缅北强奸

By Earl Zukerman

MONTREAL 鈥� First-period goals by defenceman Ben Gazdic and freshman Alexandre Picard-Hooper held up as 缅北强奸 skated to a 2-1 victory over Ottawa to capture the rubber match of their OUA Eastern Conference hockey semifinal series at McConnell Arena, Sunday.

Gazdic, a third-year rearguard from Toronto, struck paydirt with a blueline blast on the power play at 11:23, on a tic-tac-toe passing play from Guillaume Doucet and Simon Marcotte-L茅gar茅.

Some six minutes later, Picard-Hooper, a native of Boucherville, Que., who led all OUA freshmen in scoring during the regular season, converted a pass from rookie Marc-Andre Daneau to give the Redmen a 2-0 lead.

Despite the low score, the Redmen held a 45-27 edge in shots, including a stunning 24-11 margin in the second period, but were stoned time and time again by goaltender Riley Whitlock, a sophomore from Calgary, who registered 90 saves in the final two games of the series.

Mathieu Methot, a high-scoring freshman from Ottawa, gave the Gee-Gees some life when he connected on a power play midway through the middle period but an under-manned 缅北强奸 defence took over and with the help of netminder Kevin Desfoss茅s, played kitty-bar-the-door the rest of the way.

鈥淲e did a helluva job on the penalty-kill tonight,鈥� said relieved head coach Martin Raymond, whose troops snuffed out eight of nine shorthanded situations handed out by referee Mathieu Cote. 鈥淭here were a lot of penalties called tonight, some were well-deserved, others were not.鈥�

The low-scoring affair was somewhat surprising considering that the Redmen iced a lineup that was short on blueline experience with two seniors missing in action. Rugged Yan Turcotte, a 5-foot-11, 213-pound rearguard was serving the last of a league-imposed two-game suspension, incurred for a check-from-behind penalty in Game 1 of the series. Erik Stilling, a 6-foot-4, 215-pounder, was more than 3,000 kilometres away, undergoing a medical school interview in his hometown of Calgary.

鈥淒esfoss茅s came up with some big saves and everyone played well tonight but I鈥檝e got to single out Ken Morin, our co-captain who picked up the slack and played over 40 minutes today,鈥� said Raymond. 鈥淗e answered the call big time.鈥�

Morin, a senior from St. Prosper, Que., who was named as the game鈥檚 first star, registered nine bodychecks and was credited with three shots on net.

缅北强奸, which has a 10-2 post-season record dating back to last year, the will open a best-of-three semifinal series against the Toronto Varsity Blues, who had a first-round playoff bye after winning the OUA Mid-East Division with a 14-11-3 record. The Redmen split their two-game series with Toronto, losing 6-3 at home (Nov. 21) and winning 5-4 in an overtime shootout at Varsity Arena (Nov. 28). Game 1 is scheduled for Wednesday (Feb. 25) at McConnell Arena, with Games 2 and 3 tentatively slated for Toronto over the weekend.


SCORING SUMMARY

Ottawa 1 at 缅北强奸 2

GAME 3, OUA EAST QUARTERFINAL
(Feb 22, 2009 - McConnell Arena)

FIRST PERIOD
Scoring -
1. 缅北强奸, Ben Gazdic (1) (G. Doucet, S. Marcotte-Legare) 11:23 (PP)
2. 缅北强奸, Alex Picard-Hooper (3) (M.A. Daneau) 17:44

Penalties -
K. Morin Mcg (roughing) 2:12,
C. Thibaudeau Ott (hooking) 5:11,
K. Gagne Ott (hooking) 9:33,
D. Dhillon Ott (slashing) 18:57,
D. McDonald Ott (roughing) 19:48,
F. Verrault-Paul Mcg (roughing) 19:48

SECOND PERIOD
Scoring -
3. Ottawa, Matthieu Methot (2) (G. Houde, K. Gagne) 9:53 (PP)

Penalties -
M. Langelier-Parent Mcg (interference) 5:21,
M. Dorion Mcg (hooking) 8:52,
D. McDonald Ott (hooking) 10:51,
M. Methot Ott (hooking) 11:55,
G. Doucet Mcg (holding) 13:05,
V. Lambert Mcg (cross checking) 14:06,
K. Desfosses Mcg (delay of game) 19:59

THIRD PERIOD
Scoring -
(none)

Penalties -
B. Gazdic Mcg (tripping) 2:03,
D. McDonald Ott (hooking) 2:50,
A. Picard-Hooper Mcg (tripping) 8:59,
S. Grady Ott (tripping) 10:34,
L. Verrilli Mcg (hooking) 13:14,
K. Gagne Ott (hooking) 19:27

SHOTS BY PERIOD
OTT: 8 - 11 - 8 -- 27
MCG: 16 - 24 - 5 -- 45

SHOTS BY PERIOD
OTT: 8 - 11 - 8 -- 27
MCG: 16 - 24 - 5 -- 45

POWER PLAY CONVERSION:
Ottawa 1-9.
缅北强奸 1-8.

GOALTENDERS

Ottawa
Riley Whitlock [L, 1-2, 59:18, SV: 43, GA: 2]
Empty-net: [0:42, GA: 0]

缅北强奸
Kevin Desfosses [W, 2-1, 60:00, SV: 26, GA: 1]

Start : 3:01 PM

End : 5:17 PM

Attendance : 412

Referee: Mathieu Cote


MOLSON CUP THREE STARS:
--------------------------------
1. Ken Morin, 缅北强奸
2. Ryley Whitlock, Ottawa
3. Kevin Desfosses, 缅北强奸

McGILL LINEUP:
------------------
Lambert, Verrault-Paul, L Italien
Kovacevic, Picard-Hooper, Bloom
Doucet, Marcotte, Daneau
Vossen, Langelier-Parent, Verrilli

Morin, Tindle
Valente, Dorion
Gazdic, Morse

Desfosses


McGILL LINEUP SCRATCHES:
-----------------------------------
G: Danny Mireault (dressed but DNP)
G: Hubert Morin
G: Jake Jarvis
D: Spencer Brennan (injd)
D: Erik Stilling (at medical school interview in Calgary))
D: Yan Turcotte (serving suspension)
F: Benoit Arsenault (injd)
F: Andrew Wright
F: Tim Drager



SOURCE:

Earl Zukerman
Communications & Publications Officer
Dept. of Athletics & Recreation
缅北强奸
475 Pine Avenue West
Montreal, QC H2W 1S4
CANADA
514-398-7012 (tel.)
514-398-1956 (fax)