Frankie waves magic wand as Redmen turn Rams into lambs

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Frankie waves magic wand as Redmen turn Rams into lambs

Published: 7 January 2012

(Francis Verreault-Paul was in on four of McGill's five goals against the Rams. Photo by Derek Drummond)

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MONTREAL - Francis Verreault-Paul scored once and added three helpers as No-2 ranked McGill skated to a 5-2 victory over the Ryerson Rams in men's university hockey at McConnell Arena, Saturday.

McGill, which has won seven straight games, is currently tied with Western for the best record in the 19-team OUA with identical 15-1-2 records.

The four-point soiree was Verreault-Paul's most productive output this season. It was the feisty forward's first skate of the New Year with his teammates since leaving on Jan. 2 to attend the funeral of a cousin in his hometown of Mashteuiatsh, Que., located about 6.5 hours northeast of Montreal. Despite missing five contests thus far, the senior left-winger is only three goals shy of the league lead in that department and now owns a 12-7-19 record in only 13 games played. He is gunning for his third consecutive CIS goal-scoring title.

In 137 career games overall, the 5-foot-10, 180-pound Verreault-Paul has registered 106 goals, 207 points and a whopping 566 penalty minutes. He is only the fifth player in school history to reach the century mark in goals and trails Tim Iannone (135), Russ McConnell (116), Martin Raymond (109) and Ted Behan (107). The four snipers ahead of Verreault-Paul have all been enshrined in the McGill Sports Hall of Fame.

His power-play marker, midway through the final stanza, put the game out of reach and four minutes later, he set up Alexandre Picard-Hooper, who chalked up his fifth goal to close out the scoring. 听Picard-Hooper, who also had one helper, recently became the team's all-time assist leader. With a 65-174- 239 record in 156 games overall, he has surpassed the mark of 171 assists established by David Burgess in 170 games from 1998 to 2003.

The Redmen looked especially sharp on special teams, connecting on two of eight power-play opportunities and snuffing out nine of 10 man-advantage situations for the Rams, who only connected on a 5-on-3 power-play.

"Our PK was real effective tonight," said McGill head coach Kelly Nobes. "We didn't give up many shots, except for the 5-on-3 situation. We had three objectives tonight - to have our PK work well, to score a goal or two on the PP and to play a full 60 minutes. We accomplished the first two but had a little lapse near the end of the second period where we weren't moving our feet and they kind of took it to us for a bit. But for 50 minutes, I thought we played pretty solid hockey. Ryerson is an improved team; they're big, physical, have good speed and played a hard game against us."

The Redmen led 3-1 after the first period on goals by defencemen Hubert Genest (power-play) and Marc-Andre Dorion, sandwiched around Benoit Levesque's shorthanded effort. McGill leads the league with seven "shorties", four shy of the school record established in 2009-10.

The goal by Dorion, who also collected an assist, was the team's 6,000th in regular season play, dating all the way back to the first organized intercollegiate league in 1902. 听Dorion, a two-time All-Canadian who is the nation's top-scoring rearguard, moved up to fourth in the OUA scoring race with a 5-24-29 dossier in 18 contests.

Andrew Buck, the Ryerson captain, netted power-play and shorthanded goals for the Rams, to narrow the gap to 3-2 after two.

McGill had a 26-23 edge in shots as rookie goaltender Mark Segal of Vancouver, B.C., collected the win, improving to 7-1. He is ranked fifth among OUA leaders in goals-against average (2.49) and tied for third in save percentage (.922). 听Rams netminder Troy Passingham made 21 saves and took the loss, falling to 5-11.

The Redmen will be on the road next week for games at RMC in Kingston (Jan. 13) and Toronto (Jan. 14).

REDMEN RAP: Third-year McGill forward Patrick Belzile made his season debut after missing 24 league and exhibition games with a bout of mononucleosis... With 10 games remaining before playoffs, the Redmen still have a shot to break their single-season school record for wins, established last year, if they win each contest...The Redmen extended their win streak over Ryerson to seven straight and improved to 39-6-1 lifetime against the Rams... McGill, which has now played 1,443 regular-season games dating back to 1902, owns a 683-650-110 lifetime record with 6,002 goals for and 6,003 goals against.

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SCORING SUMMARY

Ryerson 2 at McGill 5

(Saturday, January 7, 2012 - McConnell Arena)

GOALS BY PERIOD:
Ryerson 1-1-0 -- 2
McGill 3-0-2 -- 5

1st Period-
1, McGill, Hubert Genest 1 (A. Wright, F. Verreault-Paul), 4:57 (PP).
2, McGill, Benoit Levesque 5 (M. Langelier-Parent, H. Genest), 7:29 (SH).
3, Ryerson, Andrew Buck 7 (D. Willmott, G. Payne), 11:38 (PP).
4, McGill, Marc-Andre Dorion 5 (F. Verreault-Paul, A. Picard-Hooper), 12:45.

Penalties-
Dorion Mcg (tripping), 0:40;
Payne Rye (elbowing), 4:43;
Biniek Mcg (cross checking), 7:19;
Geoffrey Rye (10-minute misconduct), 7:46;
Morse Mcg (roughing), 10:14;
Vossen Mcg (slashing), 11:11;
Kelly Rye (high sticking), 11:51.

2nd Period-
5, Ryerson, Andrew Buck 8 (G. Payne, M. Corbett), 13:53 (SH).

Penalties-
Geoffrey Rye (slashing, unsportsmanlike cnd.), 4:23;
Verreault-Paul Mcg (checking to the head, 10-minute misconduct), 11:24;
Kelly Rye (charging), 13:21;
Vachon Mcg (slashing), 19:18;
Birkhoff Rye (slashing), 19:53.

3rd Period-
6, McGill, Francis Verreault-Paul 12 (M.A. Dorion, C. Longpre-Poirier), 11:40 (PP).
7, McGill, Alex Picard-Hooper 5 (F. Verreault-Paul, A. Wright), 15:39.

Penalties-
Belzile Mcg (boarding), 2:01;
Biniek Mcg (holding), 5:51;
Kelly Rye (roughing), 10:11;
Willmott Rye (high sticking), 15:56;
Corbett Rye (roughing), 17:47;
Verreault-Paul Mcg (roughing), 17:47;
Wright Mcg (inter. on goaltender), 17:47;
Therrien Mcg (slashing), 19:55.

Shots on Goal-
Ryerson 13-4-6 -- 23.
McGill 6-13-7 -- 26.

Power Play Opportunities-
Ryerson 1 / 10;
McGill 2 / 8.

Penalties-
Ryerson 10 / 28;
McGill 12 / 32.

Goalies-
Ryerson, Troy Passingham (L, 5-11, 26 shots-21 saves; 60:00).
McGill, Mark Segal (W, 7-1, 23 shots-21 saves; 60:00).

Attendance: 213
Start: 7:03 PM
End: 9:28 PM
Length: 2:25