Mississauga Closes Out Niagara

Four different players contributed to the score sheet as the Mississauga St. Michael’s Majors beat up on the Niagara IceDogs 4-1 in game five.

With a 6-1 victory over the IceDogs Monday night in St. Catherines Mississauga was looking to finish the series Tuesday night at the Hershey Centre.

After a scoreless first period, Mississauga captain Casey Cizikas opened the scoring jumping on a Mark Visentin rebound in the sixth minute.

The IceDogs who are 2-3 on the road these playoffs, responded on the power play when Ryan Strome finds Dougie Hamilton pinching for his fourth tally of the playoffs.

Five minutes after the Niagara equalizer Mississauga catches a break.

Forward Tim Billingsley throws a puck on net from the goal line managing to find just enough space between Visentin and the post to squeak through.

Once Mississauga regained the lead, they never looked back.

“They were too good” said Niagara head coach Marty Williamson.  “We made mistakes and they didn’t make as many.”

Dylan DeMelo and Maxim Kitsyn added a goal each as Mississauga went on to win game five 4-1.

With the win, Mississauga eliminates Niagara in the best-of-seven series crowning them the OHL Eastern Conference champions and the winners of the coveted Bobby Orr Trophy.

The regular season finished with both Mississauga and Niagara as the top seeds.  With similar records over the playoffs thus far it seemed fitting these two teams would meet in the conference finals.

“I thought it was a good series” said Dave Cameron, head coach of the Majors.  “We’re going to enjoy this for a day or two and then look forward to the next round which will be even tougher.”

The Majors await the winners of the Western Conference finals between the Owen Sound Attack and defending Memorial Cup Champions the Windsor Spitfires.  The Attack lead the series 3-1 with game five scheduled for Wednesday night in Owen Sound.