The Team Manitoba Male Under-17 team qualified for the semi-finals at the Canada Winter Games following a thrilling matchup with Quebec on Tuesday. In what will likely go down as one of the most exciting battles in Canada Games history, Manitoba ousted the defending silver medalists with a 7-6 overtime victory.

Brandon’s Shayne Wiebe was the hero as he beat Quebec goalie Antoine Tardif just over four minutes into the extra frame to lift Manitoba to victory. Wiebe’s overtime marker was made possible due in large part to Neepawa’s Braeden Adamyk, who scored his second goal of the game with just 23 seconds remaining in the third period to even the score at 6-6. The complete game summary can be seen here.

Manitoba opened the scoring with goals by Winnipeg’s Jordan Mistelbacher and Sanfred King, of Brandon, midway through the opening period. Quebec would score a late goal to cut the deficit to a single marker before the period was out.

Colby Robak, of Gilbert Plains, restored Manitoba’s two goal lead early into the second frame but that was quickly erased by Quebec’s Joel Champagne minutes later as Manitoba carried a 3-2 lead into the final period.

Quebec managed to tie the game up for the first time since the opening period as Jean-Sebastien Berube scored a minute into the final frame. Just two minutes later Quebec had their first lead of the game as Marc-Olivier Vachon beat Winkler’s Mark Friesen to make the score 4-3 for Team Quebec.

That lead lasted all of two minutes as Adamyk beat Tardif to even the score at four. However, a mere 23 seconds after Adamyk’s goal, Berube added his second of the game to restore the Quebec lead.

Much like their last lead, this one would not last long as Sanford’s Dale Hunt scored two minutes later to tie the game 5-5.

The teams looked headed for overtime before Yann Sauve lifted his team to a 6-5 lead with 2:15 left to play in the third period as Quebec seemed destined for victory.

That was not to be, as Adamyk’s goal with 23 seconds remaining followed by Wiebe’s overtime marker, lifted Manitoba to victory. Friesen stopped 26 of 32 shots for the victory. The win ensures that Manitoba will play for their first medal at the Games since capturing Bronze in 1991.

Their next matchup is today, Wednesday, February 28, as they take on defending gold medalists, Team Alberta. The other semi-final will see Team Ontario face-off against Team BC.

TSN will have tape delayed coverage of both semi-finals airing on Thursday, March 1st. The semi-final coverage will follow the Manitoba v. Ontario curling matchup. The curling begins at 10:30 CST with the hockey games following throughout the day

Team Manitoba finished the round robin with a 1-1 record following a 5-2 loss at the hands of Team Ontario on Monday. A copy of that game summary can be found here.

Complete coverage of the Male hockey portion of the Canada Winter Games can be found here or by visiting the official Canada Winter Games site at www.2007canadagames.ca.