As the Moose Jaw Warriors begin their drive towards a WHL Championship, former goalie Zach Sawchenko is celebrating a championship win of his own with the Alberta Golden Bears.

Sawchenko made 24 saves to lift the Golden Bears to a 4-2 win over the St. Francis-Xavier X-Men in the 2018 U Sports David Johnston University Cup title game on Sunday in Fredericton, New Brunswick.

“We had a real special group over here this year and we felt it from day-one and to get rewarded with the University Cup is something that I'll never forget, especially in my rookie season,” said Sawchenko.

Alberta compiled a 23-4-1 record overall to finish first in the Canada West conference. They beat the Saskatchewan Huskies, who feature five former Warriors, for the conference title earlier this month.

Sawchenko said getting a chance to be a part of this team was something that he couldn't pass up.

“Maybe fans will start to understand my decision to leave a little early to get a chance to play at this school because they don't come around very often and I was really excited when the opportunity opened up,” said Sawchenko. “I wanted to take full advantage of this opportunity and capping it off with a national championship is just a cherry on top.”

After four seasons with the Warriors, Sawchenko decided to eschew his final season in the Western Hockey League and make the jump to U Sports with the U of A.

It paid off with a stellar season between the pipes for the Golden Bears. In 15 games played, Sawchenko posted a 12-1-2 record with a 2.12 goals against average, which was third in the nation, and a 0.922 save percentage, which came in 22nd in the country.

Sawchenko felt like he handled the jump to the university level well this season. “Playing in the Western League sets you up great for this league and at the end of the day, it was a great choice for me to leave early and I don’t regret it one bit,” he said.

Alberta won a back-and-forth game, 8-6, over Acadia in the quarterfinals on Friday and then they came from behind to knock off the Huskies, 3-2 in overtime, in the semifinal on Saturday. Sawchenko made 20 saves in the overtime win.

The championship game saw the X-Men score twice in the opening 8:52 of the game, but the Golden Bears scored four unanswered to storm back and take the title.

Sawchenko felt the team got stronger as the tournament went on, “You have to in every short-term competition, every game is a chance to learn and grow from your mistakes and that's what happened in our games throughout the tournament,” he said.

Sawchenko went 2-0 during the University Cup playoffs and earned a spot on the Championship All-Star team, along with another Warrior alumni in Kendall McFaull of the Huskies.

With his season with the Golden Bears done, Sawchenko will also be focusing on school, which he said has kept him busy throughout the season. He's majoring in finance

He added that he's ready to cheer on his former Warrior teammates as they look to track down the Ed Chynoweth Cup.

“I'm really looking forward to this playoff run, I was talking to a few of my buddies on the team and I'm going to try to make it out for a few playoff games,” he said. “I couldn't be happier for those guys that they were able to break so many franchise records and establish themselves as the best Warrior team in the regular season of all-time. It was a lot of work that Alan (Millar) and Tim (Hunter) put in and I'm so happy to see those guys succeeding.”