Box Score
OAKVILLE, ONT -- McGill defenceman Nikolas Brouillard assisted on the opening goal as the U SPORTS All-Stars skated to a hard-fought 2-1 victory over Hockey Canada's world junior prospects, Thursday, before a matinee crowd of about 1,000 at the Sixteen Mile Sports Centre.

Not only did the all-stars win the contest, they also took the exhibition five-minute, 3-on-3 overtime session 1-0 and then prevailed 2-1 in a 14-man shootout. The win earned U SPORTS a split with Team Canada to close out the Sport Chek world junior selection camp, improving the collegians record to 6-4-1 since a national all-star team began participating in 2015. 

The university all-stars, which outshot the prospects 22-12, went 1-for-3 on the power-play, while snuffing out all four shorthanded situations.

Brouillard, a 5-foot-11, 168-pound rearguard from St. Hilaire, Que., has now tallied one goal and four assists in five games against the Canadian juniors over the past two seasons. The 24-year-old economics junior enrolled at McGill in 2017 after pro stints in the AHL (Toronto) and the ECHL (Orlando). He played his junior hockey in the QMJHL with Rouyn-Noranda, Quebec and Drummondville.

All the scoring happened in the opening period. Ryerson forward Mathew Santos tallied first, deflecting a Brouillard slap-shot on the power-play at the 6:45 mark. UNB's Tyler Boland also drew a helper on the play.

Four minutes later, Alberta's Trevor Cox took advantage of a neutral zone turnover and put the university side ahead by two, converting a pass from Saint Mary's Stephen Johnson on a 2-on-1 rush.

Boston College forward and Colorado Avalanche prospect Alex Newhook answered back for Canada 41 seconds later, bringing the game to within one.

For the remaining two periods, U SPORTS limited Canada offensively holding them without a shot for 13 minutes in the middle frame.

Forward Dawson Mercer of the Drummondville Voltigeurs nearly equalized for Canada with less than three minutes to go in the second, ringing a shot of the post. But Canada was unable to get any closer.

Team Canada supplied all the goaltenders for both teams. Nico Daws of the Guelph Storm started for U SPORTS and was credited with the victory, saving four of five shots in 30:26. He was relieved by Joel Hofer, a Portland Winter Hawks veteran who is a prospect of the St. Louis Blues. He stopped all seven shots faced. 

Hunter Jones, a Minnesota Wild prospect who plays for the Peterborough Petes, started for the juniors and took the loss. He was beaten twice on 12 shots over a time span of 30:26. Olivier Rodrigue of the Moncton Wildcats played the remainder and the Edmonton Oilers prospect kicked aside all 10 shots faced.

After the game, Hockey Canada announced that defencemen Braden Schneider, Peter Diliberatore and Thomas Harley were three of nine players released from their world junior selection camp as the team trimmed its roster to 24 two weeks before the start of the tournament. Forwards Cole Perfetti, Dylan Holloway, Connor Zary, Alex Newhook, Peyton Krebs and goaltender Hunter Jones were also released. The team will need to cut one more player before heading to Vienna this weekend for exhibition games against Switzerland (Dec. 19) and Finland (Dec. 23), followed by the world junior tournament, which begins Dec. 26 against the USA in the Czech Republic.

The U SPORTS regular season resumes with CW, OUA and AUS action from Jan. 2-4. The 2020 University Cup Final Eight championship will be held Mar. 12-15 at the Scotiabank Centre in Halifax.

LINK TO SCORING SUMMARY