SAULT STE. MARIE, Ont. – The 2013 TELUS Cup, Canada’s 40th National Midget Championship, held its awards banquet on Friday night at the Marconi Club. The tournament’s awards committee named the recipients of the seven individual awards.

The awards were based on the tournament’s preliminary round, which ran from Monday to Friday.

The 2013 TELUS Cup award winners are:
TELUS Most Valuable Player – Matthew Hudson (Ottawa Jr. 67’s)
Top Goaltender – Simon Hofley (Ottawa Jr. 67’s)
Top Forward – Kolten Olynek (Saskatoon Contacts)
Top Defensive Player – Gabe Bast (Red Deer Chiefs)
Most Sportsmanlike Player – Massimo Carozza (Rousseau Royal de Laval-Montréal)
Top Scorer – Massimo Carozza (Rousseau Royal de Laval-Montréal)
Esso Scholarship – Joshua Bergen (Saskatoon Contacts)

After an exciting week of preliminary round play, the semifinals are set for Saturday, April 27.

The second-place Red Deer Chiefs (2-1-2) meet the third-place Saskatoon Contacts (2-1-2) in the early semifinal (2 p.m. ET) on Saturday, the second year in a row the teams will meet in a playoff game, while the Rousseau Royal de Laval-Montréal, who took first place with a 4-1 record, will face the Ottawa Jr. 67’s (2-2-1), who finished fourth, in the late semifinal (6 p.m. ET).

The gold medal game will be held April 28 at 3 p.m. ET/noon PT and will be shown on TSN/RDS, Hockey Canada’s official broadcasters (check your local listings). Both semifinals and the bronze medal game can be seen live via webcast through FASTHockey at hockeycanada.fasthockey.com. Fans can watch all the action for free by following three steps:

STEP 1: Visit hockeycanada.fasthockey.com and sign up for a free FASTHockey account.
STEP 2: Like the TELUS Cup on Facebook at www.facebook.com/teluscup.  
STEP 3: Just prior to the game, click the TELUS Cup LIVE link on the TELUS Cup Facebook page to watch.

A number of future NHLers have taken part in the National Midget Championship since its inception in 1974, including 53 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: Jason LaRose, Hockey Canada’s coordinator of content services, will be on site in Sault Ste. Marie and can be reached at 403-703-8791 or [email protected] for any interview requests.

For more information on the 2013 TELUS Cup, visit www.hockeycanada.ca/teluscup, or follow the tournament via social media at www.facebook.com/teluscup and www.twitter.com/hc_teluscup.