team had trouble setting up plays around the opposing net and had numerous passes intercepted by Toronto defenders. Coming out of the first quarter, it seemed Toronto was the team who wanted the win more.

All of that changed in the second quarter, when McGill came out stronger and scored four unanswered goals, including two more from Rohrbach. The score could have been tied at the end of the quarter had it not been for McGill goalie Waesche Ward, who made two unbelievable saves near the 12-minute mark. Toronto finally found a hole in McGill’s defence and they would have capitalized on a point blank shot had Ward not reached out with his stick and blocked it. The rebound bounced out of his net and found another Toronto player who immediately shot again, but Ward had tracked the ball perfectly and was ready for the second save, which he held onto. 

“It was a sloppy game for us in the first half, we weren’t very disciplined,” Head Coach Timothy Murdoch said. “But we have a lot of veteran players who stepped up and performed [in the second half].”

McGill entered the third quarter leading 6-3 and finished the quarter leading 10-4. Toronto was able to capitalize first with a goal at the 10-minute mark, but McGill scored soon after and didn’t let up for the next 10 minutes. The third quarter was all about Jishan Sharples and Leland de Langley, who both scored two goals. De Langley scored his pair in a span of 41 seconds. The third quarter also featured three McGill penalties that were easily killed off.

The Redmen finished off Toronto with a five-goal fourth quarter, with Ryan Besse and Alex Rohrbach each scoring a pair of goals. One of Besse’s came on the powerplay, McGill’s sole powerplay tally of the game. Toronto’s frustration was palpable as the team drew five penalties (for a total of 4.5 minutes) in the final frame.

With freshman Rohrbach’s fifth and final goal of the game, the McGill University male athlete of the week extended his five-goal-game streak to three games. When asked about his numbers, Rohrbach had praise only for his teammates. “J.J. [Miller] wins … like 80 per cent of faceoffs, and it gives the offence a chance to score a lot, we have a great defence, our goalies are playing out of their minds right now, and that’s what really sets up these high scoring games,” Rohrbach said. Miller, another key cog in McGill’s offence, won a startling 21 out of 25 faceoffs, giving him an 84 per cent success rate for the game, while setting up three McGill goals in the process. 

McGill faces a significant test on Thursday with a rematch against conference rivals Bishop’s. Murdoch believes this will be the team’s biggest challenge of the season. The last matchup between the Redmen and Gaiters was a spirited affair that included a fight and ended in a 12-11 McGill victory. A win for McGill will secure the Eastern Conference regular season title.