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Chicoutimi Saguenéens’ Chris Gibson’s shutout puts Shawinigan at risk of early exit; Sunday’s 3 Stars

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.

Alexandre Beauregard, the forward who's come back after being diagnosed with cancer of the thyroid gland, got the clincher. Should the Saguenéens win, Beauregard would face his former Saint John team in the QMJHL semifinal.

For what it is worth, the Saguenéens franchise is 8-4 all-time in Game 7s. Shawinigan's historic seventh-game record is 1-7.

No. 2 star: Ryan Murphy, Kitchener Rangers (OHL)

Who needs secondary scoring when you have Murphy? The Carolina Hurricanes first-round choice was the man of his match as the Rangers forced Game 7 against the Plymouth Whalers with a tense 4-2 win on home ice. Murphy (1G-1A) seldom seemed to leave the ice in third period after Curtis Meighan tipped in Ben Fanelli's slapshot for the deciding goal with 15 minutes remaining. Murphy also staked the Rangers to a 2-0 lead with a power-play goal in the first period and a primary assist on Ben Thomson's extra-skater tally 78 seconds into the second period.

"He took it to a new level tonight," Rangers coach-GM Steve Spott said of Murphy during a post-game radio interview with Kitchener's News 570.

The Rangers can now return the favour to Plymouth for the Game 7 defeat at home that they suffered in 2011. They will also surely get an emotional lift from the return of winger Tyler Randell, who can come back after receiving a suspension for elbowing Owen Sound's Artur Gavrus in the head during the first game of the playoffs.

No. 3 star: Tyler Graovac, Ottawa 67's (OHL)

The 67's took the Eastern Conference semifinal back to the nation's capital for Game 7 by beating the Barrie Colts 3-2. Graovac, a rangy Minnesota Wild draft pick scored the winning goal and used his long stick very well defensively to help Ottawa first build a lead against Colts netminder Mathias Niederberger and hold on after Barrie staged a third-period comeback.

Ottawa led 2-0 just 2:26 into the second period when Graovac went hard to the net and used his 6-foot-4 frame to shield off Barrie checkers before flicking in a deft feed from winger Ryan Van Stralen. The Colts rallied and came close to tying the game when Erik Bradford missed an open net on a 2-on-1 rush with 67's goalie Petr Mrazek (25 saves) down and out. The 67's recovered after that and also killed off two late penalties. It was the fourth 3-2 game of the series, with the 67's having won the past two to erase a 3-1 Barrie lead.

"Mrazzle-dazzle [Mrazek] held the fort together for us and Van Stralen gave me a great pass on my goal," Graovac told Rogers TV Barrie. "Full credit to him, I just put it in the open net.

"I'm just so proud of all the guys. If we're going to go out, we're going to go out with a boom. Home-ice advantage is huge. We're great in our rink."

Honourable mention: Pier-Luc Pelletier, Rimouski Océanic (QMJHL)

The overage defenceman will live to play another day in junior after being the game's first star in the Océanic's 3-2 Game 6 win that ensures a winner-take-all seventh game on Tuesday. Pelletier has been matched up regularly against Blainville-Boisbriand's most dangerous scorer, Jess Tanguy, throughout the series.

Tanguy opened the scoring by tallying his eighth goal in 10 playoff games, but Pelletier and pals held him in check the rest of the way. They limited the Armada to just 21 shots on goal despite facing seven penalty kills, all of which they survived without a goal.

All told, there could be five Game 7s in the OHL and QMJHL alone on Tuesday. The Halifax Mooseheads need to beat the Quebec Remparts on Monday to make that possible.

(Game recaps available on the news page.)

Neate Sager is a writer for Yahoo! Canada Sports. Contact him at neatesager@yahoo.ca and follow him on Twitter @neatebuzzthenet.