By CLAUDE SCILLEY

It was the Royal Military College Paladins’ season in microcosm.

Down by a goal after 20 minutes of their hockey game Thursday night, the Paladins played their best period of the night in the second—and came out of it down by two.

That, Paladins coach Adam Shell believes, is where the Carr-Harris Cup game was lost.

“They were the better team in the first,” Shell said after the Queen’s Golden Gaels defeated his team 5-1 before a Rogers K-Rock Centre crowd of 3,295, sending RMC to its 24th consecutive loss.

“I thought, for what we do and how we play, and our talent level versus theirs, we were really good in the second, and you can’t leave that period losing it 1-0.”

A power-play goal by Eric Ming midway through the period, off a scramble in front of the RMC goal—when the Paladins could neither clear nor smother a loose puck—gave Queen’s a 3-1 lead to take into the third period.

“They found one, we didn’t,” Shell said. “We had enough chances in the second, so that’s got to be 2-2, at least 3-2. Then we hit a post at the beginning of the third.”

That led to the usual conjecture about how the course of the game would have been affected by that puck going into the net instead.

“That’s been our story of the season: ‘What would’ve happened if …,’” Shell said. “That’s what it is right now.”

Nothing the Gaels did in winning for the fourth time in their last five games was spectacular, yet neither did they make many mistakes. It was a methodical victory where they took advantage of all but one of their power plays and took 45 shots at RMC goaltender Evan Deviller, who made several fine saves but wasn’t able to duplicate the magnificent performance of a year ago, when his play enabled the Paladins to steal one from the playoff-bound Gaels.

“They’re a really good hockey team,” Shell said. “They’ve got a lot of tools. They can fly. They’ve got real high-end skill. Brett’s done a terrific job building that group.

“We exploited some of the things we thought we could, but you’ve got to finish, and they finished.”

Gaels coach Brett Gibson said his team played much like it did in last year’s game, with one notable exception: “We got to the net.”

Last year Gibson lamented his team’s contentment with playing on the perimeter in the Carr-Harris match. “Evan played fantastic again but we got to the dirty areas where we didn’t get to last year,” he said, “and the results were there.”

Queen’s, 18-9-2 in Carr-Harris competition, took a 2-0 lead in the first 12 minutes of the game, getting goals from Brett Foy and Patrick McGillis. Jake Bullen scored for RMC in the game’s 16th minute, off a rare Paladins faceoff win.

Trailing 3-1 going into the third period, RMC came out with a flourish. A glove save by Deviller on a 15-foot shot by an in-the-clear Yannick Laflamme was followed not long afterwards by an RMC power play, on which John Livingston hit the post behind Queen’s goalie Kevin Bailie on a high shot from the blue line.

“It’s going to be like that in this kind of atmosphere,” Gibson said, alluding to the crowd comprised largely of cadets in their scarlet tunics. “When you don’t have a win all year, in this atmosphere, it’s the kind of game you can have an upset, so I was nervous … but in my mind they had to score three goals in the third period to beat us.”

Which, given that RMC has scored more than three goals in an entire game just once in the last month, was unlikely.

Foy, with his second goal of the game, and Darcy Greenaway, with his 16th goal of the year, completed scoring for Queen’s in the last nine minutes of the game.

Both teams complete their regular Ontario University Athletics schedules this weekend. RMC will try to get its maiden win of the year but it won’t be easy, in home games against No. 6 McGill Saturday or No. 8 Trois-Rivieres on Sunday afternoon.

The Gaels, who can still finish anywhere between fourth and sixth in the East division, will play their last game Saturday night at the Memorial Centre against Trois-Rivieres. To move into fourth place—and secure home ice advantage for the first round of playoffs—they need a win in that game, and hope Laurentian, currently two points ahead of Queen’s, loses both of its remaining games, against Nipissing and No. 9 Carleton.

Nipissing, currently tied with the Gaels with 25 points, has two games left, also with Carleton and the aforementioned contest with Laurentian.

The Gaels hold the advantage in tie-breaking scenarios with both Nipissing and Laurentian.