Optimist Rebels Set To Battle Starting Monday

(Courtesy of Hockey Canada)

2012 TELUS CUP BEGINS MONDAY IN LEDUC, ALBERTA

LEDUC, Alta. – For the 39th time, Canada’s top Midget teams have gathered, this year in Leduc, to do battle for the National Midget Championship, beginning Monday, April 23. This year marks just the fourth time Alberta has hosted the TELUS Cup, joining Calgary in 1976 and 1991, and Red Deer in 2007.

The host Leduc Oil Kings are joined by five regional champions: the Phénix du Collège Esther-Blondin (Quebec), Moncton Flyers (Atlantic), Red Deer Rebels (Pacific), Saskatoon Contacts (West) and Sudbury Nickel Capital Wolves (Central). The six competing teams will take to the ice at the Leduc Recreation Centre hoping to earn one of the two berths in Sunday’s nationally-televised gold medal game.

This year’s field includes two teams that have won the National Midget Championship in the last decade – Saskatoon (2005) and Sudbury (2008) – and another, Red Deer, that has played in three gold medal games without winning the national title; the Rebels lost the final in double overtime in both 1994 and 2007, and also took home silver in 1995. While Collège Esther-Blondin and the host Oil Kings are making their first TELUS Cup appearances, the other four teams all have plenty of experience – Red Deer is making its ninth trip to the national championship, Moncton is in for the seventh time, Sudbury’s appearance is its fifth and Saskatoon is making visit No. 4.

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