Majors Suffer First Defeat Of The Post Season

April 21, 2011 - Ontario Hockey League (OHL)
Mississauga St. Michael's Majors News Release


St. Catharines, ON - The Mississauga St. Michael's Majors were at the Gatorade Garden City Complex this evening for game two of the Eastern Conference Championship Series with the Niagara IceDogs. The Majors entered the game on a 19 game winning streak including nine straight victories in the post season. That came to an end tonight though, as the IceDogs scored a 5-3 victory to tie the series at one game apiece.

The game started with some rough play from both sides. The rough stuff eventually boiled into the first fight of the game when Jamie Wise and Johnson Andrews dropped the mitts at 4:28. It was a fairly even tilt, but Wise landed the last punch ? both went to the box to serve five minute fighting majors. The IceDogs then turned their attention to scoring goal when they drew first blood at 8:27. David Pacan broke into the Majors zone and scored five hole on JP Anderson to make it 1-0 Niagara. It was the first goal Anderson and the Majors had allowed in the series. The Majors answered back with seconds remaining in the first period. Dylan DeMelo took a shot from the point with less then 10 seconds remaining. While Mark Visentin made the initial save, the puck bounced around in front of the net and Riley Brace put it home at 19:55 to send the teams to the locker room tied, 1-1. Shots on goal in the first period were 16-9 in favour of Mississauga.

The late goal appeared to give the Majors life as Mississauga came out flying in the second period. They took the lead at 3:38 when Jordan Mayer stepped up and fired a wrist shot past Visentin to make it 2-1. The Majors lead would not live through the period though. Just after the 10 minute mark, Jesse Graham scored on a great shot to tie the game, 2-2. At 14:08, Niagara took the lead and never looked back. Jason Wilson scored the go ahead goal, making it 3-2. Immediately following the goal, Alex Friesen took a double minor penalty for roughing while Rob Flick received a minor for roughing, sending the Majors to the powerplay. The Majors could not capitalize. At 8:05, Justin Shugg and Dougie Hamilton took off setting roughing penalties that forced the teams to play some four on four hockey. That didn?t last long though as Brett Flemming took an interference penalty seconds later to give Niagara the four on three man advantage. Seconds after the off setting penalties expired, a Niagara shot rang off the post and found the stick of Freddie Hamilton who buried the puck into the open cage, giving the IceDogs a 4-2 lead heading into the third period.

The third period was uneventful for the most part although both teams showed a lot of fight. At 1:21, Coach Cameron called a time out to prepare the double blue for a comeback. After the time out, Anderson remained on the bench in favour of the extra attacker. The move worked as seconds later, Devante Smith-Pelly got the puck down low and threw it out in front of the net to Rob Flick. Flick inserted the puck in the back of the net to cut the lead to 4-3. The comeback was not to be tonight though. With 41 seconds left to play Pacan scored his second goal of the game into an empty net to secure the 5-3 victory for Niagara.

The series shifts back to Mississauga for game three on Saturday night at 7:00 PM. The Majors and IceDogs meet again in St. Catharines on Monday night at 7:00 PM before meeting for game five in Mississauga on Tuesday night. Tickets for both games in Mississauga are available at the Hershey Centre box office and through ticketmaster.ca. The Hershey Centre box office will be open from 10:00 AM to 4:00 PM tomorrow and opens at 10:00 AM on Saturday in preparation for the game.

Individual tickets to the round robin games and semi final game at the 2011 MasterCard Memorial Cup are also still available, starting as low as $45.00. Only 500 tickets have been made available for each game so don?t delay. Order yours now through ticketmaster.ca or visit the Hershey Centre box office.



Ontario Hockey League Stories from April 21, 2011


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