Majors Advance to MasterCard Memorial Cup Championship Final on Sunday

Press Release

MISSISSAUGA, Friday, March 27, 2011 – Devante Smith-Pelly scored two goals to lead the Mississauga St. Michael’s Majors to a 3-1 victory over the resilient Kootenay Ice in the 2011 MasterCard Memorial Cup semi-final game. The Majors will now face the Saint John Sea Dogs in Sunday’s championship final.

The Majors got a power-play opportunity in the opening seconds of the game and capitalized on their first shot on goal as Devante Smith-Pelly registered his second marker of the tournament at 1:03.

No other goals were recorded in the period but the Majors dictated tempo for most of the first twenty minutes with bone-crushing hits.

The play tightened up in the second period. Consequently, there were very few scoring opportunities on either side.

Mississauga still managed to take a short-lived two-goal lead after Devante Smith-Pelly collected his second goal of the game at 17:40. But Kootenay, which is no stranger to comebacks in this tournament, cut the lead by one with less than two tenths of a second left in the second period. Joe Antilla pounced on a rebound and buried a shot past J.P. Anderson.

Goaltending was the name of the game in the third period. J.P. Anderson pushed away fourteen shots while his opponent, Nathan Lieuwen, was also brilliant, making eight saves.

Chris DeSousa added the insurance goal into an empty-net with less than one minute left.

Devante Smith-Pelly was named the game’s first star while teammate J.P. Anderson received the second star. Stuart Percy was rewarded with the third star.

The 2011 MasterCard Memorial Cup final goes Sunday night as the Mississauga St. Michael’s Majors battle the Saint John Sea Dogs live on Rogers Sportsnet and RDS starting at 7 pm.

(Nathan can be reached at fourniern@students.nescom.edu)