By CLAUDE SCILLEY

Not always do such extreme measures work.

When a coach, frustrated by losing, makes some radical lineup changes in a bid to roust his players from their slumber, he’s risking that he doesn’t lose the team altogether. Rather than awaken, the team may instead collectively yawn, hit the snooze button, roll over and go back to sleep.

“I’ve seen that happen,” Queen’s Golden Gaels goaltender Kevin Bailie said.

When Gaels coach Brett Gibson excused three regular players from the lineup after his team’s losing streak hit six games in January—against Laurier, the West division’s last-place team, no less—he really had no choice. With the hockey season swirling around the bowl, a drastic measure was required. Luckily for Gibson, he got the desired effect. The Gaels have won three of their four games since then.

Bailie says luck has nothing to do with it. There was never really a chance the move would backfire.

“One thing that separates Coach Gibson from other coaches is we know how successful he is in his personal life,” Bailie said, referring to the retirement homes the Gibson family has operated in the area for 50 years.

“He doesn’t need this job. We know that he (coaches) just because he loves it. Nobody wants to win more than him. That feeds into us.”

Gibson’s message, therefore, was seen as sincere. As such, it was received, loud and clear.

“Sometimes, especially on a young team, guys coming from major junior to the CIS can have a sense of entitlement, maybe think that they’re above certain things, or don’t have to fight for their roles anymore,” Bailie said. “Maybe a little of that crept into some players.

“Coach Gibson made some changes and definitely some guys made some improvements. Not to call him out, but Andrew Wiebe was pulled out of that game against Waterloo and since then has been our best forward.”

Indeed, Wiebe, one of the team’s premier players since he arrived at Queen’s three years ago, has come to life. After scoring just once in the team’s six-game losing streak, Wiebe has scored three goals in the last two games, and has points on four of the Gaels’ 10 goals in that time.

Gibson recalled that loss to Laurier as “rock bottom.”

“The last four games we’ve really bounced back,” he said. “We knocked off Waterloo when they were ranked, and then we went into McGill and probably played one of the best periods we’ve ever played against them. Then we beat Oshawa and Laurentian in tough, must-win games.

“We’re in a different mindset now than we were three weeks ago. Three weeks ago we weren’t in a great state of (mind), that’s for sure.”

That doesn’t bode well for the Royal Military Paladins, the Gaels’ next opponent in the 29th annual game for the Carr-Harris Cup Thursday at the Rogers K-Rock Centre.

Pomp (both school bands will be there, the entire RMC student body is expected to attend in their red tunics), tradition (this will be the latest installment in the oldest hockey rivalry extant), and the thrill of playing before a big crowd in the big arena downtown (practically equidistant from the two campuses) aside, the game is important to both teams, albeit for different reasons.

For RMC, it’s another chance to bag the first win of a disappointing year. For Queen’s, it’s an opportunity they can’t squander if they hope to move up from sixth place and get a more advantageous seeding for the playoffs.

“Anytime there’s a trophy up for grabs you want to be in that picture at the end of the game,” Gibson said, “but the big picture for our program is moving up and getting home ice in the first round, and in order to do that we have to beat RMC.”

The Gaels have two games left and trail fifth-place Nipissing by two points and fourth-place Laurentian by four. The prize for climbing out of sixth place is not having to play either Carleton, McGill or Trois-Rivieres, who are all nationally ranked, in the first round.

“It’s no secret I’d rather play Laurentian or Nipissing than I would Carleton, McGill or Three Rivers in the first round,” Gilbson said. “I think we can beat any team in the league, but I’d rather beat a team in the first round and then go in with confidence to playing (one of) those other three schools.”

Last year’s game was similarly important for the Gaels, and RMC’s upset 2-1 victory remains a painful memory for the Gaels coach. “It was proven last year that one guy can come in and really change the outcome of the game,” he said, “and that guy’s back this year.”

That guy is Paladins goaltender Evan Deviller, who made 52 saves in last year’s game.

Queen’s didn’t have any difficulty scoring when the teams met in the fall, dumping 14 goals past a couple of goalies not named Deviller, who was hurt at the time.

“With all due respect to that game, I really have thrown it out the window,” Gibson said. “RMC was in a circumstance with two goalies who probably shouldn’t be playing at this level.

“It’s going to be a completely different game. I have a different lineup than we had last year. Adam knows we can score goals; it’s just a matter of getting into the areas to score them.”

Adam Shell, the RMC coach, says it hasn’t been difficult keeping his team engaged, even as its season-long losing streak reached 23 games.

“We’re a pretty good group in terms of that,” he said. “We have pretty good leadership and (it helped) knowing we had games against West Point and Carr-Harris coming up when things started heading in the direction that they did. We’ve changed the practices a little bit, in terms of making it a little more competitive, making sure it’s still good to come to the rink and enjoyable. A lot of credit goes to the guys and their resiliency.

“There’s a couple of big things for us: We want to win the Carr-Harris Cup, and it’s my first chance, and the program’s first chance in a while, to defend it. Plus, it does impact Queen’s playoff position, which we’d like to adversely affect if we can.”

Paladins captain Alex Pym, bound for flight school in Moose Jaw, Sask., when he graduates in the spring, says it’s obviously been a difficult year, “but the guys still like coming to the rink.”

“Guys have been pretty good about keeping each other’s spirits up,” he said. “That’s what the college is all about: resiliency and hard work.”

Pym was coy when discussing the impact that 14-4 spanking by Queen’s in the fall might have on his team. “You need a short memory and a long memory,” he said, suggesting it was best to try and forget about it at the time, but the players remember it now to the point where they will do their utmost not to let it to happen again.

“It was a low point,” he said, “but it got us going in the right direction.”

Though they still haven’t won a game, the Paladins have been credible opponents in the last five outings, largely on the strength of Deviller who, his 5.71 goals-against average notwithstanding, has made more saves, 670, than all but three other goalkeepers in Canada, though he’s played six fewer games than any of them.

It’s one reason why Pym remains hopeful of a win Thursday night.

“We’re not going to out-skill them or anything like that,” he said. “It’s going to take hard work and playing in the system … like we have before. That’s what does it.”

Bailie, who characterizes the season as inconsistent—“both on my part and the team’s part”—said that after the January swoon, the players feel fortunate to have the playoffs to look forward to.

“We have a young team and I don’t know if the program finally had expectations on it and we didn’t fulfill them (because) we were used to being underdogs, or what happened, but regardless, we’re the underdogs now,” he said. “Everyone’s kind of counting us out. We haven’t fulfilled our personal or team expectations. It’s been disappointing from everyone’s point of view, but we have a second season coming up.

“Having this game to push us forward into the playoffs is pretty cool. It’s a good game, a good atmosphere, so no matter what, we would get up for it, but the fact that we’re fighting for playoff positioning makes it pretty special.”