Edmonton outlasts Val-d’Or in longest game in MasterCard Memorial Cup history – Friday’s 3 Stars

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Three Stars following Edmonton's 4-3 triple overtime win over Val-d'Or, which, at 10 minutes, capped in at 102:42, the longest game in MasterCard Memorial Cup history. Edmonton advances to play the Guelph Storm in the final.

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No. 1 star: Guillaume Gélinas, Val-d'Or Foreurs

The Foreurs wound up losing the game, but Guillaume Gélinas deserves all the credit in the world for his big minutes performance coming off what could have been a season-ending injury against the Storm. Gélinas hobbled off the ice after being on the receiving end of a knee-on-knee collision and missed Val-d'Or's final round robin game.

However, he came back and was effective in the semi-final, scoring the tying goal on a well-placed point shot with just 36 seconds to go in regulation, sending the Foreurs again to overtime. It wasn't the prettiest of efforts, but you can't question Gélinas' effectiveness, despite playing with a badly-injured left leg. First period, he also managed a heavy hip-check on Edmonton's Riley Kieser, which went down as the biggest hit of the game in an otherwise not-so-physical contest.

No. 2 star: Edgars Kulda, Edmonton Oil Kings

The Latvian nearly won the game late in the second overtime on a brilliant end-to-end rush, and, for about the seventh consecutive Edmonton Oil Kings game, was the team's most dangerous forward. Kulda scored the insurance goal, to make the score 3-1 in the second, finishing off a pretty dangle after receiving a feed from Reid Petryk. No word on whether any one of London's consignment sporting goods stores was able to recover goaltender Antoine Bibeau's jock strap that he lost on the play.

No. 3 star: Curtis Lazar, Edmonton Oil Kings

Lazar had a rough start to the WHL championship series, but the Ottawa Senators first round pick from last spring has somehow scourged up nine points in his last nine games, dating back to Game 3 against Portland. He was close to going 0-fer against Val-d'Or, but re-directed a Cody Corbett shot at 2:42 of the third OT and past a screened Bibeau.

That deflection, on Corbett's low, hard shot, somewhat redeemed Lazar and his line for being on the ice for Val-d'Or's second and third goals, scored late to tie the game after Edmonton took their 3-1 lead.

Honourable Mention: Mads Eller, Edmonton Oil Kings - Not only did the younger brother of Montreal Canadien Lars Eller open the scoring in Friday's semi-final, but he had a hand in ending the game as well. The Big Dane was about as close to Bibeau's crease as allowed under the rulebook, impeding the goalie's vision as he failed to see Corbett's initial shot cleanly.

Honourable Mention: Tristan Jarry, Edmonton Oil Kings - This could have been either of the two goalies: Jarry stopped 46 of 49 shots, and Bibeau at the other end held onto 51/55. Jarry, though, not only picked up the win, but he also arguably had the save of the overtime period, stopping Nicholas Aube-Kubel on a breakaway in the second, and then a couple more stops on a flurry of rebounds. Jarry was also perfect on the only penalty of the extra frames (funny how nobody seems to break the rules after regulation time expires), but wasn't tested too much after Ashton Sautner was expelled for the most egregious of hockey infractions: flipping the puck over the glass in his defensive end.