RIVIÈRE-DU-LOUP, Que. – After posting victories in their respective semifinals Saturday, the Toronto Young Nationals (Central) and Grenadiers de Châteauguay (Quebec) will meet in the gold medal game at the 2015 TELUS Cup, Canada’s 42nd National Midget Championship.
The Young Nationals beat the Regina Pat Canadians (West) 3-1 in the early semifinal, while the Grenadiers knocked off the Strathmore Bisons (Pacific) 7-1 in the late game.
The gold medal game at Centre Premier Tech is scheduled for 4 p.m. ET/1 p.m. PT on Sunday, April 26 and can be seen live on TSN2/RDS, the official broadcasters of Hockey Canada.
In Saturday’s first semifinal, Nolan Regan scored the game-winner 6:56 into the third period, helping the Young Nationals hand first-place Regina its first loss of the week. Ryan Bonsteel and Jordan Sambrook had the other goals for Toronto, which is in the gold medal game at the national championship for the second time; it lost to the Calgary Spurs in the final of the 1976 Wrigley Cup.
In the late game, William Leblanc had two goals and Maxime Comtois added a goal and two assists for the Grenadiers, who scored the game’s last seven goals to advance to the gold medal game. Jacob Lapierre, Pierre-Luc Sanche, William Poirier and Antoine Morand also scored for Chateauguay, which will play for gold for the second consecutive year; it lost to the Prince Albert Mintos in triple overtime in 2014 in the longest game in tournament history.
The teams met Thursday in preliminary round play, with Châteauguay earning a 4-1 victory. They also met in last year’s semifinals, a game won 6-1 by the Grenadiers.
Regina and Strathmore will meet earlier Sunday in the bronze medal game, which can be seen live via FASTHockey webcast through the game summary page at www.hockeycanada.ca/teluscup, beginning at noon ET/9 a.m. PT.
A number of future NHLers have taken part in Canada’s National Midget Championship since its inception in 1974, including 56 first-round draft picks, three No. 1 selections (Gord Kluzak, Wendel Clark and Sidney Crosby) and nine future Hockey Hall of Fame inductees (Glenn Anderson, Ron Francis, Mike Gartner, Al MacInnis, Larry Murphy, Patrick Roy, Joe Sakic, Denis Savard and Steve Yzerman).
NOTE TO MEDIA: Francis Dupont, Hockey Canada’s manager of communications, is on site in Rivière-du-Loup and can be reached at 587-999-5681 or fdupont@hockeycanada.ca for any interview requests.
For more information on the 2015 TELUS Cup, visit www.hockeycanada.ca/teluscup, or follow the tournament through social media at www.facebook.com/teluscup and www.twitter.com/hc_teluscup.