EVERETT – All four participating Silvertips prospects made a splash at last week’s TELUS Cup tournament in Leduc, Alberta; Canada’s midget hockey equivalent to the Memorial Cup. Forward Ty Mappin won the tournament championship with Red Deer, forwards Dawson Leedahl and Carson Stadnyk took home bronze with Saskatoon, and defenseman Cole MacDonald helped Leduc reach the medal round.
All three forwards ranked among the top 18 scorers in the tournament, while MacDonald tied for third in scoring among defensemen. The TELUS Cup features midget champions from five different regions of Canada battling one another and a host club in a six-team field for Canada’s National Midget Championship.
Ty Mappin (Big Valley, AB) and the Pacific-region Champion Red Deer Rebels AAA Midget Club went undefeated in the tournament, finishing 3-0-2 in preliminary round play before beating Saskatoon 2-0 in the semifinals to advance to the Gold Medal game. Red Deer trailed also-unbeaten Quebec champion Phénix du Collège Esther-Blondin 5-1 after two periods in the title game, but roared back in the third period to tie and eventually win it 6-5 in double overtime. In claiming their first-ever TELUS Cup, the Rebels also became just the fifth Alberta team ever to win the Canada’s midget title. Mappin, who was Everett’s first-round pick in last year’s WHL Bantam Draft, tied for 10th in scoring with nine points in the tournament (3g/6a).
Dawson Leedahl and Carson Stadnyk (both of Saskatoon, SK) put on strong performances in a Bronze Medal finish for the Saskatoon Contacts, winners of the West region. The Contacts started 0-1-1 in the preliminary round before rattling off three straight wins to rank third after round-robin play. Despite a 2-0 semifinal loss to Red Deer, Saskatoon rebounded to defeat the Leduc Oil Kings 3-2 in Sunday’s Bronze Medal game. Leedahl, who was Everett’s second-round selection in the 2011 Bantam Draft, topped all Silvertips prospects with ten points (4g/6a) in the tournament, good enough to tie for 6th among all scorers. Stadnyk, Everett’s eighth-round pick in the 2010 Draft, tied for 16th in scoring with seven points (2g/5a) and a point-per-game average.
Cole MacDonald (Wetaskiwin, AB) and the host Leduc Oil Kings nearly became the first host team in five years to win a TELUS Cup medal. The Oil Kings won their first two games to start the week and eventually finished fourth in the preliminary round. Leduc dropped a tough 8-2 decision to Collège Esther-Blondin in the semifinals and then came up just one goal short in that 3-2 loss to Saskatoon with the Bronze Medal on the line. MacDonald’s three goals were the second-most of any defenseman in the tournament and his five points were tied for third among D-men.
CLICK HERE for complete coverage of the 2012 TELUS Cup from Hockey Canada.
