McGill captain Evan Vossen scored six minutes into sudden-death overtime to beat the Western Mustangs of London, Ont., 4-3 in an intense, entertaining Cavendish Farms University Cup final Sunday night before about 2,700 fans at the Aitken University Centre.

"It's like a storybook ending," Vossen said. "I mean overtime, my last game, a national championship. It doesn't get any better than that and I'm very grateful for that."

Alexandre Picard-Hooper assisted on the winner to break the all-time points record for the Redmen. He ended his career with 268 points in 175 games.

Third-line left winger Benoit Levesque, with two, and Nicolas Biniek added the other goals to help the 136-year-old McGill University win the University Cup for the first time in its 50-year history.

The Redmen opened the tourney with a 6-3 victory over the Universite de Moncton Aigles Bleus on Thursday. UdeM rebounded to beat the Saskatchewan Huskies 5-1 Friday, but McGill emerged from Pool B on goal differential by only losing by one, 4-3, to Saskatchewan on Saturday.

Verreault-Paul was named the tournament MVP. The trophy, named after former NHL supervisor of officials Major Danny McLeod, was presented by McLeod himself.

"I'm really proud of winning this, but you know I couldn't win this by myself," Verreault-Paul said. "I had a lot of good bounces this tournament that I was able to capitalize on and I'm really honoured to be named the MVP."

“It’s so fitting that Evan Vossen scored that goal,” McGill head coach Kelly Nobes said. “What an unbelievable captain this guy’s been for the program. He did it at both ends of the ice, for 200 feet. He was a key guy on that penalty kill and then to get the winning goal is just so fitting for our program.”

Shots on Goal-
Western 7-3-14-3-27.
McGill 14-15-7-4-40.

Power Play Opportunities-
Western 2 / 4;
McGill 0 / 3.

Goalies-
Western, Unice (L, 1-1, 40 shots-36 saves; 66:00).
McGill, Morin 2-1-0 (27 shots-24 saves; 66:00).

Attendance at Aitken University Centre -3,750

Referees-Jonathan Langille, Sean Reid

Linesmen-Mike MacDonnell, Jay Doiron.

The University Cup is awarded annually to the Canadian Interuniversity Sport (CIS) men's ice hockey champions. The current champion is the McGill University Redmen.

The trophy was presented to the CIS, for presentation to a national champion starting with the 1962-63 season, by Queen's University and the Royal Military College of Canada. These two schools, located in Kingston, had been the participants in the first organized interuniversity hockey game, played in Kingston in 1885. The cup is meant to recognize the overall contribution made to the game of hockey by outstanding university players.

PHOTO by Mike Dembeck