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McGill, News

New conservative student news source launched Monday

by Sean Wood on

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The year in campus media took perhaps its most interesting turn last Monday with the launch of the Prince Arthur Herald, a new online conservative student newspaper based at McGill.

The website’s political positions, which tend to be libertarian, are articulated in a 25-point Statement of Principles.

 “Our paper supports freedom of the individual, individual choice, and the free market as the most efficient [economic system] and the [one] that respects human dignity the highest [for] the organization of society,” said Editor-in-Chief Brendan Steven, U1 history.

Steven added, however, that the website, which so far has published exclusively opinion pieces, will encourage dialogue, both between different types of conservatives and  more generally between conservatives and liberals. Though most of its 17 columnists have backgrounds in international and domestic politics, there will also be columns on sports, culture, and the pro-life movement.  While many  columnists will have typical conservative leanings of one sort or another, among them are Zach Paikin, who is a former president of the Young Liberals of Canada, and Grace Khare, a board member of Queer McGill.

“Our hope is to engender voices that previously didn’t have a place in campus debate,” Steven said.

The Herald is undeniably a response to the McGill Daily, most explicitly with its formulation of a Statement of Principles, which is one of the Daily’s hallmarks.  Both Daily Coordinating Editor Emilio Comay del Junco and Steven acknowledged the two sources’ opposition.

“Obviously, we do take political positions that [the Herald] disagrees with, and they think there is a general conception that it is a response to the Daily,” del Junco said.

Though del Junco acknowledged a difference of opinion, he indicated that it was important to have a plurality of voices in campus media.

“In some ways it’s kind of unfortunate that it comes out as an opposition because I think there is a lot of space … for that kind of expression to happen,” he said.

The idea for the newspaper was born last semester, and Herald President Kevin Pidgeon, U2 history, began to build the site in December.

Their costs, so far, have been negligible. One of the advantages of the online-only format, they said, was that the students involved could easily foot the bill. For now, the editors and columnists are willing to work without payment. Though they plan to expand their operation in the future, the website will operate on low costs, so it will not have to run advertisements. Pidgeon explained that this was a way to establish an independent image for the Herald.

“One of the absolute classic condemnations of the right is, ‘You’re a mouthpiece for big business,’ and in some cases it’s absolutely true. But our aim is to do absolutely nothing of that sort,” Pidgeon said.

Though the Herald is based at McGill and is primarily staffed by McGill students, the newspaper wants to be read and written by students across Canada.

“Canada, at the end of the day, has elected a Conservative government; a lot of voters vote on conservative political principles,” Steven said. “Clearly in the broader political community there is a place for conservative values, so why not at university?”  

Pidgeon and Steven said that they planned to offer “24/7” coverage, a feature which they claimed distinguishes them from other campus media outlets.  The team of columnists and editors aim to put out between five and six articles a day.   

They have no plans to move to other media yet, but they have considered moving to print in the distant future.

Steven was not shy about his ambitions.

“We want to be Canada’s and McGill’s premier student news source,” he said.

News

In pivotal week for South Sudan, experts discuss future

by Jimmy Lou on

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Matt Essert
Matt Essert

 On Thursday evening, a group of experts debated the possibility of an independent South Sudan on a panel discussion in the Lev Bukhman Room of the Shatner Building.

South Sudan, after six years of democratic self-governance, is seeking to gain its full independence from the rest of Sudan through a referendum held last week. However, the post-independence future for South Sudan remains enigmatic. Should the referendum pass, it’s unclear whether it would be a turning point for South Sudan, or simply an exacerbation of tensions with its neighbours like North Sudan.

At the discussion, the speakers seemed rather optimistic about South Sudan’s future. While fully recognizing the difficulties that lie ahead, they said that Sudan’s potential for progress and stability is significant.

In response to the title of the panel discussion, “An Independent Sudan in 2011,” Douglas Proudfoot, the director of Canada’s Sudan Task Force noted that “the title kind of misses the point … the real issue isn’t whether there is going to be an independent South Sudan or not. The real issue is how do we maintain peace and stability and an environment in which development can take place in Sudan in 2011 and the years that follow.”

Proudfoot later pointed out that Sudan currently has one of the worst Human Development Index scores and highest percentages of maternity deaths in the world. Moreover, Sudan seems to rely wholly on the United Nations and other non-governmental organizations for health care. According to Proudfoot, it’s an unsustainable strategy that needs to be dealt with through increased medical facility funding and more training for medical practitioners. Proudfoot claimed that, with ongoing corruption and political instability, though, the chances of the money being used for these purposes seem slim.

Kyle Matthews, the lead researcher at the Montreal Institute for Genocide Studies, pointed to the lack of adequate security and police forces in South Sudan. Matthews cited the town of Juba, where families have been repeatedly  raided, raped, and murdered. The hostage crisis in December is further evidence of Sudan’s instability. The speakers also invoked the possibility that Sudan could relapse into civil war, which would have global consequences.

Despite these problems, though, Proudfoot remained optimistic. He emphasized that South Sudan’s goals don’t implement policies carefully. If there is little resistance to South Sudan’s policies, progress will eventually be made when South Sudan’s government become more mature and stabilized. During this referendum, there has been a considerably lower level of violence than there was during the 2010 election.

While there have been many concerns about oil revenue sharing with North Sudan, Proudfoot said that these challenges could actually force the two regions to work together.

Marie-Joelle Zahar, associate professor of political science and research director for the Francophone Research Network on Peace Operations at the University of Montreal, agreed, saying that despite the country’s past, Sudan can still make substantial progress by learning from  previous mistakes and dedicating more effort to the improvement of civilian education and social institutions.

When asked whether the country will be recognized internationally, Proudfoot did not hesitate to answer “yes”, pointing to the legitimate processes—a comprehensive peace agreement, U.N. approval, and an official referendum—which South Sudan is undergoing to become a country.

Science & Technology

Music can be your aeroplane, study says

by Todd Chan on

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Those who experience euphoria when listening to their favourite music could be achieving the same pleasure as that which comes from good food, sex, or drugs, a McGill study has found.

In a first in the field, neuroscience researchers at McGill have discovered a connection between the neurotransmitter dopamine, a chemical known for its rewarding “feel-good” effects, and its musically triggered release. The team, led by neuroscientist Robert Zatorre, found that music is physiologically linked to providing rewards, highlighting the importance of music to individual well-being.

Dopamine release has previously been linked with activities one finds pleasurable or rewarding. Drugs like cocaine are addictive due to their manipulation of the dopamine release system, but music can provide a similar high with none of the destructive health effects. Music was found to elevate dopamine release up to nine per cent, which is slightly higher than the effects of food.

Valorie Salimpoor, the lead investigator for the study at the Montreal Neurological Institute, said music is a “cognitive reward that we can have access to at any time,” and  one that “works on the same regions associated with other addictive substances.”

“Music makes people happy, and this feeling has been linked to other feelings of intense euphoria, like cocaine,” Salimpoor said. Adding that behaviours that are around for this long usually are biologically adaptive, necessary for survival, or evolutionarily significant.

While music may not be essential to survival as a species, it’s a “cognitive and intellectual reward,” Salimpoor said.

“It seems as if our thinking centres are tapping into these reward centres,” she added. “It is just the way you perceive it that makes it pleasurable.”

Is music addictive? Salimpoor doesn’t have a definitive answer, but said, “If it feels good … if dopamine is released, the brain tells you to ‘make sure it happens again.'”

Montreal, News

Influenza outbreak in Montreal worries area hospitals

by Kirsten Williams on

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An influenza and gastroenteritis outbreak has stretched Montreal emergency rooms to 150 per cent capacity. According to the Montreal Health Agency, the worst hit hospitals are the Lakeshore, Royal Victoria, Montreal General, and the Santa Cabrini.  

“Flu outbreaks are predictable, and what we are seeing this post-holiday is no different than what we see mid-winter,” said Harley Eisman of the McGill University Health Centre. “The issue this year is things started earlier in December. This is causing overcrowding in our Pediatric ER.”  

The Montreal Public Health Protections Department is assuring the population that this is not a strain of the H1N1 pandemic but merely the standard seasonal flu that proves especially dangerous for high-risk patients such as seniors and infants. “Far and away, most patients we are seeing have mild illness and are sent home with common sense instructions: use a fever reducer for comfort, drink fluids, and rest,” Eisman said. “Apple juice and chicken soup recommendations. The public should not panic, nor should they be phobic about fevers.”

In an effort to deal with overcrowded waiting rooms, Pierre-Le Gardeur hospital will close its doors to visitors this weekend. Meanwhile the Jewish General Hospital is launching a one visitor per patient precaution initiative in an effort to limit the spread of infection.

As private health clinics start to feel the burden, Health Minister Yves Bolduc is evaluating a proposal to establish a network of seasonal flu vaccine clinics, similar to those opened during the H1N1 outbreak.

Science & Technology

For ICU patients, private rooms help cut infection rates

by Theo Meyer on

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Panoramio.com

Being admitted to a private room in a hospital’s intensive care unit can dramatically decrease the likelihood of a patient contracting an infection, a recent McGill study suggests.

About one in three patients admitted to hospital ICUs contract some sort of infection, which increases the length of the average hospital stay by eight to nine days. In the United States, this is estimated to cost health care providers $3.5 billion each year.

But putting patients in private rooms, rather than in shared rooms with curtain partitions, can cut the rate of infection by certain types of bacteria in half.

“There are three types of bacteria that are really at the focus of infection control efforts: Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, Clostridium difficile and vancomycin-resistant enterococci,” said Dana Teltsch, a McGill PhD candidate who was the study’s lead author. “For the three of them combined, the reduction was 54 per cent, and this is a very serious reduction.”

Teltsch’s study, published last week in Archives of Internal Medicine, detected decreases in 12 types of bacteria, six of which were large enough to be statistically significant. While other studies have investigated the effect of making rooms private, Teltch said, hers compared a greater variety of bacteria, with more conclusive results.

To conduct the study, Teltsch compared data from the Montreal General Hospital and the Royal Victoria Hospital over a period of five years during which the Montreal General Hospital carried out renovations that made all ICU rooms private. The Royal Victoria Hospital, however, had a mixture of shared and private rooms in its ICU.

“The two populations are, by and large, comparable in the severity of illness,” said Dr. Peter Goldberg, the director of adult critical care at the McGill University Health Centre and a co-author of the study. This similarity made the two hospitals ideal for purposes of comparison.

Because both hospitals are part of the MUHC, Teltsch said, they also followed the same infection-control management and other practices, enabling her to hone in on one variable: the types of rooms.

In the time since Teltsch’s data set was collected, the Royal Victoria Hospital has switched to private rooms in its ICU as well, Goldberg said. That makes the two centres exceptions among Montreal hospitals, however, most of which still use shared rooms.

“Hospitals with a mix of private and shared rooms still confine patients with infections to individual rooms,” Goldberg said. But it can take doctors up to 72 hours after a patient is admitted to determine whether or not he has an infection.

“In that 72 hours, you may have come into contact with many people: staff, other patients,” Goldberg said. “By putting a patient straightaway into a private room, you have essentially put them in isolation, so that they don’t have the ability to transmit.”

Teltsch’s study may encourage more hospitals to abandon shared ICU rooms, but that may also fuel a rise in costs for hospitals. In addition to the cost of renovations, Goldberg said, hospitals may need to hire more nurses in order to monitor patients in individual rooms, rather than a single shared one.

Separate rooms may also change doctors’ and nurses’ practices in the ICU, Goldberg added. If  patients are treated in separate rooms, he said, nurses may be more inclined to wash their hands as they move from patient to patient.

“Private rooms are not only barriers [to infection],” Goldberg said. “They are also instigators of different behaviours.”

Science & Technology

Study: Canadians mistaken about how healthy they are

by Anand Berry on

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Alice Walker

A recent report on the health of Canadians commissioned by the CBC highlights some unpleasant truths about the country’s perception of health and wellness.

Among the key findings of the report was the revelation that while 77 per cent of those surveyed believe that they generally live a healthy lifestyle, eat healthier than the average Canadian, and maintain a healthy weight, 51 per cent of them are overweight or obese.

The report, titled Canada Weighs In, is part of the CBC’s ongoing Live Right Now campaign, which aims to motivate Canadians to live healthier.

The multiplatform initiative came up during the development of the CBC’s new Village on a Diet program, a primetime show which follows residents of a British Columbia town as they collectively try to lose weight while being helped by a team of experts.

“We saw an opportunity to do a broader project than just a TV show —one that all Canadians would benefit from,” said Jeff Keay, head of media relations for the CBC. “The facts are shocking—today’s generation may well live shorter lifespans than their parents’ generation.”

The campaign is similar to the CBC’s 2008 environmental initiative, the One Million Acts of Green challenge, which was sponsored by The Hour with George Stroumboulopoulos.

Treading topics including food and nutrition, sleep, and visiting health professionals, the survey explores motivations for making or not making healthy choices.

Most respondents cited lack of time as justification for why they aren’t healthier, with 37 per cent reporting not enough time to make meals, 42 per cent reporting not enough time to get vigorous exercise regularly and 36 per cent noting not enough time to sleep. About half of those surveyed also reported feeling overwhelmed by all the information available about healthy eating.

When asked how to make sense of a myriad of differing sources on health, Katherine Gray-Donald, an associate professor in McGill’s School of Dietetics and Human Nutrition, recommended sticking to reliable sources.

“[Dependable sources] may seem dull as they do not jump on every shred of evidence, but wait until facts are well established,” Gray-Donald said in an email to the Tribune. “In Canada, our straightforward resource is the Canadian Food Guide for Healthy Living, [which] has been updated and is a good interactive program.”

Where to find information on healthy living was a survey topic that yielded differing views between adults and youth. Adults consulted health professionals, magazines, and online health sites more often than anything else in the past year, while youth depended on friends and family members, TV, and health professionals.

Youth also differed in their responses to questions on smoking, with smoking being far less common among younger age brackets, and in their responses to exercise, with youth being much more likely to exercise regularly.

The report seems to have had quite an impact on Canadians who have come across it, according to Dave Scholz, the executive vice-president of Leger Marketing, which conducted the sampling.

“I have received a number of emails from respondents and people who wish they could have been respondents about the study and [commented] on the CBC poll — adding their stories to the mix,” he said in an email. “It has certainly resonated with Canadians.”

Arts & Entertainment, Theatre

Writing, directing, and performing a play…all in 24 hours

by Daniel Sorger on

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Anna Katycheva

Even if you’ve never heard of McGill’s Tuesday Night Cafe Theatre (TNC), you’ve probably wondered why there’s a 50s-inspired neon sign on the otherwise pleasant ivory tower that is the Islamic Studies building. But within the walls of this subtle structure is a world of student ingenuity and talent.

This weekend, over 50 people came to TNC’s annual 24-hour playwriting festival—one event out of the weeklong ARTifact festival. Everyday life was flipped on its head as three playwrights and tens of amateur actors and stage crew dove headlong into utterly new and challenging material. The night seemed to give a resounding answer, full of gusto, to the question lurking in the back of many of our heads: “Why theatre?”

The first play of the evening, written by Danji Buck-Moore, began with a challenge to the audience to justify why they would choose one “Lavid Dynch” film over another. It then proceeded to tell the story of a young man who desperately sought the precious attention of the idolized director, only to find that he himself was acting in a farce. The show played with viewers’ sensibilities of how theatre is meant to work and with the tendency to mythologize artists at the expense of a powerful dramatic experience. As the plot thickened, spectators were intimately introduced to a narrative device in human form: a dinosaur-tailed antagonist playing a recorder and two New Age disciples of Dynch who were connected at the neck by a scarf. In an effort to involve the crowd, the duo gently wrapped an audience member in their yarn.

The second show, written by Lara Oundjian, cleverly emphasized the role of acting in everyday life. Her piece began with a surreal gunfight that turned out to be a children’s game. It went on to follow the lives of four friends as they dealt with their flaws through therapy, constantly revisiting their early memories. As the characters developed, they found that re-enacting their unconventional and imaginative childhood dramas and dreams is the most reliable way to deal with their growing pains.

After the three half-hour performances finished, McGill English professor and judge Myrna Wyatt Selkirk commented that the success of the evening came from the emphasis on “respect” and “fun.” ARTifact coordinator Ben Bengtson echoed similar sentiments.

“It’s all about having fun,” he said. “And I know that’s kind of a generic word, but it really just translates into high energy.” He emphatically praised the amateur actors for their genuine and unadulterated respect of the play, particularly under time constraints.          

“They have such knowledge of the conventions of the theatre,” he says. “They’re making smart decisions out there instinctually.”

“I sat down and I just let my brain do its thing,” says playwright Stuart Wright of the process of writing a play in 24 hours. “I like to think of plays as dreams that a whole community can share at once. I hope that, at best, there was a very strange and meaningful dream.”

While people often judge the performing arts based on tomato-meters and star quality, ARTifact demonstrated that suspending judgment and physically participating are crucial to a lively and communal theatrical experience.

Bengtson described the experience of grappling with this kind of performance: “You start to think about it and then you say, ‘Ah I’m just gonna go with it.’ That’s what theatre is.”

A less verbal response came from theatre-goer Chad Simmonds who fell off his chair quite loudly, twice, during the course of the night.

To find out more about theatre at McGill, visit mcgillstage.com

Sports

Tennis Preview: Australian Open

by Christophe Boyer on

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The first Grand Slam event of 2011 began Sunday evening on the hard courts of Melbourne Park, Australia. While you’re shivering in front of your TV and watching the temperatures at centre court rise as the mercury in your apartment plummets, check out some of our picks for the men’s and women’s brackets.

Without question, the biggest story of the tournament is Rafael Nadal’s bid for a fourth straight Grand Slam win. Nadal, who won the Australian Open in 2009, was forced to retire last year in his quarterfinal match against Andy Murray because of tendinitis in his knee. Twenty-four-year-old Nadal, who has nine Grand Slam trophies to his name, made an incredible comeback in 2010, winning the French Open, Wimbledon, and the U.S. Open. He will now try to become the first man since Rod Laver in 1969 to win four majors in a row.

Roger Federer, regarded by many as the favourite, will try to stop the Spaniard. He proved that he’s capable by defeating Rafa at the Barclays ATP World Tour Final on November 28; he also won three majors in a row in 2006 and 2007 but was thwarted in his attempt for a fourth on both occasions by Nadal at the French Open. Can Roger repay the favour in Melbourne?

Finally, don’t forget about veteran Andy Roddick. Still possessing one of the most powerful serves in the game, the former world number one is now 28 years old and knows he doesn’t have much time left to capture a second Grand Slam title.

Prediction: Nadal over Federer in the final

Sleeper: Andy Roddick

On the women’s side, defending champion Serena Williams is sidelined with a foot injury and won’t be able to defend her title. In Serena’s absence, Kim Clijsters is the favourite to capture her first Australian Open.

Two other players to watch are Francesca Schiavone, who won her first Grand Slam at Roland Garros in 2010 at the age of 27, and the woman that Schiavone beat in Paris, homegrown talent Samantha Stosur. Stosur is the best hope for Australia on the men’s or women’s side. She broke the top five in the WTA rankings July and is sure to get raucous support at Melbourne Park.

Caroline Wozniacki, who finished 2010 as world number one, has never won a Grand Slam tournament but has been excellent on the WTA tour. Wozniacki has never beaten Clijsters, Henin, or either of the Williams sisters. She was runner-up at the 2009 U.S. Open and reached the 2010 year-end WTA Tour Championships where she lost to Clijsters in a compelling final. She may yet get another crack at Clijsters in Melbourne to prove her number one ranking is merited.

Maria Sharapova has an outside shot to return to her former winning ways. She missed significant action due to injury in late 2008 and early 2009, and hasn’t been the same since. If Sharapova is to get through her bracket she will need to get through 31-year-old Venus Williams and 21-year-old talent Viktoria Azarenka.

Azarenka has never made it past the quarterfinals of any Grand Slam event, but may benefit from a relatively weak bracket to go on and challenge Wozniacki in the semi-finals.

Prediction: Wozniacki over Clijsters in the final

Sleeper: Viktoria Azarenka

Behind the Bench, Sports

Steroids clouding MLB’s Hall of Fame judgements

by Gabe Pulver on

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Let’s start with the truth about Major League Baseball: 1) We’re still in the “Steroid Era.” 2) We’ve always been in the Steroid Era. This week’s example: a player under suspicion of juicing has been retroactively accused and it may jeopardize his Hall of Fame chances. Stop me if you’ve heard this one before.

In the wake of last week’s Hall of Fame induction vote, a donnybrook erupted amongst baseball writers and fans. Jeff Bagwell, the legendary first baseman with the funny batting stance and tremendous power, received a shockingly low number of votes in what has been widely accepted as an accusation of past steroid use. Until now, Bagwell’s name hadn’t appeared on the juicing marquee alongside Barry Bonds, Roger Clemens, and Mark McGwire.

Like Bonds and Clemens, Bagwell never failed a steroid test, and put up his best numbers before rules or a testing system were in place. By the time he entered the twilight of his career in 2001, he was already considered to be the fourth greatest first baseman of all time by stats analysis guru Bill James. Admittedly, this was BAP (Before Albert Pujols), but his numbers are fantastic. He was a pillar of his team and his community, and spent his entire career with a single team—the Houston Astros. In any other era, his Hall of Fame candidacy would be unquestioned. Unfortunately, Bagwell played amongst the juicers on the field and the jesters in the press who are all too happy to keep the steroid story mill churning. Unlike Bonds and Clemens, Bagwell wasn’t under suspicion during his career—he seems to be a victim of circumstance. Unlike many other baseball fans, I believe that juicers like Bonds and Clemens belong in the Hall. Put them in the “steroid wing,” or with some stupid asterisk, but get them in there, and fast. Hank Aaron and Mike Schmidt were admitted amphetamine users. Even the great Mickey Mantle used a primitive form of steroids late in his career.

Another legend on this year’s ballot, Rafael Palmeiro, has the on-field numbers to expect a first-ballot induction but barely got enough votes to stay on the ballot for next year. He lied about his steroid use before failing a test, and now he may never get in. The Hall of Fame is clearly romanticizing the past, and is caught up in a witchhunt zeitgeist.

Bonds and Clemens should be in the hall eventually, and they probably will. It would be tough to keep Barry Bonds out, and in retrospect we can say that the way he was railroaded into villainy by both the game and the media was both unprecedented and unparalleled. His demonization speaks to the mostly arbitrary nature of whom we as fans decide to like. There’s very little doubt that Barry Bonds is a total prick on and off the field. There’s also no question that he is one of the best left-handed hitters of all time.

Compare him to Roberto Alomar, one of this year’s inductees. In addition to a famous incident in which he spat in an umpire’s face, Alomar is also under suspicion of having had unprotected sex with an ex-girlfriend while suffering from AIDS.

Cheating in a game, which everybody else is doing anyway, is judged more harshly than lying to somebody about not having AIDS before having unprotected sex.

Did Jeff Bagwell cheat at baseball? Maybe, but that’s not the point this year. I’m not saying that the Steroid Era should be forgotten, but we already have our villains, our heroes, and our admitted juicers that people have forgiven and forgotten about, like Andy Pettite. There’s no need to look for more people to point the finger at.

Sports

Redmen rally riles up rambunctious Carnival crowd

by Walker Kitchens on

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Holly Stewart

In front of the largest home crowd of the year, tied 2-2 in the third period, and killing off a five-on-three penalty, goaltender Hubert Morin and the McGill Redmen kept their composure and held off one more Carleton offensive onslaught. Following the successful penalty kill the Redmen were able to rally with three goals in the final period to defeat the Carleton Ravens 5-4 on Friday night and give the Management Carnival crowd of 1,355 something to celebrate.

“We stayed composed, and that was one of our keys tonight before the game,” said McGill Head Coach Kelly Nobes. “To keep our emotional composure, knowing we were going to have a big energetic crowd. And knowing that Carleton was going to come out hard—they’re a physical team and a high energy team so we were going to need to stay composed.”

“That’s our team—we never give up,” echoed Morin. “We have to work harder and stay focused all the time and even if they score a couple goals, we [have to] work through it and give our best and that’s how we came back.”

The third ranked Redmen (19-0-2) trailed 2-1 after the first period, and Carleton (11-6-2) continued to outplay the Redmen in the second. The Ravens created many scoring chances in the slot but Morin answered every time with clutch saves in traffic.

It wasn’t until captain Evan Vossen rocketed a slapshot into the top right corner of the net with six minutes left in the second that McGill was able tie the game at 2-2.  However, the Redmen got into penalty trouble to begin the third period after Vossen was sent to the box for roughing to end the second and Morin was given a delay of game penalty a minute into the third. Despite being two men down, Morin and the McGill penalty killers neutralized the Raven attack without conceding a goal.

Nobes credited Morin with keeping the Redmen in the game and until the offence were able to orchestrate the comeback.

“Hubert made saves at the right time tonight so that the momentum didn’t swing in the wrong direction,” Nobes said. “And that’s the sign of an experienced goalie and that’s oftentimes the difference in hockey games.”

Morin credited the massive crowd with helping energize him in the game’s tense moments.

“The crowd was pretty loud with all the energy and emotion—you’re so into it—you’re so focused and [that’s] how I made the key saves,” Morin said. “You’re on your toes the whole time and you just try something, and sometimes it works. It worked fine tonight.”

Leading the Redmen attack was playmaker Alex Picard-Hooper, who scored the first goal of the third period to give McGill their first lead of the game. He also set up the other two Redmen goals in the period. On the Redmen’s fourth goal, he made an incredible pass into the slot on the powerplay that defenceman Hubert Genest buried, and also assisted Vossen’s empty net goal. The three-point night extends Picard-Hooper’s CIS leading point total to a 47 points in 21 games.

“[Picard-Hooper’s] been pretty consistent for us,” said Nobes. “He’s a smart player and the puck sticks to his stick. He makes great passes and his head [is] always up.”

The hockey game was part of the Management Carnival schedule, which resulted in 1,355 fans showing up. The McGill crowd was extremely loud throughout the game celebrating the Redmen goals and taunting the Carleton players, namely their goalie Matthew Dopud, and defenceman Brad Albert.

“That was unreal,” said Morin. “It was our biggest crowd of the year and people were so loud and it brought us a lot of energy, it was good for us.”

Nobes agreed that the crowd energized the Redmen and created an amazing atmosphere to play in.

“It was great. It was awesome. It was outstanding,” he said. “It’s unfortunate it isn’t like that every night but [it’s] great to see all the McGill fans [come out to the game]—it made for a lot of fun.”

McGill’s next home game is on Wednesday, January 19 in a rematch against Carleton. While the crowd will not be nearly as big or energetic, the Redmen will hope to duplicate Friday’s result.

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