Patrick Belzile, Andrew Wright, Evan Vossen, Alex Picard-Hooper, Simon Marcotte-Legare and Max Langelier-Parent scored for McGill while Jason Swit and Jason Furlong netted Western’s goals. 

Belzile scored the first goal of the contest as Western’s Keaton Turkiewicz struggled to clear the puck as the last defender back. Belzile grabbed the puck and walked in, beating Mustangs goaltender Anthony Grieco for a 1-0 lead at the seven-minute mark. 

Only 30 seconds later, Western’s Jason Furlong was called for interference after wiping out a McGill attacker in front of both benches. The Redmen wasted no time on the man-advantage as Guillaume Doucet threaded a pass from the top of the slot to the right of Western’s net and Wright one timed the puck past Grieco. 

McGill’s third goal came at 11:37 as the Redmen jumped into an offensive rush. Vossen broke free from Western’s back-checker and slipped the puck behind Grieco.

Redmen’s Francis Verreault-Paul had a breakaway opportunity coming off a penalty, but Grieco held him off, holding McGill to a 3-0 lead after 20 minutes of play. Verreault-Paul led McGill in scoring with six goals in seven playoff games. 

Western notched their first goal of the game seconds after a McGill penalty expired. The Mustangs worked the puck around to the blueline where Swit fired a shot from the point that beat a screened Hubert Morin. McGill’s lead was cut to 3-1 with 14:34 left in the second period. 

McGill answered back as Picard-Hooper jammed in a loose puck in front of Grieco to extend the Redmen’s lead back to three goals at 4-1 with eight minutes remaining in the second period.

Looking to bounce back from a three goal deficit, Western stripped the Redmen of the puck and broke out on a 2-on-1 shorthanded rush. Furlong streaked down the left wing as defenceman Adam Nemeth charged McGill’s net. The Redmen defender stayed with Nemeth as Furlong skated through the slot, pulling Morin from post to post. Furlong wired a shot in the bottom left corner to make it 4-2 McGill with 5:29 left in the second period.

McGill added another powerplay goal just two minutes later. Western’s defenceman Brandon Greenside tripped at the blueline resulting in a 2-on-1 in favour of the Redmen. Marcotte-Legare recorded his sixth goal in eight games as McGill’s powerplay unit continued to dominate.

Western netminder Josh Unice relieved Grieco to start the third period and Unice and Morin turned away a number of chances for each team. Western pulled Unice with three minutes remaining but Western could not muster a comeback. The Redmen added an empty net shorthanded goal with under three minutes remaining in the game to finish the game at 6-2.

Both teams will travel to the CIS National Championships in Fredericton, New Brunswick on Mar. 24-27.