Combing all corners of the country and the blogosphere for your junior hockey headlines ... please come by for the Game 7s Galore livechat at 7 p.m. ET/4 p.m. PT.

WHL

USA Hockey has announced the creation of an All-America Prospects Game for the top 40 U.S. draft prospects next September. (NHL.com)

It's Maschmeyer madness in Kamloops after the Blazers won a third consecutive game to force Game 7 vs. Portland on Wednesday. (Kamloops Daily News, Oregon Live)

The Spokane Chiefs, who stayed alive with an OT win over Tri-City, had to be resilient after letting a lead slip away in regulation. (Spokane Spokesman-Review)

Draft-eligible Edmonton Oil Kings such as Cody Corbett and Mitch Moroz are getting extra exposure from their team's playoff run. (Edmonton Journal)

Moose Jaw Warriors overages Cam Braes, James Henry and Kenton Miller are hoping the Eastern Conference final won't be their last go-round in junior. (Moose Jaw Times-Herald)

Graduating Kootenay Ice forward Max Reinhart scored his first two AHL goals last weekend with the Calgary Flames farm team. (Calgary Herald, Cranbrook Daily Townsman)

Bronson MaschmeyerIf the Kamloops Blazers had nine lives at the start of their playoff run, they've wasted six or seven of them by now, we've lost count. To recap: Portland, their opponent in the WHL Western Conference semifinal series, took Games 1, 2 and 3, holding a commanding 3-0 series lead to advance to the Conference final series.

In Game 4, they came out flying, taking a 4-0 lead by the 11-minute mark of the first period.

Here we are, five days later, the series is tied, with an all-or-nothing Game Seven to be played Wednesday night at Portland's Memorial Coliseum, after Kamloops won a wild 7-6 game on a goal with 20.6 seconds to go by Bronson Maschmeyer in Game 6.

"When you pray a little bit, hopefully the [hockey gods] give it to you," said Maschmeyer.

While the game would be wild enough with 13 goals in the contest, Kamloops made use of another miracle comeback Monday night, surviving a 5-2 deficit headed into the third period. Brad Ross had a pair for the Winterhawks, and their deadly powerplay struck midway through the second frame, a finesse pass from Cam Reid to Brendan Leipsic that was tipped home past Blazers goaltender Cam Lanigan.

Halifax Mooseheads' Jonathan Drouin celebrates a goal with Konrad Abeltshauser (left) and Nathan MacKinnon (The Canadian Press)

There might as well be a photo of the Halifax Mooseheads' Jonathan Drouin next to the word precocious in the dictionary. Or his fellow rookie, Nathan MacKinnon. Either will do.

There are plenty of reasons the Halifax is poised to become the first QMJHL team in 11 seasons to overcome a 3-0 series deficit after winning 5-2 in Quebec on Monday. The ones with a wow factor involve their two yearlings who were taken 1-2 in the entry draft last summer.

On Monday, it was Drouin's turn to make a highlight reel and get some love from the TSN panel. Despite the fact a 27 C (80 F) day in Quebec City turned the Colisée into a steam room and reduced the ice to porridge, the 17-year-old handled the puck like it was magnetized to his stick when he scored a breathtaking goal in the second period. Drouin came in off the right wing and did the how's-it-going move on Quebec's Ryan Culkin, sweeping the puck in front of the defender like he was just there for set decoration before popping the water bottle on top of the net. Drouin didn't rest on his laurels, either, since he got an assist on a goal by (who else?) MacKinnon before the period was over.

Jon Gillies led the USHL in saves, minutes played and wins this season with the Indiana Ice. Now he has added another impressive stat: a goal.

Gillies, who is ranked sixth among North American goalies by NHL Central Scouting for this summer's draft, was credited with an empty-netter in the Ice's 6-3 win over the Des Moines Buccaneers on Saturday in South Bend, Indiana. Late in the game, which was held at Notre Dame's arena — did some of that fabled luck of the Irish rub off on Gillies? — the netminder went behind his net to play the puck. The Buccaneers played it behind the net and then a centring pass went between the point men and skidded all the way down the ice into the Des Moines net. Since Gillies was the last Ice to touch it, he got credit for the goal.

Obviously, it's a fluke play. Many of the goals scored by goalies came as a result of the other team putting the puck in their vacant net (literally vacant, not post-lockout Toronto Maple Leafs era vacant).

Niagara IceDogs right wing-centre Joel Wigle (Terry Wilson, OHL Images)Being on a contender can rub off on a young player who is making his case to be selected by a NHL team in the entry draft. Niagara IceDogs right wing Joel Wigle, whose team is considered the favourite to win its first J. Ross Robertson Cup, has reason to believe that could be the case for him this summer.

The 6-foot-2, 190-pound Wigle has filled an unsung yet necessary niche through the first two playoff rounds for the IceDogs. As a second-year player on a team with 12 NHL draft picks, a lead role can be a little harder t come by. However, his work helming the IceDogs' energy line with Myles Doan and Carter Verhaeghe helped him rise to 113th in NHL Central Scouting's final North American ranking after being listed 182nd in January.

"With our deep team, we just need some toughness sometimes and some grit," says Wigle, a native of Brantford, Ont. "That's that's what the fourth line brings, I think I've been able to do that.

"I'm like a power forward. I have a good shot, I utilize my speed, I can bring toughness."

Wigle had 12 goals and 20 points across 63 games in the regular season. He has yet to record a point through 10 playoff games but IceDogs coach-GM Marty Williamson has praised his willingness to be a complementary player.

"We think a lot of Joel and we think he's going to be an impact player in this league," Williamson recently told the St. Catharines Standard. "He's kind of behind a lot of talent on this team and doesn't get the exposure the other guys have."

Combing all corners of the country and the blogosphere for your junior hockey headlines ...

WHL

The Kamloops Blazers should have the Portland Winterhawks' attention after winning big twice to extend their Western Conference series.  (Taking Note, Small Thoughts At Large, Oregon Live)

Winterhawks star Ty Rattie played Saturday but was not at 100 per cent. (Portland Tribune)

Captain Darren Kramer says his Spokane Chiefs need to avoid "the trap of running around" in order to beat Tri-City on Monday to force Game 7. (Spokane Spokesman-Review, Tri-City Herald)

Edmonton Oil Kings centre's Henrik Samuelsson's size and willingness to play with some jam with be of the Ulf-most importance in the Eastern Conference final vs. Moose Jaw. (Edmonton Sun)

Edmonton over Moose Jaw in six games? (Regina Leader-Post)

Kitchener Rangers forward Tyler Randell (OHL Images)

Game 7s for everyone. The Kitchener Rangers gutted out a tight victory over the Plymouth Whalers to send their series back across the border for a seventh game on Tuesday. The Ottawa 67's took another step toward pulling off a comeback from a three-games-to-one deficit by winning beating Barrie. Colts forward Erik Bradford will have two nights to get the vision of the open net he missed in the third period out of his head before the decider. On with the post-game questions.

Kitchener 4 Plymouth 2 (Western Conference semifinal tied 3-3; Game 7 on Tuesday) — How well will the Rangers channel the emotional lift they will get Tuesday when Tyler Randell rejoins their lineup? Down to its last strike in the series, Kitchener drew heavily on the idea of making sure the rugged overage winger's time in the Ontario Hockey League would not end with him sitting helplessly in the press box. Thanks in large part to Ryan Murphy turning in a performance on the blueline that was world-class (no, he could not have helped Team Canada in January, not at all, he did not type sarcastically), the Rangers pulled through.

Randell got a 10-game suspension last month for a head check on Owen Sound's Artur Gavrus in the first game of the playoffs. He will give the Rangers a lift, especially if 6-foot-5 forward Andrew Crescenzi is unable to return after missing Sunday's game with injury. The question, of course, is how the Rangers find something new to spur them on as they shoot for the upset.

Los Angeles Kings second-round pick Chris Gibson (The Canadian Press)No. 1 star: Chris Gibson, Chicoutimi Saguenéens (QMJHL)

Saku Koivu is the most beloved Finn to ever play hockey in Quebec. But Gibson might have the Saguenay region locked down after his 33-save shutout which kept the Sags alive in their series against the MasterCard Memorial Cup-host Shawinigan Cataractes.

Thanks in large part to the 19-year-old goalie's best game of the playoffs, the Sags prevailed 2-0 to even the series 3-3 and force Game 7 on Tuesday, when all the pressure will be on Shawinigan. No Memorial Cup host team has failed to reach the third round of the playoffs since 2003.

Gibson faced the prospect of having his junior tenure end after allowing six goals on 40 shots in the fifth game of the series. The Finnish world junior netminder played big, though, with his best stop likely being a right-pad save on Shawinigan's Anton Zlobin. The pressure on him was sky-high all afternoon. Étienne Brodeur opened the scoring late in the first period and Chicoutimi nursed that one-goal lead like a poor graduate student nursing a beer, making it stand up for 42-plus minutes before an empty-netter relieved the pressure.