EDMONTON (CP) - Ben Thomson isn't a big player, but he became the biggest man on Alberta's campus after Monday's University Cup heroics.
Thomson scored the game-tying goal at 19:37 of the third period and the game winner in overtime as the No. 1 Alberta Golden Bears earned their 11th University Cup following a 4-3 win over the Saskatchewan Huskies Monday.
TSN will have coverage of the game, Tuesday at 8pm et/5pm pt.
"There was no game like this, that's for sure," said Thomson, a five-foot-seven, second-year forward. "I almost peed my pants."
Thomson's tying goal high over Thomas Vicars with 23 seconds left in regulation sent the Rexall Place crowd of 10,331 to a whole other octave.
"The hockey Gods popped that puck free," said Saskatchewan coach Dave Adolph. "He got that puck in a square hole."
Thomson, a 22-year-old native of Coaldale, Alta., scored the overtime winner at 5:37 for his first championship.
"My heart is fine - now," said Golden Bears coach Rob Daum, who earned his third title in 10 seasons and first since 2000. "Right now this one is the sweetest."
Harlan Anderson and Richard Hamula also scored for Alberta, who out-shot Saskatchewan 41-21 in the all-West final.
Trent Adamus, Jon Barkman, and Keegan McAvoy scored for Saskatchewan.
"Inside of a minute, we should have been national champion," Adolph said.
Adamus got Saskatchewan on the scoreboard first, with a one-timer at 5:49 of the opening period. Barkman blasted in on B.J. Boxma and sent a shot high glove side for a 2-0 lead at 16:03.
Huskies goaltender Thomas Vicars went a University Cup-record 137:43 without giving up a goal before Alberta defenceman Anderson wristed a floating shot from the high slot past the third-year Kelowna native in the first period to cut the Huskies lead to 2-1.
The Huskies took a 3-1 on McAvoy's power-play goal in the second, which came 12 seconds after Alberta right-winger Scott Henkelman was whistled for interference.
Alberta came to life in the third after Hamula swept the puck past Vicars seven minutes into the period.
Boxma made 18 saves as Alberta finished ahead in shots 41-21.
"We just believed," said Alberta centre Brad Tutschek. "We've been there before and we knew we could do it."
Alberta went to four consecutive University Cups as the winningest regular-season team without a championship, including 2003-04 when the Golden Bears went 40-0-2 overall but lost in the semifinal.
"We've been criticized the last four years for being choke artists and losers," said Daum. "Hopefully this will put that to rest because these guys have been winners the whole time I've been here."
The Golden Bears, after a 24-3-1 finish in the 2005 regular season, had not won the championship since earning the last of back-to-back University Cup in 2000.
The Huskies went 1-6 against Alberta this season and had lost 15 of their last 16 games against their rival, but were the only Canada West team to beat the Golden Bears at their home rink, Clare Drake Arena, this season.
Adolph won one of three national titles (1983) as a Saskatchewan defenceman and coached the Huskies to its first championship game after 13 seasons behind the bench.
"We'll get another chance," he said.