From 142 teams to six, the Road to the TELUS Cup is complete. More than three months after the first playoff puck dropped, the field for this year's National Midget Championship, which kicks off April 20 at Centre Premier Tech in Riviere-du-Loup, Que., is set.
Here's a look at who will be in Riviere-du-Loup:
HOST TEAM - ALBATROS DU COLLEGE NOTRE-DAME
Forty days after they were knocked out of the Ligue de hockey midget AAA du Quebec playoffs by the Grenadiers de Chateauguay, the host Albatros are ready to continue their quest for their first national title.
College Notre-Dame was a middle-of-the-pack team during the LHMAAAQ regular season, finishing sixth out of 14 teams that qualified for the postseason. Led by captain Raphael Bastille - the LHMAAAQ's leading scorer - the Albatros opened and closed strong, rattling off five straight wins between Sept. 7-21, and posting six victories in their final seven games. They knocked off Amos in four games in the opening round of the playoffs before falling to the defending champion Grenadiers in four.
The Albatros will be in tough at the national championship; only three host teams have won the gold medal since the start of the six-team format in 1984, and none since the Calgary Northstars in 1991.
ATLANTIC REGION - NEWBRIDGE ACADEMY GLADIATORS
The name may be new, but the result is the same; the Gladiators will make the ninth appearance by a Dartmouth-based team at Canada's National Midget Championship, and the first since Sidney Crosby helped the Subways win silver - the best-ever finish for an Atlantic team - in 2002.
The Gladiators finished even with Halifax atop the Nova Scotia Major Midget Hockey League standings in the regular season, losing out on a tiebreaker. They got their revenge when it mattered, beating the McDonald's in four games to win the NSMMHL title before going 3-0-2 at the Atlantic Regional, capped by a 4-3 win over a very good Moncton Flyers team in the championship game.
Other than the Crosby-led silver, Dartmouth teams have just one other medal to show for their first eight appearances; the Dartmouth Kings won bronze in 1992, the year they hosted the national championship.
CENTRAL REGION - TORONTO YOUNG NATIONALS
For the first time since New Liskeard in 1996 and 1997, a Central Region team will make back-to-back appearances at Canada's National Midget Championship, and the Toronto Young Nationals will try to improve on last year's fourth-place finish.
The runaway regular season champions in the Greater Toronto Hockey League, the Young Nationals rank into a little bit of trouble in the GTHL final, needing seven games to beat the Don Mills Flyers. But as the host team at the Central Regional, Toronto was simply unstoppable; the Young Nationals outscored their opponenets 34-10 in a perfect preliminary round, topped Ottawa in the semifinals and scored three times in the third period of a 3-0 championship game win over London to book their trip to Riviere-du-Loup.
Toronto has played for bronze in each of its two previous appearances (bronze in 2001, fourth last year), but will try to go where no team from Canada's largest city has been since 1986 - to the gold medal game.
PACIFIC REGION - STRATHMORE BISONS
It's uncharted territory for the Strathmore Bisons, who will make their first-ever appearance at Canada's National Midget Championship, and just the second by a team outside of Alberta's big three - Calgary, Edmonton and Red Deer - since 1992.
The seventh-best team in the Alberta Midget Hockey league during the regular season, the Bisons simply got hot at the right time. Strathmore swept through three-quarters of Calgary in the first three round, knocking out the Flames, Royals and Buffaloes without losing a game, before surviving a five-game slugfest with Edmonton CAD to win its first AMHL title. Travelling west to Vancouver for the regional, the Bisons posted another sweep, beating Vancouver NE in two straight to clinch the Pacific Region crown.
Strathmore will look for membership in an elite club and try to become the fourth team since 1984 to win the national title in its inaugural appearance, joining Richelieu (1987), Magog (2000) and Tisdale (2002).
QUEBEC REGION - GRENADIERS DE CHATEAUGUAY
One year after losing the gold medal game in the most heartbreaking of fashions - a triple-overtime thriller against Prince Albert - the Grenadiers are back for another shot at Canada's National Championship.
With just three players returning from last year's team, and a new head coach, the Grenadiers finished fifth in the Ligue de hockey midget AAA du Quebec during the regular season before embarking on another playoff run. Chateauguay went 13-3 in the postseason, lost just once on the road and beat the TELUS Cup hosts from College Notre-Dame in the quarter-finals before sweeping Lac St-Louis to defend its LHMAAAQ title.
No team has won the national title the year after losing in the gold medal game since Thunder Bay turned the trick in 1997, and no Quebec team was won gold since Ste-Foy in 2001, the longest championship drought ever for La Belle Province.
WEST REGION - REGINA PAT CANADIANS
The Pat Canadians have a chance to make a little history. Back at Canada's National Midget Championship for the first time since winning it all in 1999, Regina can become the first team to ever lay claim to five national titles with a victory in Riviere-du-Loup.
Owners of the No. 1 offence and defence in the Saskatchewan Midget AAA Hockey League during the regular season, Regina swept through Yorkton and the Notre Dame Houns (in a match-up of four-time national champions) before beating Battlefords for the SMAAAHL title. The Pat Canadians snuck into the championship game at the West Regional thanks to a come-from-behind win over Kenora in their round-robin finale, but routed Pembina Valley 7-1 in the finals to win the West title.
Regina has been a model of consistency at the national championship; in their past six appearances the Pat Canadians have reached the gold medal game, winning four gold medals (1983, 1988, 1994, 1999) and two silver (1985, 1989) and losing just 11 of 43 games.
