By Jeff D'Andrea

Mintos win Telus Cup in longest game in tournament history; Boutin the triple OT hero

Apr 27, 2014 | 8:43 PM

Prince Albert Mintos forward Dakota Boutin scored the first goal of the 2014 Telus Cup national midget AAA championship on Monday.

After Sunday’s game, Boutin can also say he scored the last.

The 16-year-old winger for Moosomin was the triple overtime hero Sunday as the Mintos beat les Grenadiers de Châteauguay 4-3 in the longest game ever in Telus Cup history—108 minutes and 36 seconds long.

The Mintos now have three Telus Cup championships, the second largest total for any Midget AAA franchise. All three of them have come in the last six years, the most in that span.

It’s fitting that Boutin would score the game winner, after he left the Telus Cup hosting Moose Jaw Generals to join the Mintos back in November.

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But according to Mintos head coach Ken Morrison, it’s Boutin’s habitual tardiness that makes him the fitting OT hero.

“He’s usually late anyways all the time for team functions, so he just scored later than he normally would,” joked Morrison on the ice during team celebrations.

Boutin had several chances to end the game. He missed a backhand deke that would have given the Mintos a 4-2 lead late in the third which could have negated overtime. He was stopped twice in a row by Étienne Montpetit in the first extra frame.

The game finally ended 18:36 into the third overtime period. Boutin was in on a 2-on-1 with linemate Lance Yaremchuk. Yaremchuk waited out the defence and goaltender Montpetit before setting up Boutin with a cross-crease pass.

“I knew Yarey was going to get me the pass,” said Boutin. “I was a little frustrated, so I wanted to bury that so bad.
I knew it was going to come sooner or later. In the dressing room, I just visualized that puck going into the back of the net and it went in.”

“I have no words to describe that feeling,” added Boutin. “With this group of guys, it doesn’t get any better than that.”

The game lasted 108 minutes and 36 seconds, just over six minutes longer than the 2006 Telus Cup final, where Ron Meyers scored the triple overtime winner for the Mintos over the Calgary Buffaloes. That was the first of two back-to-back championships as the Mintos also won it in 2007 when Ryan Fox scored in double overtime over the Red Deer Optimist Rebels in Red Deer.

The sheer length of the game was wearing on just about everybody in the arena, but nobody more than Mintos goaltender Connor Ingram. He made 60 saves in the game for the Mintos and finished the tournament with a .950 save percentage and 1.66 goals against average.

“It was crazy. We outplayed them in all the overtimes, I was just waiting for us to score one,” said Ingram. “They’d come down I would just get nervous.

“Woo, I haven’t been that nervous in a while.”

Ingram got the nod over fellow goaltender Lane Michasiw in both playoff games, despite Michasiw being named the Telus Cup Most Valuable Player through the round robin. Michasiw had a .988 save percentage and 0.33 goals against average through three games.

“I wanted to win it for Laner. He’s the MVP and Kenny picked me for the playoffs,” said Ingram. “(Lane) supported me the whole way. I couldn’t picture a better guy to play with.”

History lesson

The longest game wasn’t the only historic tidbit that the Mintos were able to achieve. They also maintained the longest ever undefeated streak at a national championship (19-0-2) and gave up the fewest goals ever in a national championship round robin (three goals against in five games).

To celebrate all the accomplishments, the sticks of Boutin and Ingram will be inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame.

For Zenon

Mintos president Zenon Markowski fell ill during the Mintos playoff push with a stroke. He was on hand to witness the championship and even took photos with the team.
“I wouldn’t want to win a championship for any another guy, he just does so much for us,” said Ingram. “Just like the rest of the board, we don’t have to worry about anything. It’s great to bring one home for him.”

Rockets win bronze

Earlier on Sunday, the Okanagan Rockets won the bronze medal game over the Toronto Young Nationals 3-2 in overtime. Rockets forward Linden Hora scored the winner in overtime, his second goal of the game.
The Mintos defeated the Rockets 6-3 in the semifinals Saturday. Châteauguay beat the Young Nats 6-1 on Saturday to advance to the finals.

jdandrea@panow.com

On Twitter: @jeff_dandrea