[PHOTO CREDIT: Vivid Eye Photography: McGill rearguard Nathan Chiarlitti]

ST. CATHARINES, Ont. —  Alberta Golden Bears forward Jason Fram banged home a rebound with 6.5 seconds left on the clock to clinch a 4-3 victory for the U SPORTS All-Stars over Hockey Canada's world junior prospects before 1,700 at the Meridian Centre on Thursday afternoon.

One of the alternate captains for the university squad was McGill rearguard Nathan Chiarlitti, a native of Maple, Ont., who was selected for the second straight year to play against the juniors.

The win secured a U SPORTS sweep of the annual series for the first time since it began in 1988. The world junior prospects began facing Canada's best university players in 2015. Prior to that, the collegian side was composed of either a conference all-star team or a group made up from combining two or three university teams.

"What we saw the last two games is a group of guys that came together very quickly over a four-day period," said U SPORTS head coach Brad Peddle, whose squad featured six returning players and 11 different universities represented. "One of the things we wanted to really emphasize this year was… to make the experience bigger and better and more high-performance and really treat it like Hockey Canada treats their players. I think that's what you saw from our guys, that they really felt like it was very professional and it showed on the ice."

For the second straight day, all four of the goalies Hockey Canada invited to the selection camp played. Carter Hart, a Philadelphia Flyers prospect who plays for Everett in the WHL, started for the juniors. He was replaced midway through the game by Colton Point, a Dallas Stars prospect who plays for Colgate University. At the other end of the ice, Samuel Harvey, an undrafted member from  Rouyn-Noranda (QMJHL) started for U Sports and was relieved by Vancouver Canucks prospect Michael DiPietro of Windsor (OHL).

With the game tied at 3-3, the clock winding down and overtime looming, StFX defencemen Jagger Dirk found Alberta's Cole Sanford streaking towards the net, but the second-year forward from Coldstream, B.C., couldn't lift the puck over the pad of Point. Fram then pounced on the rebound and made no mistake, giving the collegians their second straight win, after claiming Wednesday night's contest 3-0.
 
"There were too many emotions to count," said Fram, who also earned an assist in the game. "A lot of excitement going on…To represent U SPORTS and all our universities together, it's a pretty special group of guys in there. We all had a lot of fun and I think we really came here with something to prove to get that message out."

Sanford also had a large impact, scoring two goals to finish with a three-point night, while Alberta teammate Luke Philp, who netted the game-winner on Wednesday, collected a pair of assists. Acadia forward and former Niagara IceDog Stephen Harper – who was making a return to the rink where he finished his junior career – also notched a goal and an assist.
 
Ottawa Senators draftee Alex Formenton and St. Louis hopeful Robert Thomas – both with the London Knights of the OHL – along with L.A. prospect Kale Clague, who plays for Brandon (WHL), had the goals for Canada's junior side.
 
Both teams fired 27 shots on net, with Hart stopping eight of 10 shots in 29:43 of work before Point made 15 saves. Harvey turned aside 13 of 15 shots and DiPietro stopped 11 of 12.

Down 1-0 in the first after a Formenton shorthanded tally, Sanford tied the score with 2:17 to go in the opening frame, splitting the defence before beating Hart on a breakaway. The momentum continued into the second stanza, when Harper finished off a tic-tac-toe play less than two minutes later, giving U SPORTS their first lead of the game.
 
Clague knotted the score at 2-2 a half-minute later with a rocket-like shot from the point. A Sanford tap-in on the doorstep nearly eight minutes into the third put U SPORTS ahead 3-2, but Team Canada came back again, when Thomas equalized the count at 3-3 with just under seven minutes to go, setting the stage for Fram's late-game heroics.

"(We picked) guys that we knew would take this very seriously and come in here and play for each other and that's exactly what happened," added Peddle "They played these last two games like they've been playing together a year, or two years... It just speaks to the level of comfort in really putting our product out there – that U SPORTS hockey is elite hockey and it's no secret – it shouldn't be anymore."

The Canadian juniors went 2-for-3 on the power play, while the U SPORTS all-stars were 1-for-4.

Canada will face Denmark on Friday, before their final roster is set to face pre-tournament competition against the Czech Republic in London, Ont., and Switzerland in Hamilton, Ont. on Dec. 20 and 22, respectively. The 2018 IIHF world junior hockey championship begins on Dec. 26 in Buffalo, N.Y, while the U SPORTS regular season resumes on Jan. 3.

The 2018 U SPORTS Cavendish Farms University Cup national championship is scheduled for Mar. 15-18 at the Aitken Centre in Fredericton, N.B.

GAME NOTES: For the second straight night, both teams participated in a five-skater exhibition shootout after the game was finished as part of Canada's ongoing evaluation of its selection camp roster.... Canada won this shootout 3-2 after losing Wednesday's penalty-shot session 3-2... After the game, Canada head coach Dominique Ducharme announced that they had cut defencemen Dennis Cholowski and Logan Stanley in addition to forwards Cody Glass, Kole Lind and Jonathan Ang and goaltender Samuel Harvey... Twenty-seven players remain on the roster for Team Canada and the final cuts are expected to be announced Friday. The club started off with 32 players but that number jumped to 33 after the Montreal Canadiens announced they would loan out defenceman Victor Mete for Canada's selection camp. 

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