2008 National U18 Club Championship

BLIZZARD ROUT TITANS, CLINCH SEMI-FINAL BERTH

Faced with a must-win game, the Séminaire Saint-François Blizzard came up with undoubtedly their best effort of the 2008 TELUS Cup on Friday night.

Phillipe Halley, Guillaume Asselin and Patrick Delisle-Houde scored in the opening 9:24 and the Blizzard didn’t stop there, routing the Ottawa Valley Titans 9-1 to clinch a semi-final spot.

The bronze medalists from the 2007 TELUS Cup in Red Deer, AB, the Blizzard will face the undefeated Winnipeg Thrashers in Saturday’s first semi-final (2:00 p.m. ET), one win away from playing for their record-tying fourth gold medal – they won three as the Gouverneurs de Ste-Foy.

Needing a big effort to earn a semi-final berth – they had to beat the Blizzard by two goals – the Titans instead found themselves in an early hole, as starting goaltender Justin Gilbert was chased after allowing three goals before the period was half over.

Séminaire Saint-François captain Frédérick Roy added a goal in the second period and Halley, Delisle-Houde, Dominic Beausoleil, Tommy Giroux and Laurent Dumont added third-period goals for the Quebec champions, who will look to keep alive that province’s streak of medals at the National Midget Championship – a Quebec team has won at least bronze every year since 1998.

Thirteen players recorded at least a point for the Blizzard, who have won a medal in 12 of their 13 previous trips to the national championship, but will have to get past a Thrashers team that is 57-1 in 2007-08 if they hope to add gold or silver to that collection.

Brent Bisdee ended the shutout bid of Blizzard goaltender Jean-Phillipe Gagnon with just 27 seconds remaining, scoring the lone goal for the Titans, who surpassed expectations by winning their league championship after a third-place finish in the regular season.

Ottawa Valley became the second host team in three years – joining Charlottetown in 2006 – to fail to win a game at the TELUS Cup.