Redmen blanked back-to-back for first time in 107 years

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Redmen blanked back-to-back for first time in 107 years

Published: 5 February 2011

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(PHOTO OF CHRISTOPHE LONGPRE-POIRIER BY ANDREW DOBROWOLSKYJ)

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OTTAWA - Jason Caruana, Joe Pleckaitis and Joey Manley each scored as the Carleton Ravens blanked a depleted McGill lineup 3-0 in men's hockey action at the Carleton Ice Palace, Saturday. McGill was missing six regulars, who have accounted for 72 of their 130 goals to date.

It marked the second time in as many games that the No.2-ranked Redmen, the top-scoring team in the nation, had been held off the scoresheet by the upstart Ravens. It was also the first time in 107 years that McGill had endured back-to-back shutouts against a varsity team in regular season play. The last time it happened was during the 1903-04 season, the first year of competition for the Queen's Cup in the old Canadian Intercollegiate Hockey Union, when McGill was skunked 5-0 by Toronto (Feb.5/04) and 3-0 by Queen's (Feb. 19/04).

Carleton, which was also missing three of their top players, jumped into an early 2-0 lead with Caruana and Pleckaitis scoring only 43 seconds apart before the game was five minutes old. Manley drained whatever air was left in McGill's proverbial balloon when he made it 3-0 at 19:26 of the middle period.

Despite being outscored, the Redmen actually outshot Carleton in each period to finish with a 26-20 edge in the game.

"I was not happy with the end result but was satisfied with the effort we gave out there against a very good team like Carleton," said Redmen head coach Kelly Nobes. "None of our lines were intact so our game plan was to limit their odd-man rushes and to wait for some breaks of our own. We made a couple of mistakes in our defensive zone coverage early on which resulted in two quick goals. I thought that we had a territorial advantage over the last two periods but we were missing our 'closers' and lacked the finish needed to find the back of the net."

Rookie goaltender Ryan Dube of Sault Ste. Marie, Ont., who started instead of injured Matthew Dopud, made 26 saves to register his second goose-egg in as many starts for Carleton and improved his record to 7-4. The Ravens backup now owns a shutout sequence of 168 minutes and 48 seconds against McGill this season.

Redmen starter Hubert Morin, an engineering junior from St. Georges de Beauce, Que., returned to the lineup after missing two games when shaken up in a collision against UQTR on Jan. 21. He took the loss and his record fell to 14-2.

Both teams were futile on the power play, with McGill going 0-for-6, while the Ravens were scoreless in five attempts.

Three of McGill's missing players - all-Canadian defenceman Marc-Andre Dorion (23 games: 7-28-35), team captain Evan Vossen (15-10-25) and defensive specialist Maxime Langelier-Parent (4-17-21) - are expected back at practice on Feb. 8 after playing for Canada at the world university FISU Games in Turkey. Others missing in action include two injured stars from McGill's top line - all-Canadian left-winger Francis Verreault-Paul (leg), who has missed seven contests but still leads the nation in goals and owns a 28-14-42 record in 19 games. Also out for an undetermined time is right-winger Andrew Wright (upper body), who has tallied 12 markers and 33 points in 24 contests. A third injured forward is Patrick Belzile (16GP: 3-5-8) who has missed nine games with a broken hand.

The victory improved Carleton's record to 17-7-2 and moved the Ravens into second-place in the OUA East, one point ahead of third-place Nipissing (16-8-3) and three ahead of UQTR (16-8-1).

The division-leading Redmen are now 22-2-2 with two games remaining before playoffs - at home to Ottawa on Feb. 11 and at Concordia on Feb. 13, where they will battle for the Corey Cup. McGill is expected to have at least three of their star players back in time for their next game and a win will break the team's single-season record for most victories, established last year under the reign of interim head coach Jim Webster.

REDMEN RAP: Third-year defenceman Ben Morse played with a full-face visor despite suffering four broken teeth from a deflected slapshot in the previous week's game at Carleton...He is slated to make a second trip to the dentist in the next few days when he visits with Dr. Jay McMullan, who patrolled the Redmen blueline between 1981 and 1984... Also pressed into service was forward Jean-Francois Boisvert who had missed the previous seven games with an upper-body injury... Over the past century, McGill has also been shutout back-to-back during the same season on three other non-regular-season occasions: in the 2007 OUA East quarter-finals, they lost 1-0 and 2-0 to the Toronto Varsity Blues... It also happened in 1939, during non-intercollegiate competition, when they lost 2-0 to the Quebec Aces (Jan. 14/39) of the Quebec Senior Hockey League and 4-0 to the Concordia Civics (Jan. 18/39) and the double whammy occurred again in 1933, when they battled the Montreal Canadiens senior farm team to a 0-0 draw (Feb. 20/33) and lost 3-0 to the Montreal Royals (March 1/33) of the QSHL.

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SOURCE:

Earl Zukerman

McGill Athletics & Recreation

514-398-7012

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SCORING SUMMARY:

McGill 0 at Carleton 3

(Saturday, February 5, 2011 at CU Ice House)

1st Period-
1, Carleton, Justin Caruana 5 (Andrew Self, Jordan Deagle), 3:41.
2, Carleton, Joe Pleckaitis 10 (Jeff Hayes, Justin Caruana), 4:24.

Penalties-
Dupont Mcg (interference), 0:39;
Klassen Car (interference), 4:55;
Klassen Car (holding), 10:22;
Boisvert Mcg (boarding), 13:25;
Carre Car (slashing), 16:08;
TEAM Car (bench minor), 20:00.

2nd Period-
3, Carleton, Joey Manley 18 (Joe Pleckaitis, Connor Barrett), 19:26.

Penalties-
Conacher Mcg (tripping), 8:36;
Carre Car (slashing), 13:03;
Longpre-Poirier Mcg (interference), 14:43.

3rd Period-
(no scoring).

Penalties-
Klassen Car (slashing), 12:56;
Longpre-Poirier Mcg (slashing, roughing, 10-min misconduct), 19:04;
Bakker Car (slashing), 19:04;
Good Car (roughing), 19:37.

GOALS BY PERIOD:
McGill 0-0-0 -- 0
Carleton 2-1-0 -- 3

Shots on Goal-
McGill 9-10-7 -- 26.
Carleton 8-9-3 -- 20.

Power Play Opportunities-
McGill 0 / 6;
Carleton 0 / 5.

Penalties (No/Mins):
McGill 7 / 22;
Carleton 8 / 16.