The University of New Brunswick Varsity Reds’ Chris Clapperton celebrates after a first-period goal against the St. Francis Xavier X-Men during the Canadian Interuniversity Sport gold-medal hockey game in Halifax on March 20, 2016.Andrew Vaughan/The Canadian Press
Alexandra Labelle scored three goals and added an assist as the Montreal Carabins won the Canadian Interuniversity Sport women's hockey title with an 8-0 victory over the UBC Thunderbirds on Sunday.
Marie-Pier Chabot made 23 saves for the shutout.
Emmanuelle Passard and Maude Laramee each had a goal and two assists for the Carabins, while Jessica Cormier had four assists.
Alexandra Paradis, Maude Gélinas and Casandra Dupuis rounded out the scoring.
UBC starter Danielle Dube allowed five goals on 10 shots. Samantha Langford stopped five of eight shots in relief.
"It feels amazing, this is what we've been dreaming of," Montreal head coach Isabelle Leclaire said. "We had a good balance of experience players and very talented youth. They worked relentlessly. It's not about how you start the season, it's about the process and how you finish that's important."
The T-Birds were competing in only their second CIS national championship and the silver medal for UBC is the best result in UBC women's hockey history. They finished fifth in their first nationals appearance in 2013.
"It's unbelievable to represent the University to the best finish ever, I think it's huge for our program," said T-Birds head coach Graham Thomas. "We learned from our last nationals. This time around, we improved. I think we gained some respect, we showed that we're here to stay and we have a really solid program. It was a really big day for us despite the outcome and the score."
Earlier, Caitlyn Manning had a goal and an assist to lead Saint Mary's over Guelph 3-1 in the bronze-medal game.
Guelph entered the tournament as the top seed but will leave Calgary empty-handed.
Calgary beat St. Thomas 4-0 in the fifth-place game.
UNB wins men's championship
The University of New Brunswick made it all the way to the 2015 CIS men's hockey final only to watch Alberta celebrate a victory in the championship game.
This year it was different.
The No. 5 Varsity Reds returned to the 2016 CIS championship and defeated the No. 3 St. Francis Xavier X-Men 3-1 on Sunday for the school's sixth national championship.
Christopher Clapperton opened the scoring for UNB 6 minutes 49 seconds into the first period before Zach MacQueen responded for St. Francis Xavier at 19:49.
Francis Beauvillier restored the lead for the Varsity Reds on the power play at 9:02 of the second and Tyler Carroll added insurance just 17 seconds later.
Etienne Marcoux made 22 saves for UNB while Drew Owsley kicked out 27 of 30 shots for St. FX.
Earlier, the No. 8 Saint Mary's Huskies toppled the No. 2 Saskatchewan Huskies 5-2 to claim CIS bronze.