Niagara Tops Majors 5-3

December 9, 2011 - Ontario Hockey League (OHL)
Mississauga St. Michael's Majors News Release


The veteran forwards of the Niagara IceDogs are hard to keep under wraps for an entire 60 minutes, and the Mississauga St. Michael's Majors found that out first hand on Friday night.

Steven Shipley scored his second goal of the game at 15:11 of the third period and that turned out to be the game-winner as the IceDogs edged the Majors 5-3 in Ontario Hockey League play at the Hershey Centre.

Ryan Strome added a goal and three assists, Freddie Hamilton had a goal and two assists and David Pacan scored the other goal for Niagara, which stayed tied for first place in the Central Division standings with the win.

Derek Schoenmakers scored twice for the Majors (14-12-1-3), who saw their two-game winning streak snapped as they slipped into last place in the Central and eighth place in the Eastern Conference.

Sergey Kuptsov scored the other Mississauga goal, while Stuart Percy added a pair of assists.

"I thought it was a disappointing end to a game where we did a lot of good things," Majors General Manager/Coach James Boyd said. "I thought we did a good job of playing physical without taking penalties and some of our younger guys were much improved.

"Tonight the story was that they just had too many weapons. They have a lot of veteran forwards and their skill level is pretty high, and just a little bit too much for us tonight."

Niagara's veteran forwards were held in check in the early going but as the game wore on, they got into gear to twice overcome Mississauga leads.

Schoenmakers scored the lone goal of the opening period at 17:35 on an innocent looking shot that somehow found its way past Mark Visentin in the Niagara goal, giving Mississauga its first lead.

Niagara answered back with goals from Strome just 44 seconds into the second period and Shipley six minutes later to take their first lead of the game, but Kuptsov then tied the game on a great individual effort at 12:40 to leave the scored tied 2-2 after 40 minutes of play.

Schoenmakers again put the Majors in front on a power play goal at 1:53 of the third period, but it was all Ice Dogs after that.

Freddie Hamilton again tied the game just 55 seconds later, beating JP Anderson on a pretty three-way passing play before Shipley fired a shot past Anderson with less than five minutes remaining to notch the game-winner.

Pacan's empty netter sealed the deal for the visitors, much to the chagrin of the 2,399 fans on hand for a game

The Majors out-shot Niagara 27-25, with the Majors going 1-for-3 on the power play while the IceDogs failed to score in their lone power play opportunity.

The Majors host the Kitchener Rangers on Sunday at 2 p.m.

Tickets for all home games are available at www.ticketmaster.ca or at the Hershey Centre box office during regular business hours.



Ontario Hockey League Stories from December 9, 2011


The opinions expressed in this release are those of the organization issuing it, and do not necessarily reflect the thoughts or opinions of OurSports Central or its staff.

OurSports Central