|
MAJORS EDGE MISSISSAUGA
December 1, 2002
Story by: Armando
D'Andrea
TORONTO, ONT. - The best way to beat strength
is with more strength. Not necessarily the
kind of strength you need to check or punch
harder, but the kind of strength you need
to just walk away.
The Toronto St. Mike's Majors displayed
both kinds of strength in Sunday's hard
fought 2-1 win over their crosstown rival
Mississauga Icedogs. The game was, all predictable
cliches aside, a true dogfight, with quick
end to end action peppered by overall chippy
play from each team. Despite this it may
have been some impressive discipline by
St. Mike's in the end that made the difference
in this game.
After guiding his team through its third
game in three days, following up on a big
4-2 away win over Central Division rival
Barrie Colts on Saturday and a 4-2 victory
against the Erie Otters on Friday night,
St. Mike's head coach Dave Cameron was content
with how his team handled itself.
"They're all good wins, this one was
no different. We've played fifteen games
in November, including three in the past
two and a half days. We didn't quite have
the jump today, but we get a day off tomorrow
to regroup."
The game's low score betrayed its fast moving
pace. That both Icedogs goalie Matt Harpwood
and St Mike's netminder Andy Chiodo were
two of the game's three stars, each forced
to make big stops all game, is a better
indication of the game's energetic tone.
Chiodo, a 6th round 2001New York Islander
pick, said he was happy with the win but
gave credit to the Icedogs.
"That's the idea, to get better every
day. But Mississauga is always tough. People
say we're in first place because we get
to play them eight times a year, but we're
basically a .500 team against them. It's
a good rivalry."
The Icedogs went up 1-0 midway through the
first period when sparkplug centre Greg
Jacina, forechecking furiously deep in the
Majors zone, squirted the puck loose to
the top of the faceoff circle for defenceman
Ryan Stokes to fire past Chiodo. However
the Icedogs, while controlling most of the
play during the first period, failed to
take full advantage of St. Mike's fatigue.
Jacina and captain Dan Sisca both had chances
to put the game away early foiled, with
Sisca himself in alone on a clean breakaway
but turned aside by a fine Chiodo blocker
save.
The rivalry that Chiodo referred to was
not only embodied in the game's quick pace
but also in its loud physical element. With
three seconds left in the period Icedogs
winger Blair Jarrett pinned up the Majors'
Craig Foster, acquired last week in a trade
with the Saginaw Spirit, between the team
benches. The ornery Jacina skated in a beeline
to pound the helpless St. Mike's winger
into the boards, which set off a wild melee
into which the referee and linesmen rushed
to quash. While Jacina only got two minutes
for elbowing, Jarrett, Sisca, Majors captain
Tim Brent and Foster all received 10 minute
misconducts, the first of several handed
out all game, for taking part in the ensuing
scrum.
After St. Mike's tied it early in the second
with centre Sal Peralta potting his 9th
behind Harpwood, the game became even more
rugged. Right off a faceoff deep in the
Icedogs' end both Mississauga's western
import Matt Rypien and St. Mike's Alan Nolan
flung off their gloves and engaged in a
brutal bout of the rock'em sock'em variety,
with their initial punches apparently connecting
with more visor plastic than face. Although
Nolan finally managed to bull the former
Calgary Hitman to the ice, drawing a lusty
cheer from the crowd, he left the game for
the trainer's room immediately afterwards.
The rookie Russian Icedogs defenceman Pavel
Voroshnin, ranked last week at 23rd in the
NHL Central Scouting's Preliminary Rankings,
continued to establish himself as one of
the OHL's premier hitting defencemen by
throwing a clean shoulder into a streaking
Foster late in the period that stopped play
momentarily.
In the third period, with St. Mike's pressing
in the Icedogs end, Mississauga defenceman
Ian Maracle became entangled in the corner
with Foster, who absorbed his share of abuse
during this game. When Maracle dropped the
gloves and started swinging fists at him,
the Majors forward demonstrated some cool
discipline and attempted to skate away.
Maracle was assessed a five minute penalty
for fighting while Foster only received
two for roughing. On the ensuing St Mike's
3 minute power play Czech winger Frantisek
Lukes took a pass at the hashmarks from
Drew Fata at the blueline and blasted a
shot past a partially screened Harpwood
to pull the Majors up 2-1.
With that goal Lukes, chosen in the eighth
round of the 2001 draft by the Phoenix Coyotes,
moved into 3rd place of the all time scoring
lead for the Majors, behind only Mark Popovic
and Darryl Bootland. The goal stretched
his point streak to five games.
"It was a good win, a solid win. We've
got a pretty good rivalry with these guys,
they always play hard. It's always more
fun when you win, and that's how we want
to keep it."
The Icedogs had a number of chances late
in the game to knot the score but could
not solve Chiodo. Mississauga sorely missed
top gun Patrick O'Sullivan, who leads his
team with six points in three games against
the Majors this season. The highly touted
centre, ranked number four by Central Scouting,
is back home in North Carolina, serving
a team imposed indefinite suspension for
his apparent "indifferent play,"
as cited by head coach Steve Ludzik.
The win further solidifies St. Mike's first
place perch on the Central Division with
a 16-10-3-1 record, good for 36 points.
They next play at Kingston on December 6th.
The Icedogs meanwhile fall to 7-15-5-0,
at 19 points for fourth place in the Central.
They play Belleville at home on December
4th. The season series now stands in the
Majors' favour with 2 wins against the Icedogs'
1 victory and the teams' splitting a tie
earlier in the season.
|
