The Queen’s Gaels men’s hockey team (15-7-1) powered to a 6-2 win over the RMC Paladins (3-18-3) to take the 30th annual Carr-Harris Challenge Cup.

In front of a record crowd of 3,363, Eric Ming led the way for the Gaels with a hat-trick at the Rogers K-Rock Centre.

Following a physical start to the game Ming netted the opener for Queen’s on an early powerplay. After the  Paladins tied it up the Gaels regained the lead as Patrick McGillis tipped a point shot past goalie Matthew Beirnes. Before the end of the period McGillis would add a second to make it 3-1 for Queen’s.

Early in the second Ming netted his second of the game but the Paladins struck back just 22 seconds later to make it 4-2. That would be the last shot to get past Kevin Bailie. Still in the second period, Alex Stothart gave the Gaels a three-goal lead, ending the night for Beirnes.

The record crowd cheered the teams back on the ice for the final 20 minutes of the game, as the RMC faithful looked to help get their team back into the game. Just nine minutes in, the Paladins took a risk, pulling their goalie on the powerplay to find a spark. While it did not result in a goal, they were able to get a number of great chances with the man-advantage. After each team tallied over 30 minutes of penalties in the period, the Gaels converted for a powerplay goal as Ming netted third of the game to complete the hat-trick.

Ming and Eric Louis-Seize were awarded the Mary Carr-Harris MVPs following the final buzzer.

"There was a lot of energy and a lot of intensity," said Ming who netted a hat trick for Queen's. "It looks like it's a pretty scrappy game out there and it was, it's very high intensity for both teams. Now that it's said and done though we've got a lot of respect for what they do, not only as a Military College for our country, but as a hockey team as well."