The No. 7 Queen's Gaels men’s hockey team (17-6-2) fell 3-2 to the RMC Paladins (5-18-2) in the 31st Carr-Harris Cup on Thursday, Feb. 2, with 3,042 fans filling the seats at the Rogers K-Rock Centre.

The Gaels were missing four key players and head coach Brett Gibson who are all with Team Canada at the FISU Universiade in Kazakhstan.

The Paladins took a 3-0 lead early in the third period and then held off the Gaels who battled back with a pair of goals from Darcy Greenaway and Dylan Anderson.

With less than a minute left in the period, the Gaels pulled their goalie. In spite of several close chances, Queen’s was unable to score again, allowing the Paladins to take a 3-2 final.

“They got to the dirty areas, they scored the goals that they needed to score,” says interim head coach Tony Cimellaro. “That’s something we’ve been harping on our guys all week long, we are going to struggle to score goals and we need to do the right things to score. Our execution was terrible, and has been since the four players have been gone. No excuse for how we played tonight.”

Seamus Maguire, Deric Boudreau and Mitchell Hewson scored for the Paladins.

The Gaels were without goalie Kevin Bailie along with defenceman Spencer Abraham and forwards Eric Ming and Slater Doggett.

The Carr-Harris Challenge Cup was initiated in 1986 by the International Hockey Hall of Fame in celebration of the oldest rivalry in hockey, now at 131 years. 

The Carr-Harris Challenge Cup trophy features the “Lennie” sculpture by Kingston native Joan Belch. It depicts Lennox Irving, the Queen’s player who scored the lone goal in the March 10, 1886 inaugural game between RMC and Queen’s.