McGill wins Pool B doubling up on Alberta in 6–3 victory
FREDERICTON (CUP) — A pair of goals by Maxime Langelier-Parent helped the McGill Redmen finally earn their shot at a national championship, as the nation’s second-seeded squad downed the Alberta Golden Bears 6–3 on Saturday.
“I’ve been working a lot on shooting to score in practice, which I didn’t do earlier in the season. I was always trying to pass in practice,” said Langelier-Parent, who only tallied four goals in 24 games during the regular season, in reference to his uncharacteristic offensive outburst.
“Working on scoring in practice has helped made it easier for me to do the same in games.”
Special teams were key in McGill’s victory, as the Redmen were perfect on four penalty kills and scored on three of their four power-play opportunities.
“Our scores get a lot of attention, but look at our penalty kill tonight. It was outstanding,” McGill head coach Kelly Nobes said. “Puck didn’t get to the net.”
Francis Verreault-Paul opened the scoring on the man-advantage late in the first and was shortly followed by Langelier-Parent’s first only 62 seconds later to take a 2–0 lead into the first intermission.
Canada West leading scorer and MVP Derek Ryan cut the lead in half early in the second. However, the Redmen responded with two goals 42 seconds apart by Ryan McKiernan and Evan Vossen.
Chad Klassen scored with 56 seconds left in the middle frame, but the number-three Golden Bears struggled to create an offensive attack against a tenacious McGill defence.
Needing to win by at least four goals, Alberta head coach Eric Thurston was forced to open the game up to create some opportunities. However, in doing so, McGill was able to capitalize on the open ice.
“Obviously it’s not easy to go into a game knowing you have to beat the second-best team in the country by four goals,” Thurston said.
“I thought overall we didn’t play bad, but credit to McGill — they’re a very skilled team. They scored six times on 21 shots.”
Langelier-Parent notched his second to dash any hopes of a comeback and Alexandre Picard-Hooper added a sixth for good measure.
Ryan scored another for Alberta, his third of the tournament, but that would be as close as they would get.
Hubert Morin made 24 saves for the win, while his counterpart, Kurtis Mucha, was lit up for six goals and 21 shots.
The win earned McGill a berth in their first University Cup final.
“We knew the situation that they were in and certainly made the guys aware of it, but didn’t change our game our systems,” Nobes said.
“We didn’t change anything and just wanted to play our game, get a good forecheck going and get pucks to the net. I thought we did a good job at doing that.”
The loss was a tough one to swallow for the Golden Bears, especially team captain and graduating player Eric Hunter.
“It’s difficult,” a disappointed Hunter said after the game. “My time here has been amazing and this year was especially good having to a chance to be a leader. Our core group has been together for four years and I’ve developed some special bonds.
“It’s the most heartbreaking 6–3 loss. It hurts.”
Both Canada West conference representatives at the University Cup were held winless during this year’s event.
McGill will now wait to face the winner of tonight’s matchup between the University of Western Ontario Mustangs and the University of New Brunswick Varsity Reds.
When asked if he had a preference of opponent, Langelier-Parent simply said: “No.”
