After being spurned 4 times the Saint Mary's Huskies have captured their first ever Cavendish University Cup. After winning the AUS title over a struggling St. FX X-Men and coming into the CIS championship seeded third the Huskies defeated the top ranked University of Alberta Golden Bears to win the University Cup in their first finals appearance in 37 years.

The first two games of the tournament were the best that the Huskies have ever played on the national stage. Winning their first game against McGill by 2 points and handing the Manitoba Bisons a 5-0 shut-out loss the Huskies came into the final game in high spirits even though they were missing one of their top forwards. Colby Pridham was pulled from the line-up for Sunday's game following a hard hit, after which he had to be helped off the ice.

The Huskies played a hard tournament through-out and were praised up and down for their impressive forecheck and constant forward pressure on the opposition. The Huskies game against the Golden Bears was by far the best game they had played to date and was extremely fun to watch even if the stands were practically empty at Fort William Gardens. The Huskies and Golden Bears play with a very similar style which led to lots of back and forth play between the teams.

Both the Huskies and Golden Bears established good cycles and played the body rather than the puck. Neil Conway faced considerably more shots than in the Huskies previous two games but was still looking great in net, shutting down Alberta chances and maintaining a strong net presence. The Huskies were the first to go to the power-play and despite not scoring on the man-advantage the Huskies got a chance to flex their power-play muscle and rattle the Alberta goaltenders cage. SMU used their power-play as a chance to get opportunities low in front of the net. The Huskies increased their pressure late in the first period but it was too little and Alberta struck first making the game 1-0 thanks to a great rebound that was scooped up by Tyler Metcalfe and banged home. After the Alberta goal SMU needed to start playing their game again and laying the body out but it came at a price, SMU forward Shawn O'Donnell was ejected from the game for charging an Alberta player.

The second period started with SMU in the penalty box and looking flat, though keeping up with Alberta the Huskies were not playing their game anymore, they were reacting instead of acting and were having difficulties moving the puck out of their end and keeping the Golden Bears at bay. Midway through the 2nd period SMU got some of the wind back in their sails, Cam Fergus tied the game at a goal a piece with a beautiful goal over the back of a sprawling Yonkman. Thornton and Rancourt were credited the assist on the goal and gave some life back to a team that were looking flat following the dismissal of O'Donnell. In the last half of the second period SMU started setting up more chances for themselves and started moving the puck better through the offensive zone, breaking Alberta defenders and rushing the net. Some of SMU's best chances came on power-plays that were drawn by the aggressive play of Mike Danton, a physical player who draws penalties without taking them himself.

The third period could be called the Huskies show, Andrew Hotham gave them the lead early in the 3rd period, being in the right place at the right time let him take the feed from Kyle Doucet and rail a shot right through the defenders and to the back of the mesh. Leading 2-1 the Huskies began controlling the play even more, wearing the Golden Bears down little by little and forcing them to make turn overs.

Cody Thornton may have only appeared on the score sheet once but he should have been credited with 3 more goals, catching 3 crossbars. Though outshot the Huskies controlled the third period until the last 4 minutes, Derek Ryan scored the tying goal with 4:43 to play, and despite the Huskies best efforts they were unable to score again and were sent to sudden-death over-time.

The over-time period was an extremely stressful time for Huskies everywhere, every shot on net was a potential game ender.

Neil Conway was the strongest backstop the Huskies could have hoped for, making some huge clinch saves when they mattered and keeping the Huskies in the game. The game winning goal came courtesy of rookie Brad Smith, a player who was moved onto a line with Munden and Danton following Pridham's injury. Smith scored his game-winning goal by imposing himself in front of the Alberta net and banging away at Marc Rancourt's rebound.

After the game Smith credited his excellent play to teammates Munden and Danton saying “My line mates Justin Munden and Mike Danton worked their bag off down low”. The game winner was Smith's first goal of the tournament and there was no better time to score it.

Coach Trevor Steinberg was visibly shocked by his teams win though was beaming with pride. When asked by a reporter what he thought of Mike Danton's role he said “If giving a guy a second chance is the wrong thing then I'm a bad guy”. The team could not be more happy with their newest forward and will be the talk of the town for weeks to come.

Andrew Hotham was named Tournament MVP and was awarded the Danny MacLeod MVP trophy for his strong defensive play and for the offensive opportunities that he created.