By Hockey Canada

CHARLOTTETOWN, P.E.I. – For the second year in a row, a team from Saskatchewan has been crowned TELUS Cup National Midget Champions. The Prince Albert Mintos (West) defeated the Calgary Buffaloes (Pacific) in the longest game in National Midget Championship history 5-4 in triple overtime to complete their perfect tournament with a 7-0 record.

It was the Calgary Buffaloes who opened the scoring in the first when Tournament MVP Mike Connolly converted on the power play 3:08 into the first period.

Prince Albert replied shortly after as Adam Matlock beat Jacob DeSerres to even things at 1-1 after one period.

The Mintos scored three consecutive goals in the second period to extend their lead to 4-1 as the Tournament’s Top Forward added his 11th and 12th goals of the tournament to surpass Sidney Crosby’s 11 goal output in the 2002 Championship.

Calgary forward Mark Lyons narrowed the gap to two as he scored on a short handed opportunity blasting one past Mintos goalie Dustin Tokarski, but the Buffaloes still trailed 4-2 heading into the final period.

Calgary’s 15 year old Jordan Eberle, the Tournaments Most Sportsmanlike Player, brought Calgary to within one when he fired a shot top shelf over the shoulder of Tokarski at 12:44 of third.

With just 3:41 remaining, the Tournament MVP and Buffaloes go to guy, Mike Connolly, scored his second of the game to tie things up at 4-4.

After going two scoreless overtime periods, the Mintos captain Ron Meyers was the hero scoring the winning goal in the longest game in National Midget Championship, as it took 102 minutes and 24 seconds to determine a winner.

Jacob DeSerres made 57 saves in the loss for Calgary, while Dustin Tokarski earned his fifth win of the Championship with a 61 save performance.

Player of the game for the Mintos with two goals and one assist was forward Matthew Robertson, and Mike Connolly also notched two goals and one assist and took the honours for the Calgary Buffaloes.

In a thrilling finish for the Bronze medal earlier in the day, the Patriotes de Chateauguay (Quebec) came from behind to beat the Toronto Junior Canadiens (Central) 4-3 in a shoot out. Patriotes Alexandre Leduc scored the only two Quebec goals in the shoot out to help Chateauguay capture the bronze medal in his teams first year of existence.

The 2007 TELUS Cup will be held at the end of April, 2007 in Red Deer, Alberta.