HOCKEY CANADA
2008 National U18 Club Championship
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Ottawa Valley Titans
3 -
Winnipeg Thrashers
6
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THRASHERS SURVIVE SCARE TO REMAIN UNDEFEATED It may have been a little tougher than many people expected, but the Winnipeg Thrashers are still the only perfect team at the 2008 TELUS Cup after a 6-3 win over the Ottawa Valley Titans on Thursday. The win sets up a first-place showdown between the Thrashers and Sudbury Nickel Capital Wolves on Friday (1:00 p.m. ET) – a battle between the last two undefeated teams at this year’s National Midget Championship. For the Titans, the loss leaves them winless at 0-3-1, but the tournament hosts are still alive in the hunt for a Saturday semi-final berth. A win over the Séminaire Saint-François Blizzard on Friday afternoon (4:30 p.m. ET), combined with a loss by the Cole Harbour McCains, who face Calgary on Friday morning, would put the Titans into the semi-final against the winner of the Winnipeg-Sudbury game. Ottawa Valley came out flying against the tournament’s top team, and took a 1-0 lead when Brent Bisdee one-timed a cross-crease pass past Winnipeg goaltender Brett Martyniuk with the Titans on the powerplay just 4:24 in. But the Thrashers’ top-ranked offence needed less than two minutes to pull even, as Matt Garvey deposited the puck behind Titans’ netminder Justin Gilbert for his first goal of the tournament. Winnipeg’s tournament-best powerplay went to work late in the period, as Jesse Hall and Mark Stone – who co-lead the tournament with eight points in four games – combined to give the Thrashers their first lead of the game, with Stone doing the honours. Kyle Mulder pushed the lead to two early in the second period, snapping a shot over the glove of Gilbert, but Ryan Donnelly – named Ottawa Valley’s player of the game – scored on a Titans powerplay, beating Martyniuk low along the ice to cut the lead back down to one at 3-2. After Donnelly and Robby Lazo traded goals to make it 4-3, Mulder broke the spirits of the Titans by scoring with just 7.6 seconds remaining in the middle frame, sending the Thrashers do the dressing room up by a pair. Kyle Lee scored the only goal of the third period to provide the final margin of victory for the Thrashers, who outshot the Titans 34-20. Winnipeg captain Mathew Bodie, who has been one of the West Region champions’ best players throughout the tournament, was named player of the game got the Thrashers. |
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