Mcgill beats Concordia in playoffs
Series marks first time the two schools have met in a divisional hockey final
Jerome Verrier kept the McGill Redmen alive when he scored in overtime of Game 2 of the best-ofthree OUA East final Friday night at the Ed Meagher Arena, giving the Redmen a 3-2 win over the Concordia Stingers.
Verrier scored two more goals Sunday night as the Redmen beat the Stingers 6-2 at in front of 1,024 fans at the 950-seat McConnell Arena to win the series and advance to the U Sports University Cup March 15-18 in Fredericton, N.B. This marked the first time these two Montreal universities have ever met in a divisional hockey final.
Samuel Tremblay also scored twice for the Redmen, while Nikolas Brouillard and Jan Kaminsky added singles. Verrier’s second goal was into an empty net. Philippe Hudon and Philippe Charbonneau scored for the Stingers, who were outshot 29-17.
Hudon opened the scoring only 31 seconds into the game on the first Concordia shot, but the Stingers’ lost the early momentum when Alexis Pepin received a five-minute major penalty and a game misconduct for a cheap-shot hit to the head on McGill’s Quinn Syrydiuk at 1:58. McGill got goals from Brouillard and Verrier on the ensuing power play and the Redmen never looked back.
This is Verrier’s third year at McGill and he finished fourth in Canadian U SPORTS scoring during the regular season with 12-29-41 totals in 28 games. Verrier spent four seasons in the QMJHL with the Drummondville Voltigeurs and Quebec Remparts before going to McGill.
The 6-foot, 196-pound centre took a step closer to reaching his ultimate goal of playing in the NHL when he was invited to take part in the Detroit Red Wings rookie camp before the start of the 201516 season and did enough to earn a spot in the main camp. But on the first day of the main camp, Verrier collided with the Red Wings’ Darren Helm during a drill, breaking his leg and suffering a concussion. Helm also suffered a concussion.
“It wasn’t a really happy picture for me,” Verrier recalled. “It was pure bad luck.”
Terrier still dreams of one day playing in the NHL, following the same path as Mathieu Darche, who played four seasons at McGill before making his NHL debut with the Columbus Blue Jackets and later spending three seasons with the Canadiens.
“It’s the dream of any little boy and it never dies,” the 23-year-old Verrier said. “But I want to finish my school first. This season put my whole life in perspective that hockey can end tomorrow for me. Something can happen at any time, so I want to have a backup plan. I want to finish my school and get my degree and after that if I get a second chance at the NHL, why not? I’d like that.”
Next up for Verrier and the Redmen is the OUA Queen’s Cup championship game next Friday against Brock in St. Catharines, Ont. McGill hasn’t won the Queen’s Cup since 2012, the same year the Redmen won their only national championship. The Stingers can still advance to the University Cup as a wild-card team if they beat York next Saturday at Concordia in the OUA bronze-medal game.
Verrier, who posted 35-40-75 totals in 68 games during his most productive season in the QMJHL with the Voltigeurs, was asked to compare the level of play at the university level to major-junior.
“I think it’s hard for people to realize the real potential that there is in the university league,” he said. “The game is even faster than junior and guys are 21 to 26 years old so they’re even stronger, so it’s more physical and there’s less space on the ice. It’s kind of less skilled in that there’s no firstround draft picks from the NHL in our league, but there’s still some guys who had 100 points or more or scored 50 goals in junior who go to university after. So the level of play is pretty high.”
The Redmen are headed to the University Cup for the second straight year and the fourth time in eight seasons since Kelly Nobes became coach. The Stingers haven’t been to the University Cup since 1984, but head coach Marc-André Element has turned the program around in the three seasons he has been behind the Concordia bench.
McGill came into the OUA East final ranked fourth in the country, while Concordia was ranked eighth.
“I think it’s a good rivalry for both schools and for Montreal,” Verrier said. “Right now the two best university teams in Quebec are McGill and Concordia so it’s created a school spirit and a battle between the two schools. A lot of the guys on both teams have played against each other or with each other in junior so there’s friends on the other side and there’s enemies on the other side. We just want to be the best for our teams and our universities.”
This series was a great showcase of the university hockey talent in Montreal.
Both schools should be applauded.
I think it’s hard for people to realize the real potential that there is in the university league.