OSHAWA, Ont. – With the UOIT men's hockey team raising money for the campus holiday food drive Friday night, the McGill Redmen played the role of the Grinch as they beat the Ridgebacks 4-2.
 
Although both teams are nationally ranked they are currently heading in different directions in the OUA eastern conference standings. The No. 4 ranked Redmen (11-2-1) are in first place after winning four straight games while the No. 7 ranked Ridgebacks (10-5-1) have slipped to fourth place after dropping three consecutive contests.
 
It took UOIT almost 55 minutes to score their opening goal as McGill held a commanding 4-0 lead late in the third period. UOIT leading scorer Ben Blasko (Kingston, Ont.) completed a tic-tac-toe passing play from Danny Elser (Hopewell Junction, N.Y.) and Anthony Latina (Scarborough, Ont.) to finally get UOIT on the board.
 
UOIT captain Cam Yuill (Wellington, Ont.), who was just invited to training camp for Team Canada at the FISU games, cut the Redmen lead in half with three minutes left on the clock and the goalie pulled. Yuill knocked the puck out of the air while crashing the crease to match his career-high sixth goal of the year with Mike Robinson (Stouffville, Ont.) and Ryan Doucette (Waterloo, Ont.) recording assists.
 
UOIT would press hard to cut the Redmen lead to just one but McGill goaltender Louis-Philip Guindon shut the door en route to his seventh win of the season. Guindon ended up with 23 saves while UOIT's Tyson Teichmann (Belleville, Ont.) had 31 in the loss.
 
Fifth-year senior Patrick Delisle-Houde got McGill's offence rolling with his second shorthanded goal of the year seven minutes in. McGill would extend their lead to 2-0 when Guillaume Gauthier scored with five minutes to go in the opening frame.
 
Alexandre Tremblay and Mathieu Pompei would score second and third period goals respectively to round out the Redmen scoring. Pompei leads the OUA with 26 points in 14 games.
 
UOIT was shutout on the power play going 0-for-6 while McGill was 1-for-4 to go along with Delisle-Houde's shorthanded goal.
 
The teams split their season series as UOIT earned a 5-2 victory in Montreal in October. UOIT's all-time record is 2-10-0 against the Redmen.
 
The Ridgebacks will look to rebound on Saturday afternoon when they host the Ottawa Gee-Gees. Puck drop at the Campus Ice Centre is 3:30 p.m.
 
QUICK LOOK AT THE RIDGEBACKS
Overall Record: 12-7-2
Conference Record: 10-5-0
 
Next game: Saturday, Nov. 26 vs. Ottawa Gee-Gees (3:30 PM – Campus Ice Centre)