On Kingston’s biggest stage, the Gaels prevailed in overtime.
The Queen’s Men’s Hockey team defeated the Royal Military College (RMC) Paladins 4-3 in overtime at Slush Puppie Place on Saturday to win the 2026 Carr-Harris Cup.
Dating back to 1986, the Carr-Harris Cup is a celebration of the oldest rivalry in the history of ice hockey, with this year’s game marking 140 years since the Queen’s and RMC men’s ice hockey teams first faced off. Since the commission of the trophy by the Hockey Hall of Fame, Queen’s now holds the superior record of 25–11–2 in this annual tradition.
This season has been a challenging one for both teams, with Queen’s record of 11–13–1 through 25 games putting them on the outside looking into the playoffs in the OUA East division. However, they were the decisive favourites to win Saturday’s contest. RMC, who will finish the season in a distant last place in the division, entered the game with an 11-game losing streak and an abysmal record of 2–18–5. Notably, the Paladins haven’t won a Carr-Harris Cup since 2019.
The pre-game ceremonies for this year’s Carr-Harris Cup included the awarding of a framed jersey to Gaels’ head coach Brett Gibson that sported his last name and the number 500 on the back to recognize the extraordinary milestone of 500 games coached for the team.
Queen’s established dominance right from the opening face-off and immediately appeared to be the faster and more physical team. It didn’t take long for them to take the lead, with Ante Zlomislic, Sci ’28, scoring a backhand goal in the second minute of the game.
RMC slowly built momentum, and Isaac Pascoal scored to tie the game at 10:22, but Queen’s regained the lead less than a minute and a half later, with Ian Lemieux, ArtSci ’27, going bar-down from the point off a one-timer from Dharan Cap, Sci ’28, marking Lemieux’s first goal of the season.
The game was relatively even throughout the remainder of the opening frame and remained so throughout the early parts of the second period. RMC was given an opportunity to tie the game again when they went on the power play. However, they were stunned as they lost the subsequent face-off and watched Nolan Hutcheson, ArtSci ’26, skate into their zone and put a routine wrist shot past goaltender Ethan Morrow for a shorthanded goal just 10 seconds later.
RMC went back on the power play less than two minutes, and this time, they converted, with Fisher O’Brien shooting the puck past a screened Tanner Wickware, MIR ’27. They continued to screen the Gaels’ netminder as the second period wound down. It proved to be effective as they were firmly in control throughout the final two minutes of the frame, but ultimately, RMC entered the second intermission still facing a one-goal deficit.
Although the game featured a power-play goal and a shorthanded goal, in addition to multiple instances of coincidental roughing penalties, there were only 20 penalty minutes combined throughout the game, while last year’s Carr-Harris Cup had north of 80.
The refreshed Gaels regained control of the game and put a puck past Morrow a minute and a half into the third period, but a premature whistle by the referee resulted in the goal immediately being waved off.
The Paladins’ fans were generally far more vocal than the supporters of Queen’s, as they frequently erupted into chants of “RMC!” and “Daddy’s money!” throughout the game. They remained proud as Morrow managed to stop every shot he faced until the end of regulation, despite Queen’s spending almost the entirety of the third period in the offensive zone. Wickware could be seen stretching his legs and sliding across his crease at the other end of the ice in desperate attempts to stay warm, knowing that RMC could potentially score and tie the game on their next scoring chance.
And that’s exactly what happened.
With just over three minutes remaining in regulation, O’Brien took a shot that squeaked past Wickware and landed behind him in his crease, only for Bruce Coltart, who was standing in front of Wickware, to fall to the ice and whack the puck into the net and score on his team’s 23rd shot of the game. The Gaels, on the other hand, finished regulation with 53 shots on goal.
The anxious teams exchanged scoring chances, including a nail-biting near-breakaway opportunity for RMC with 40 seconds remaining in regulation, but eventually the game went to overtime. This was the seventh Carr-Harris Cup to go to an extra frame, with Queen’s posting the better record of 3–2–1 across the six previous contests.
Queen’s didn’t have to wait long to breathe a sigh of relief, as Hutcheson assisted on the game-winner by Derek Hamilton, ArtSci ’27, just 26 seconds into overtime. The Gaels broke out into a big celebration, while the Paladins’ frustration was palpable, as they have now lost six overtime games throughout this 12-game losing streak.
The Mary Carr-Harris Most Valuable Player Awards were presented to Lemieux, who scored his first goal of the season and an assist, and Morrow, who posted a .944 save percentage. Finally, Queen’s was awarded their fifth consecutive and 25th overall Carr-Harris Cup for prevailing over their historic rivals.
The Queen’s Men’s Hockey team will play their last two games of the season on the road against Ontario Tech Ridgebacks and Nipissing Lakers on Feb. 13 and 14, respectively, with major playoff implications on the line.
Tags
Carr-Harris Cup, Hockey, Rivalry Game, RMC Paladins
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