With less than two weeks to go until the Carr-Harris Cup, a legendary and historic game built from the rivalry between Queen’s Men’s Hockey and the Royal Military College (RMC) Paladins, The Journal is breaking down the game’s attendance records.
Despite the rivalry dating back to 1886, the Carr-Harris Challenge Cup wasn’t initiated until 1986. Out of the 35 Carr-Harris Cup games played (the 2021 and 2022 games were cancelled due to COVID-19), Queen’s has been the victor 22 times.
Altogether, Queen’s has a record of 22-11-2 and RMC has a record of 11-21-3.
The Gaels most recent loss was in 2019 with the final score being 5-1 in RMC’s favour. Since then, the Gaels won 4-2 in 2020 and last year they won 2-1 in a tight overtime game.
In total, the Gaels have scored 145 goals, with RMC having scored 98.
The first two games in 1986 and 1987 were exhibition games, not counting towards the OUA regular season as is the case today.
In the first Carr-Harris Challenge Cup game, RMC beat Queen’s 8-3, however the Gaels cleaned themselves up enough to tie it 7-7 in 1987.
The greatest number of goals scored by a team was in 1990 when the Gaels beat RMC 11-4. The largest goal differential followed in 1993 when the Gaels trampled RMC 9-0.
The Gaels’ overtime victory last season was a needed win. Going into the game with a 10-13 season record, the Gaels only had three games remaining in their regular season to secure a coveted spot in the playoffs.
Dalton Duhart, ArtSci ’26, scored the first goal of the game about seven minutes into the second period. His goal was reciprocated by RMC’s Noah Rowe about 12 minutes later.
The overtime winner was scored by Alex Robert, ArtSci ’24, just over a minute into the added time.
READ MORE: Gaels win 35th Carr-Harris Cup in overtime
The Carr-Harris Challenge Cup isn’t the only opportunity Queen’s has to face off against its cross-town rivals, as each team faces off against each other at the Lou Jeffries Memorial Game, as well as throughout the season.
The Gaels’ first exhibition game of last season was the Lou Jeffries Memorial Game on Sept. 11, 2022. The Gaels won that game 8-3. The two teams met again on Nov. 2, 2022, where the Gaels came out on top again with a 4-1 victory. The overtime win at the Carr-Harris Cup was the rival’s final meeting of the 2022-23 season.
In the 2023 pre-season, the Gaels took on the Paladins on Sept. 9 for the annual Lou Jeffries game. Again, the score was in the Gaels favour at 5-2.
The 2023-24 regular season saw more regular meetings between the two teams. On Nov. 15 the Gaels won 5-1, two days later they won 8-3, and most recently, on Jan. 13, they won 4-2.
Queen’s leading goal scorers against RMC this season have been Derek Hamilton, ArtSci ’27, with five goals, Jonathan Yantsis, ArtSci ’24, with three goals, Nolan Hutcheson, ArtSci ’25, and Jack Duff, ArtSci ’25, both with two goals.
All in all, the Gaels have a 42-4 record against RMC since 2009. Out of those four losses, three of them were Carr-Harris Cup games.
To see who will win this season’s game, you can buy your tickets now on Ticketmaster. Free student tickets can be picked up at the ARC Q-Service desk starting Jan. 26. The puck drops at 7:30 p.m. on Feb. 8 at the Leon’s Centre.
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