Defender Spencer Shugrue the overtime hero 3:33 into 5OT
Usually, you have to sign up for a marathon. In this year’s U Cup though, participants had no choice.
Coming into the first quarterfinal between the Toronto Metropolitan Bold and Mount Royal Cougars, the game looked like an even matchup on paper. More than six hours and five overtimes periods later, that sentiment was battle tested.
On Thursday at 1 p.m., the fourth-ranked OUA finalist Bold met the fifth-ranked Canada West (CW) finalist Mount Royal Cougars for the first game of 2025 edition of the U Cup, where eight teams gather to determine a national champion of Canadian university hockey. This would kick off the first U SPORTS men’s hockey championships ever hosted in Ottawa.
After TMU rallied to tie the game at four late in the third period, the quarterfinal would turn into a stalemate with a Spencer Shugrue goal ending the game 3:33 into the fifth overtime period.
The game overtook the previous U Cup record holder — a 2016 Saskatchewan-Carleton quarterfinal matchup that lasted 116:11 — to become the longest ever men’s U SPORTS national championship game.
Two minutes into the fourth overtime, it surpassed a UNB/Acadia AUS semifinal from 2011 to become the longest men’s U SPORTS hockey game on record.
The University of Ottawa Gee-Gees/University of New Brunswick Reds quarterfinal that was scheduled for 7 p.m was delayed; the would-be crowd began pouring into TD Place as game time neared. The game is set to take place roughly an hour and a half after the conclusion of the first game.
The Game
On Mount Royal’s first powerplay 10 minutes into the game, U SPORTS Player of the Year Clay Hanus would wire one bar down for the first goal of the tournament. Hanus finished with 12 goals and a CW leading 43 points during the regular season in his third year with the program.
After taking a penalty for crashing the crease and then one right after for falling on the puck on the ensuing defensive zone faceoff, the Cougars would be faced with a 1:59 5-on-3 penalty kill. TMU would make no mistake, erasing the first penalty by way of a Jaden Condotta goal just over a minute in.
Cougar forward Teague Patton would slip one behind the back of TMU netminder Kai Edmonds just seconds into the middle frame. Just a few minutes later, Spencer Moe would poke home a point shot rebound, giving the Cougars a two-goal lead.
Edmonds was pulled just a few minutes later, but the onslaught continued as Bouchard used a high-soaring deflection to put a rainbow shot over backup Ryan Dugas — who was promptly replaced by Edmonds, though the goal wouldn’t stand.
Bold leading scorer Kevin Gursoy would snipe on an odd-man rush from the bottom of the left circle with under a minute remaining in the second, cutting the Cougar lead to just a single goal.
Patton would regain the two-goal lead just a minute into the final period off a feed from Bouchard, but the Bold would rally with two quick goals from Ian Martin and Daniil Grigorev to tie the game with under 10 minutes to play.
Immediately off the opening overtime faceoff, Martin would take an elbowing penalty, giving the lethal Cougars power play a great chance to punch their ticket to the semifinals.
The offence showcased throughout the start of the game would evaporate, and the teams would stalemate the rest of the period, setting up a double overtime — after a lengthy delay due to an ice resurfacing issue.
The Cougars control of the ice was apparent throughout the second overtime frame. With under two to play, Hanus would slide into the zone at the tail-end of a Bold power play with just under two minutes to play in the and wire a wrist shot off the bar behind Edmonds and out of play.
40 seconds into triple-overtime, the Cougars believed a Clay Hanus wraparound found its way under Edmond’s pad and into the back of the net. After a lengthy video review by the referees, the on-ice “no goal” call stood.
The Cougars dominance of possession continued until midway through the third overtime period, when Shane Farkas would be forced to make multiple grade-A stops. With six minutes to play in the fourth overtime period, Bold centre Aleks Dimovski would earn a breakaway on Farkas, who made his 59th stop of the game.
With one minute to play in the fourth overtime, a Condotta point shot would ricochet off the left post. Just over three minutes into the fifth overtime, Bold defender Spencer Shugrue would jam home a rebound past Farkas six hours and 47 minutes after the puck initially dropped.
The Bold advance to play the winner of Thursday’s second quarterfinal (Ottawa vs. UNB) on Saturday.
What they’re saying
Johnny Duco, TMU Bold Head Coach
On overtime hero Spencer Shugrue: “He’s been clutch for us … when we recruited him from the WHL, they spoke to his character and how he always came up in big moments and we’ve talked a lot about him this year. He’s played defence for us. He’s played center, he’s played the wing. He’s played on the penalty kill. He’s quarterbacked the power play. He’s scored big goals for us, so not much more you could ask from a first-year player. He’s got the heart of a lion. Nobody plays as hard as him, and it’s awesome to see him rewarded in these big moments, but he’s got a nose for the net, he goes to dirty areas and he’s been able to bang in a couple of big ones for us. So I’m really proud of him, really happy for him, he’s an unbelievable kid, he’s loaded with character.”
On Kai Edmonds: “To see him put a show like that on this stage, to show that, ‘hey, maybe I didn’t get some of the hardware, maybe I got snubbed a little bit, you know, I am the best goalie in U SPORTS,’ I think he certainly showed that tonight.”
“He comes up big in big moments … he certainly made big saves in big moments for us, he’s the heartbeat of our team, we’re going to go as far as Kai takes us, and we’ve got to play well in front of him, but one guy we’re never concerned about is Kai Edmonds.”
On the team’s intermission diet: “We had some pizza come, we had some different things … Ryan McDonald is the director of sports performance for us, he was dialled in, ice bathes, normatechs, food, snacks, treats, whatever they needed. Flat Coke, cold coffee, you name it, we had it in there to make sure that we had every competitive advantage possible.”
Kai Edmonds, TMU Bold Goaltender
On preparing for overtime period after overtime period: “Maybe sometimes a little frustration seeps in, wanting the boys to finish it … but I think I just have to worry about what I gotta do, stay locked in, not let the fatigue kind of get to your head.”
On playing nationals close to his hometown Carlsbad Springs: “It’s awesome, I’ve got a bunch of friends and family here to come see me, and to get the win in front of them is awesome,” and on returning to TD Place: “This is where I got my first OHL win way back in the day, to get another win in this building feels awesome.”
Bert Gilling, Mount Royal Cougars Head Coach
On the loss: “I mean it’s like the end of every season right? It’s just hard, and you think of your graduating players, they’ll never get to put the jersey on, they’re always hard, right? And not to mention they were all exhausted on top of that, so I don’t know when we’ll get out of this locker room tonight … what do you say? It was a heck of an effort for both teams, congratulations TMU … just really impressed with both sides, those kids being able to do that, that’s pretty amazing.
On Mount Royal’s first nationals appearance after seven Canada West semifinal losses in 10 years: “That’s where we’d always get stuck, it seemed like. But in saying that, you’re also playing against in Canada West the University of Alberta, the University of Saskatchewan, the University of Calgary. We’re the little hockey program that could right? But in saying that, we were legitimately good, we thought we had a good a chance of anybody to win Canada West and the national championship, so just to be one and done is a little hard to swallow right now.
On the review of the final goal: “There’s different rules for some of the different leagues, right? So we’re kind of balancing that the whole night, and then on that one — we got a penalty in the first period for slashing the goaltender when the puck was laying there, so there is that component of it about jamming the puck and the goalie into the net. Basically, those were the questions that we had in it, it wasn’t so much that the puck crossed the line, it’s just about how it got over the line. And again, they did their due process with video review and we have to accept that.”
On the Cougars’ intermission diet: “It was all hands on deck, right? So our extended staff (integrated sports team), we had our strength coach here and two trainers, and our athletic director Rob Godfrey was running across to the grocery store and ordering stuff for us, we were texting and trying to call our dietician back in Calgary, like what should we be doing right now, we’re running out of ideas? … honestly we didn’t even hardly talk as coaches to the players between periods, it was just like, ‘what do we need? What do we need, how can we get you guys back out there?’”
And on staying focused in the dressing room: “There was pretty good spirit, like the energy was pretty good, you know, we just kind of kept popping our head in there and kind of listening as to what’s going on and they were saying all the right things. You know, they’re breaking up with some laughter every once in a while … I mean good grief, it was what, seven hours, what are you going to do, you can’t be serious the whole time … this has been a great group, the buy-in in this group in terms of what we’re trying to do, and the culture of our program, it really showed itself in those moments.”
On Clay Hanus, U SPORTS Defenceman and Player of the Year: “He’s always had the talent, he can skate really well, he’s got great hands, he can really shoot the puck as you saw tonight, you didn’t see his slap shot, his one timer … I’m just most impressed, what’s kind of elevated is the stuff he does outside the ice. He’s really got into strength and conditioning the last two summers, and he needed that. He went pro after junior and then came to us and that time’s been really good for him. He’s kind of taken his game to another level, you know, great young man, great student, takes it very seriously and he’s got a bright future ahead.”
