Majors Melt The Ice

Mississauga, ON – Devante Smith-Pelley and Chris DeSousa propelled the Mississauga St. Michael’s Majors to a slim 3-1 victory over the Kootenay Ice in the semi-final at the 2011 MasterCard Memorial Cup Friday night.

Joe Antilla was the lone goal scorer for the Ice in the 3-1 loss.  The goal was his second of the tournament in as many games.

“We played to the best of our abilities in the last two periods”  said Antilla.  “We gave ourselves a chance to win, but we just couldn’t do it.”

It took only 1:03 after he opening puck drop for Smith-Pelley to give the Majors an early lead.  Drew Czerwonka was sent to the box for boarding within the first minute giving the Majors a power play.  Smith-Pelly fired a one-timer beating Nathan Lieuwen low stick side.

“They came out a lot harder and a lot stronger” said Antilla comparing the Majors play to there meeting in the round robin where the Ice fell 3-1 to the host club.

The remainder of the first period showed a lot of great hits and fast pace at both ends of the rink.  The stingy defence of both teams kept the shot totals low and resulted in few scoring opportunities by either team.

“We are a pretty good defensive team” said Majors’ defenseman Brett Flemming.  “We’ve proved that all year…we just continued to do that throughout the Memorial Cup and if we can do it again on Sunday we have a good shot.”

It was Smith-Pelly again who opened the scoring in the second period.   The Anaheim prospect picked up the puck down low and popped out off the boards letting a wrist shot go that beat Lieuwen glove side to give the Majors a 2-0 lead.

“We have to be hard on every goal” said the Majors’ Joseph Cramarossa.  “We have to get shots and I think we have been doing that, our first line has been contributing a lot.”

The always dangerous line of Casey Cizikas, Justin Shugg, and Smith-Pelly have combined for six goals and four assists in four games of play over the course of the tournament.

Looking to avoid going into intermission being down by two goals, the Ice forwards started to buzz around Majors goaltender JP Anderson when they were awarded a power play late in the second period.

Cody Eakin was denied by Anderson on a wraparound attempt late in the closing seconds of the period.  Antilla pounced on the ensuing rebound sitting at the top of the crease pushing it by Anderson with just 1.2 seconds remaining cutting the lead in half.

The Ice, with a sense of desperation, continued to press through the third period but were unable to get another one by Anderson.

“I thought we played good, we obviously could have played better” said Ice defenseman Jagger Dirk.  “I could almost guarantee if we play these guys in a seven game series we would come out on top, its just the way it went tonight.”

DeSousa added the insurance marker on an empty net with 55 seconds left in the game.

The Majors will now face the Saint John Sea Dogs in the championship game held this Sunday.  The teams met on opening night of the MasterCard Memorial Cup where the Sea Dogs defeated the host’s 4-3.