QUISPAMSIS, N.B. — Jake Stewart stopped 42-of-43 shots as the Saint John Vito’s upset the Lac St-Louis Lions 2-1 on Saturday in the 2016 Telus Cup semifinals.
Saint John will face the North York Rangers on Sunday for Canada’s national men’s midget ice hockey championship.
Adam Capannelli gave the Lions a 1-0 lead in the first period and outshot the Vito’s 17-4 in the opening 20 minutes.
After a scoreless second period, Anderson MacDonald responded for Saint John at 14:20 of the third, then Alex Lafreniere scored the go-ahead goal at 16:11 while on the power play.
Sandro Silvestre stopped 28-of-30 shots for the Lions.
The Vito’s went 1 for 3 on the power play, while the Lions failed to score on four chances with the man advantage.
The Lions finished round-robin play as the only undefeated team and shut out Saint John 5-0 on Friday. Tournament MVP Mathias Laferriere had a hat trick in that game and finished the preliminary round with eight goals and 13 points in five games, but could only muster up a single assist in the rematch Saturday.
In the other semi, William Calverley scored twice and added an assist as North York toppled the Lloydminster Bobcats 5-3 to claim its place in the Telus Cup championship.
James Turner and Mark Perone had a goal and an assist each for the Rangers, while Sean Josling rounded out the offence. Jett Alexander turned away 31-of-34 shots for the victory.
T.J. Lloyd, Tristan Petrie and Parker Saretsky found the back of the net for the Bobcats, who got a 19-save outing from Austin McGrath.
North York went 1 for 2 on the power play, while Lloydminster failed to score on two chances with the man advantage.
The Lions and Bobcats will play for bronze on Sunday prior to the gold-medal game.
