If you didn’t attend Day 1 of the 2025 BioSteel U SPORTS Hockey Championship inside The Arena at TD Place, you missed out, that’s for sure. There is only one word to describe it: wild.

The headlines, of course, will tell the tale of the longest U SPORTS men’s hockey game in history, with (#5) Mount Royal taking on (#4) Toronto Metropolitan. TMU’s Spencer Shugrue scored the game-winner in the early stages of the fifth overtime period, sending the Bold into the Semi-Finals with a 5-4 win.

“He has been clutch for us,” said Bold Head Coach Johnny Duco following the game, also citing the soreness in his back from standing on the bench for nearly seven hours. “He’s played defence for us, he’s played centre, he’s played the wing, he’s played on the penalty kill, and he’s quarterbacked the power play. He scored some big goals for us. There’s not much more you could ask of a first-year player, he’s got the heart of a lion.”

Though trailing by a 3-1 scoreline early in the third, the Bold fought back, getting third-period goals from Ian Martin and Daniil Grigorev.

Chief among the reasons TMU was able to launch their comeback, however, was Ottawa native Kai Edmunds, who stopped more than 60 shots on the night. Most notable, perhaps, was a cross-ice save that sparked a breakout, and ultimately Grigorev’s game-tying goal.

“That was huge, obviously,” Duco said. “He comes up big in big moments. It’s kind of like the old Grant Fuhr, like, ‘Hey, you win 5-4, but he makes that really big save in the big moment.’ He certainly made big saves in big moments for us.”

“We’re going to go as far as Kai takes us,” he continued. “We’ve got to play well in front of him, but one guy we’re never concerned about is Kai Edmunds.”

For Edmunds, the occasion is right, playing in front of all kinds of friends and family, back in the same arena he secured his first Ontario Hockey League win as a member of the Barrie Colts back in 2017.

Through the sore backs and shaky limbs, TMU’s netminder, as well as all of his teammates, had everything they needed between periods.

“We had some pizza come and some different things,” Duco said. “We were loaded. Ryan McDonald (TMU’s Manager of Sport Performance and Head Coach of Strength and Conditioning) was dialled in. Ice baths, Normatecs, food, snacks, treats, whatever they needed. Flat pop, cold coffee, you name it. We had it in there to make sure that we had every competitive advantage possible.”

The marathon, which began at 1 p.m. and didn’t end until 7:48 p.m., forced a delayed puck drop in the day’s second game, which pit host (#8) University of Ottawa against the (#1) University of New Brunswick, with the opening faceoff taking place sometime after 9:10 p.m.

As luck would have it, this one too was tight right until the end. With the net empty in the Gee-Gees end late in the third period, former Ottawa 67’s defenceman Peter Stratis scored, sending the crowd into a frenzy.

In the flood of emotions, he headed straight for the Ottawa bench, celebrating the goal that forced overtime with his entire team. There have been plenty of feelings just like that this week for the Toronto native, who is back in the 67’s locker room for the tournament, a place he never thought he’d be again after being traded to the Sudbury Wolves in 2018.

“On Tuesday, I went in and saw Chris Hamilton (the 67’s Equipment Manager) chatted with him,” Stratis said. “It was cool to just soak it in. I didn’t think I’d be back there. We’ve been here for Colonel By before, but never gotten to sit in the room for a game. It was pretty special to be back there.”

The Gee-Gees were propelled by a two-goal performance from Marc-Antoine Seguin, with the bigger of the two being the overtime winner, which sent Ottawa to the Semi-Finals with a 3-2 win, and an incredible performance by former Gatineau Olympiques goaltender Franky Lapenna, who was honoured as the Gee-Gees Player of the Game, stopping 41 of the 43 shots he faced.

Ottawa now has something tangible to back up their immense belief in themselves, which has been omnipresent since their elimination from the OUA playoffs about three weeks ago.

Whether it’s their warm-up shirts which feature Rich Strike, the horse that won the 2022 Kentucky Derby with 80:1 odds, or using “Dream On” by Aerosmith as their goal song, Head Coach Patrick Grandmaître says they have “milked the underdog storyline for three weeks.”

“We’re trying everything,” Grandmaître said. “The guys believe because it’s a one-game format. If we had to play them in a best-of-seven, I still think we could win, but I prefer this format.”

With wins under their belts, TMU and Ottawa will meet on Saturday afternoon in a battle of OUA schools, with a berth to the Gold Medal Game on the line.

“We need to do what we did tonight and keep rolling,” Stratis said. “We know it’s not going to be easy going forward. We know it’s going to be battles just as hard as we went tonight.”

Tickets for that game, and the rest of the tournament, can be scored here.