ANOTHER GOLD MEDAL GAME FOR QUEBEC AFTER SEMI-FINAL WIN

For the fourth time, Quebec will get a shot at a national championship, and for the fourth time it will be Ontario Red standing in their way. The Quebecers are into the gold medal game of the 2007 National Women’s Under-18 Championship after a 6-0 win over Manitoba in Saturday night’s semi-final.

Sunday’s gold medal game (1:00 p.m. ET, live on TSN/RDS) will mark the fourth consecutive time that Quebec and Ontario Red have matched up for the national title, and Quebec is still looking for their first championship.

Quebec (4-0) had an 18-9 advantage in shots on goal through the first period of the semi-final, but could only manage a late goal from Player of the Game Ariane Barker to give them a 1-0 lead heading into the intermission.

Manitoba (1-3) dodged a big bullet in the opening 20 minutes, killing three Quebec man advantages, but the tournament’s leading powerplay finally struck on their first chance of the second period, as Audrey Bélanger-Cournoyer gave Quebec a 2-0 lead.

Bélanger-Cournoyer added another goal to her total and also had two assists, giving her a tournament-leading 13 points (seven goals, six assists), two more than linemate Marie-Philip Poulin. Four of Bélanger-Cournoyer’s seven goals have come with the man advantage.

Manitoba thought they had cut the Quebec lead in half shortly after the Bélanger-Cournoyer goal, but the whistle had blown just before the puck completely crossed the goal line, and the apparent goal was waved off.

That close call seemed to spark Quebec, as Elarie Leclair-Célestin notched her team’s third goal at 14:14, followed by Camille Dumais at 15:32, giving Quebec the extra insurance it was looking for.

Dumais and Bélanger-Cournoyer each added their second goals of the game in the final 20 minutes, providing the final margin of victory in the most lopsided win, by any team, at this year’s U18 Women’s Nationals.

Breann Frykas was named Player of the Game for Manitoba, who will play Team Atlantic for bronze on Sunday morning (9:00 a.m. ET). It will be a rematch of the bronze medal game at the last U18 Women’s Nationals in November 2005, won by Team Atlantic 3-1.