Queen's Men's Hockey secured their fourth consecutive win in hockey's oldest rivalry on Thursday evening. The Gaels bagged a 5-2 win over the RMC Paladins and took the 37th Carr-Harris Challenge Cup.
The Carr-Harris cup was initiated by the International Hockey Hall of Fame to celebrate the longstanding hockey rivalry between RMC and Queen's and is named in honour of the Carr-Harris family.
"The family has been involved going way back academically and in sports with both institutions, so we were quite surprised when and honoured when they chose our name," Carr-Harris relative Joan Skeen said.
Prior to the match, Queen's Owen Lalonde (Geography/French) and RMC's Mathieu Hébert received the J.W (Bill) Fitsell Memorial Award in recognition of their outstanding performance as graduating athletes.
"It was a bit of a surprise to get it tonight so that was cool. There's lots of good guys on the team so to be picked to get is special," Lalonde remarked.
Eleven minutes into play, Queen's lit up the scoreboard with Nolan Hutcheson (Health Studies) sneaking the puck into the net after a backwards pass from Cameron Tolnai (Business).
A Queen's power play soon followed, and the Gaels picked up another goal from Daniel Michaud (Arts & Science) assisted by Michael Renwick (Arts & Science) and Derek Hamilton (Arts & Science)
Throughout the season, the Gaels have been extremely effective during the power play—they currently rank first in the OUA in team power play with a power play percentage of 25.3%.
"Were just clicking at the right time, we've built some pretty good chemistry, and we just know where each other are going to be," Lalonde reflected.
Through the second period, tension built between the Paladins and the Gaels, spurred forwards by enthusiastic fans.
"It's the oldest rivalry in hockey so whenever we play those guys it's pretty physical. The crowd was pretty awesome tonight, so we wanted to put on a little show," Lalonde commented.
Halfway through the second, Samuel Marburg (Arts & Science) found the top left corner of the net off a pass across the net from Lalonde, bringing the Gael's lead to three.
The Gaels pulled ahead even further with another power play goal, after Tolnai hit the bottom of the cross bar. Tolani was assisted by Holden Katzalay (Computing) and Lalonde.
RMC fought back with one of their own, with Isaac Pascoal finding the back of the Queen's net.
The Gaels secured their fifth goal sixteen minutes into the period with Hutcheson going top shelf after a pass from Lalonde during a power play.
"We have 21 wins on the season, so our system is top notch so just sticking to that and letting them get unlevel headed and playing into that," Hutcheson remarked
After the match, Hutcheson was honoured as the Gael's MVP for his two goals and one assist.
"Personally, it was a good performance, but I thought the team really dug in. It was an emotional game with RMC and their fans, and the guys did a good job," Hutcheson added.
In the last seconds of the second period, RMC found the back of the Queen's net once more, with the final goal of the match.
Win the win, the Gaels improve their record on the season 20-5-0 to and their winning streak to four.
Looking ahead to the weekend, the Gaels host the Brock Badgers on Sunday, Feb. 9, at 2:30pm. Fans can pick up tickets on the Queen's ticket website.
