OTTAWA, Ont. – For the first time since 2016-17, the University of Saskatchewan (USask) Huskie men's hockey team has secured national hardware.

Vince Loschiavo scored twice in the third period of the University Cup Bronze Medal Game to help lead the Huskies to a 4-1 win over the Toronto Metropolitan University Bold on Sunday afternoon at TD Place.

"No one is ever going to take that away from us [U Cup Bronze] and to be Canada West Champions, with that, it feels pretty good," said Huskie head coach Brandin Coach. "[It's] not the ultimate feeling for sure, but we can take a lot of pride in our season, we had 29 wins in the regular season, playoffs, and U Cup, so I'd say that's a pretty good year and we're going to enjoy it. We're going to have that in our back pocket for as we move forward and I don't know if you can improve on that a whole lot, but we're going to try."

The first period saw the Huskies spend six minutes on the penalty kill, in a period that set the tone for the national medal game. Despite being down a skate for nearly half the period, Saskatchewan and TMU would head into the locker room for the first intermission scoreless.

Opening the second on the penalty kill, the Huskies allowed just one shot on net while killing off a double minor, flexing the nation's best penalty kill this season.

Even strength hockey did not last long however, as following a TMU slashing call, the Bold would also receive an additional minor penalty and major. With the Huskies on a nine-minute powerplay that featured two minutes of 5-on-3, the best powerplay in U SPORTS converted once again.

Entering the zone with plenty of speed, Chase Bertholet would set up the game's opening goal, finding Huskie captain Justin Ball alone in front of the net. Ball, playing in his final game as a Huskie, beat TMU goaltender Kai Edmonds up high glove-side for his second of the tournament.

Shortly after the Dogs' marathon powerplay expired, Landon Kosior would double lead after receiving a cross-ice pass from Raphael Pelletier. Kosior would rip a wrist shot from the high slot for his first career University Cup goal.

The Bold would score a late powerplay goal to cut the Huskie lead to 2-1 heading into the second intermission.

The third would see another penalty parade with Saskatchewan and TMU combining for six minor penalties and three misconducts.

Back on the powerplay late in the frame and looking to solidify a bronze medal, Landon Kosior found Vince Loschiavo with 2:10 remaining to give the Dogs a 3-1 lead. Loschiavo, also playing in his final game as a Huskie, would strike once more with 49 seconds left on an empty TMU net to secure Saskatchewan some hardware.