Montreal Gazette

‘Exceptiona­l’ playoff hockey for just $10

- STU COWAN

There will be playoff hockey this season in Montreal — it just won’t be at the Bell Centre.

The odds of the Canadiens making the NHL playoffs are slim and none after Monday night’s embarrassi­ng 6-2 loss to the Coyotes in Arizona that dropped the Habs’ odds of making the postseason to 7.9 per cent, according to sportsclub­stats.com. To reach 98 points — which is what it took to make the playoffs last season in the Eastern Conference — the Canadiens would have to go 20-5 in their final 25 games. And this is a team that has had only one winning streak of more than one game since the end of November.

The Canadiens can already start booking their tee times after April 9, when they play their final regular-season game against the Tampa Bay Lightning at the Bell Centre.

But for hockey fans looking for some playoff action, the McGill Redmen and Concordia Stingers square off at 7 p.m. Wednesday in Game 1 of their best-of-three OUA East quarter-final series at the McConnell Arena. Game 2 is at 7:30 p.m. Friday at Concordia’s Ed Meagher Arena and Game 3 (if necessary) would be at 5 p.m. Sunday back at McGill.

I can guarantee that the players from both teams will show a lot more emotion and passion than the Canadiens did Monday night in Arizona.

“It doesn’t look very good from the bench,” P.K. Subban told reporters in Arizona about the Canadiens’ performanc­e. “A lack of energy and emotion … we need that. (In) profession­al sports it’s tough to have success unless you’re engaged emotionall­y and you have that edge.”

With the intense focus on the Canadiens in Montreal, university hockey remains one of the city’s best-kept secrets. It’s an exciting, physical, fast-paced brand of hockey — and it’s a lot cheaper than going to the Bell Centre. Tickets for Wednesday’s game are $10, and only $5 for students and seniors, while children younger than 12 get in free.

What kind of hockey will you get for that price?

“It’s exceptiona­l and it’s unbelievab­le for people who haven’t seen it before,” McGill coach Kelly Nobes said. “The intensity level of the games, the speed of the games, the physicalit­y of the games, the structure of the games … they’re all very surprising for someone who maybe just goes to see major-junior games.

“Our product continues to get better every year,” Nobes added. “The big turning point was many years ago when the CHL ( junior) players started receiving their money to come to university. So what it’s done is instead of guys leaving major-junior and going and taking a run at the minor-pro leagues, they come to school.”

McGill is the No. 7 ranked team in the country after finishing the regular season with a 21-6-1 record, good for second place in the OUA East behind the Trois-Rivières Patriotes (24-3-1), who are ranked No. 2. New Brunswick (23-3-2) is the top-ranked team in Canadian Interunive­rsity Sport.

Concordia finished seventh in the nine-team OUA East with a 10-12-6 record, but beat McGill 4-2 in the annual Corey Cup, the final regular-season game, to set the stage for the playoff series.

“They’re a good team,” Nobes said about the Stingers. “They’re a very capable team and we’ve seen that from them. They always elevate their game when they play us. We expect a really tough series.”

The Stingers are led by forward Olivier Hinse, a 24-year-old former Quebec Major Junior Hockey League player who posted 17-18-35 totals in 28 regularsea­son games.

The Redmen are led by two defencemen who finished in the top 10 in CIS scoring. Samuel Labrecque, a 23-year-old from Granby who played three seasons of NCAA hockey with Clarkson University before coming to McGill last season, finished fourth with 16-28-44 totals in 28 games, while Dominic Talbot-Tassi, a former QMJHL player, was ninth with 11-27-38 totals.

Up front, McGill has two highscorin­g forwards in Mathieu Pompei (19-18-37) and Liam Heelis (11-25-36). Heelis was named the CIS player of the year in 2014, when he was with Acadia University.

“He’s a real energy guy for us and brings a lot of enthusiasm to our group and to our game,” Nobes said about Heelis, 25, who played in the Ontario Hockey League.

“And he’s a fifth-year guy. You always expect a lot out of your fourth- and fifth-year guys in the playoffs.”

That’s because this might be the last high-level competitiv­e hockey games they play before taking their university degrees and entering the real world. Mathieu Darche graduated from McGill in 2000 with a degree in commerce and was able to delay his entry into the real world by 12 years with a pro career that included 250 games in the NHL and three seasons with the Canadiens.

“You play with your buddies at university,” Darche said about his days with the Redmen after being inducted into the McGill Sports Hall of Fame in October.

“There’s no contracts, nobody is trying to steal anybody’s job, you’re not trying to renegotiat­e your contract. It’s the true meaning of sport.”

Said Nobes: “The guys are playing for all the right reasons, and there’s something to be said for that. And it’s one of the reasons I enjoy coaching at this level.

“For someone who hasn’t seen it, they won’t be disappoint­ed, that’s for sure.”

He’s right.

 ?? McGILL UNIVERSITY ?? Daniel Milne of the McGill Redmen screens Concordia Stingers goalie Robin Billingham. The teams open their best-of-three OUA East quarter-final series on Wednesday night.
McGILL UNIVERSITY Daniel Milne of the McGill Redmen screens Concordia Stingers goalie Robin Billingham. The teams open their best-of-three OUA East quarter-final series on Wednesday night.
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 ?? DEREK DRUMMOND, COURTESY MCGILL ATHLETICS ?? The McGill Redmen’s Daniel Milne, left, and Christophe Lalonde battle for puck with a Concordia Stingers player during a 2015-16 season university game.
DEREK DRUMMOND, COURTESY MCGILL ATHLETICS The McGill Redmen’s Daniel Milne, left, and Christophe Lalonde battle for puck with a Concordia Stingers player during a 2015-16 season university game.

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