Alberta defeats St.Francis Xavier to claim U Sports men's hockey crown

Wil Tomchuk scored the go-ahead goal in the second period and the Alberta Golden Bears came back to defeat the St. Francis Xavier X-Men 4-2 Sunday in the U Sports men's hockey final.

Top-ranked Manitoba Bisons top Western for women's title

University of Alberta Golden Bears captain Riley Keiser celebrates after defeating the St. Francis Xavier University X-Men 4-2 to win the U Sports University Cup at the Canadian university men's hockey championship in Fredericton on Sunday. (Andrew Vaughan/Canadian Press)

​Wil Tomchuk scored the go-ahead goal in the second period and the Alberta Golden Bears came back to defeat the St. Francis Xavier X-Men 4-2 Sunday in the U Sports men's hockey final.

After falling behind 2-0 to the St. FX X-Men, the Alberta Golden Bears scored four-unanswered goals to capture the 2018 U SPORTS men's hockey national championship with a 4-2 win on Sunday afternoon in Fredericton, N.B. 0:51

Stephane Legault, Luke Philp and Jamie Crooks, into an empty net, also scored for the Golden Bears, who won the David Johnston University Cup for the third time in five years and a U Sports-leading 16th time overall.

"I've raised this trophy once as a player and it's now three times as a coach and my first time as a head coach," said Golden Bears head coach Serge Lajoie. "I told the guys between the second and third period that Clare Drake would be very proud of us."

Daniel Robertson and Michael Clarke, on a power play, gave the X-Men an early 2-0 lead before Alberta stormed back.

Zach Sawchenko made 24 saves for the Golden Bears. Chase Marchand stopped 23 shots for StFX.

Earlier, Alexandre Goulet scored his second goal of the game in overtime as the University of New Brunswick Varsity Reds edged the Saskatchewan Huskies 5-4 to claim the bronze medal.

Manitoba tops Western for women's title

The top-ranked Manitoba Bisons have won their first U Sports women's hockey title.

Lauren Taraschuk stopped all 20 shots she faced as Manitoba blanked the Western Mustangs 2-0 on Sunday in the championship.

Lauryn Keen opened the scoring for the Bisons at 18:16 of the second period while on the power play before Venla Hovi added an insurance goal early in the third.

Carmen Lasis stopped 23-of-25 shots for the host Mustangs.

Manitoba went 1 for 5 on the power play while Western failed to score on three chances with the man advantage.

Earlier in the day, Katherine Purchase made 37 saves and Claudia Dubois had two goals and an assist as the Concordia Stingers beat the Saskatchewan Huskies 4-0 for bronze.

Sophie Gagnon and Brigitte Laganiere added a goal and an assist apiece for Concordia.

Jessica Vance turned away 24-of-27 shots for Saskatchewan.

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