By Eliza Nwaesei
The Ottawa Gee-Gees’ Queen’s Cup pursuit ended early.
After losing Game 1 of the Ontario University Athletics (OUA) semi-finals to the Queen’s Gaels with a close 4-3 final score, the Gee-Gees needed to win two straight games to move on. But Game 2 didn’t go their way either. After 22 minutes of play, second-year goaltender Franky Lapenna was pulled after allowing a third goal and from there, the tide never turned—the game ended in a 7-3 final score.
Although the Gee-Gees were knocked out of the OUA playoffs, their journey wasn’t over yet. For the first time ever, the U Sports University Cup (U Cup) men’s hockey championship would be hosted in Ottawa at TD Place by the University of Ottawa. This meant the Gee-Gees had an automatic spot in the nationals tournament, giving them a chance for redemption.
“We knew we couldn’t come here and just be a charity case, getting in eighth seed just because we are hosting,” said first-year Gee-Gees forward Mitch Martin after the semi-final.
Ottawa entered the tournament set to face the top-ranked team in Canada—the University of New Brunswick (UNB) Reds. After an undefeated season in 2023-24 and being the two-time defending U Cup champions, the Reds came into the tournament with only two losses under their belt all season and a three-peat on their mind.
Heading into the matchup, the Gee-Gees took a calculated approach, knowing they would face moments of high pressure against UNB. The early elimination from the playoffs gave the team extra time to focus their efforts on a single opponent. With a strong belief that they would be facing UNB, they spent three weeks preparing for the game, including a week on the ice at TD Place, where they gained a preference for soft ice with duller skates than usual.
“Our game plan was very specific,” said Gee-Gees head coach Patrick Grandmaître following the win over UNB. “We knew we would have to survive at times, because [UNB is] so good, the amount of pressure they put and how hard they work. They’re the best for a reason.”
“We knew we couldn’t come here and just be a charity case, getting in eighth seed just because we are hosting”
Game day came and the Gee-Gees executed their strategy, pulling off an upset. With a 3-2 victory, they proved to not only the home crowd, but the UNB supporters that preparation goes a long way. Grandmaître acknowledged other key factors that played a role in capturing their win.
“You still need a lot of saves, you need some luck and need some things to go on your side,” said Grandmaître. “Perhaps in all their wins, they had a lot of times where it did go to their side and maybe today it was another team’s chance, so now we’re happy it was ours.”
With UNB eliminated, the tournament opened up and the narrative had changed, as it could now be anyone’s to win. For the semifinal matchup, the Gee-Gees took on the Toronto Metropolitan University (TMU) Bold.
The Gee-Gees may have had less experience than the Bold—a team making their third nationals appearance in four years—but won the only matchup between the two teams in October 2024. Nevertheless, their underdog storyline continued.
After the Bold tied the game in the third period, with just 42 seconds left on the clock, Martin buried a shot into a wide-open net—a moment that brought the crowd to their feet.
As the puck hit the back of the net, Aerosmith’s “Dream On” echoed throughout the rink, the team’s goal and win song for the tournament. It was a fitting anthem as the lyrics seemed to speak directly to the Gee-Gees: “Keep dreaming until your dreams come true.”
“Dream On” wasn’t just a goal song, but it had deep roots for Grandmaître. 21 years earlier, he captained the St. Francis Xavier X-Men to their first-ever national title and their championship video featured the same Aerosmith track. The Gee-Gees re-claimed the song for this championship run, as Grandmaître hoped to “rekindle some of that magic.”
Grandmaître is now the figurehead of a restored program. Following an alleged sexual assault by Gee-Gees players in 2014, the school shut down the team for two seasons before returning in 2016, with Grandmaitre at the helm. Less than ten years later, he led them to a national championship.
“The plan was to be here at year eight. We were there at year four and year 10, and now we’re in the final,” said Grandmaitre after the semi-final win. “I remember doing my job interview, [former NHL coach] Jacques Martin was in there and I told him, we’re gonna win one in no more than eight years.”
Martin was named player of the game for the Gee-Gees after recording an assist and scoring two crucial goals against the Bold—but his journey to this moment came with ups and downs. Martin only played eight games this season, making his debut for the Gee-Gees following the winter break after undergoing open heart surgery in October 2024.
“It was something I was born with,” said Martin. “My aortic valve was defective, so if I wanted to keep playing hockey, I needed to get opened up. They fixed everything and I’m back and I’m good.”
Martin wasn’t the only Gee-Gee affected by health issues—second-year defenceman Jacob LeGuerrier also battled his way back to the ice. Drafted by the NHL’s Montreal Canadiens in 2019, LeGuerrier was sidelined for two full years after being diagnosed with myocarditis—a heart condition brought on by long COVID. This caused him to halt physical activity for months.
This season saw him in and out of the lineup, never knowing when he would get the green light to play. However, the former Canadiens’ prospect managed to suit up for the tournament and stood tall when it mattered most.
“He played the whole tournament and was a beast on the D-Core,” said Grandmaître.
Martin’s game-winner was the spark that carried the Gee-Gees into the biggest game in their program history. With a home crowd and team alumni—all decked out in grey and garnet—behind them, Ottawa stepped onto the ice for the U Cup final against the Concordia Stingers.
“I don’t know if other people knew how good Concordia was, but for us, Concordia was pretty much as good as UNB,” said Grandmaître. “We felt like we were again the underdog in this final and thought we actually came out the best way.”
“Not a lot of teams get booted in the second round of playoffs and then beat every single champion at the tournament”
The championship game opened with Ottawa putting up three goals on the scoreboard, capped off by second-year forward Luka Verreault.
Verreault was among a slew of members from the team battling injury—after suffering a broken hand and dealing with lingering complications, he had only played one game since October 2024.
However, not everyone was as fortunate. Fourth-year forward Max Grondin and first-year forward Zach Giroux—who were key contributors to the team—were sidelined for the gold medal game due to injury, furthering the uphill battle Ottawa faced.
Just weeks earlier, Lapenna had been pulled less than midway through the tough playoff loss to Queen’s. Earlier in the season, his journey at the FISU Winter World University Games didn’t go as expected either. After arriving with hopes of starting, he was scratched in five of eight games—in favour of third-year Bold goaltender Kai Edmonds and first-year Reds goaltender Samuel Richard—and left feeling like he had more to prove.
In this tournament, he got his chance in the spotlight and in the biggest moments he delivered—earning the title of most valuable player of the U Sports U Cup tournament.
“I never won anything team-wise until this year in my life when we won at FISU and it was a year with a lot of ups and downs,” said Lapenna. “Not a lot of teams get booted in the second round of playoffs and then beat every single champion at the tournament.”
Going into this tournament, the Gee-Gees received coaching from a guest speaker, Kaleb Dahlgren—a survivor of the 2018 Humboldt Broncos bus crash—about the mindset needed to make their way through the tournament as an underestimated team.
Players said Dahlgren addressed the importance of sticking together and offered an insight on winning the small things.
“Every time you win a second, you win a minute,” said Lapenna with a gold medal around his neck. “I kept that mentality of control. I could control the seconds and see what happens at the end, and [I’m] pretty darn happy about what happened at the end.”
That mentality, alongside a sense of brotherhood, helped carry the team to victory. With former billet families—host families from their time in junior hockey—travelling up to 13 hours to watch, the championship wasn’t only about the game but the bond they all shared.
“These guys are like my family. I live on campus with four guys, so every day, I come home to a house of five hockey players. Yeah, it’s pretty clean,” said Lapenna with a laugh. “We’re all winners now, and there’s nothing else to say. We’re winners, and my whole family and friends are in the stands.”
The sense of unity and support became a driving force behind the Gee-Gees’ unprecedented run.
If there was a symbol that captured the spirit of the Gee-Gees tournament run, it was a horse, or in this case, a gee-gee—Rich Strike. The 2022 Kentucky Derby winner stunned the world by taking first place at 80:1 odds after only being added to the race 24 hours prior.
Throughout the tournament, Ottawa players walked around TD Place wearing custom t-shirts adorned with a photo of Rich Strike, embracing the role of the underdog. It was more than just a gimmick—it became an inspiration.
“We’ve been milking the underdog story for three weeks,” said Grandmaître. “We are trying everything, and the guys believe in it because it’s a one-game format.”
This belief in themselves and in the process propelled the Gee-Gees forward. Like Rich Strike, they weren’t expected to make a statement, let alone a deep run. But they leaned into the challenge as a unit.
“These are my brothers,” said fourth-year forward Bradley Chenier. “I love every single one of them to death. It’s tough not getting emotional with everything we’ve been through.”
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