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| Wednesday, April 07, 2010 |
Majors stifle 67's in Game 4
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Mrazek huge in net, but Ottawa skaters come up empty
By ROGER LAJOIE, Special to QMI Agency
MISSISSAUGA — It’s down to a best-of-three after the 67’s fired blanks on Tuesday night.
Mississiauga St. Michael goaltender JP Anderson, making his first start of the playoffs, stopped all 25 shots he faced as the Majors shut out the 67’s 2-0 in Game 4 of their OHL Eastern Conference semi-final at the Hershey Centre.
Riley Brace and Ryan Lopes scored the goals for Mississauga, which dominated the final two periods before finally getting two shots past 67’s goalie Petr Mrazek.
Mrazek, the OHL player of the week, continued his stellar play against the Majors, stopping 37 shots in the loss.
The best-of-seven series heads back to the Urbandale Centre for Game 5 on Thursday night (7 p.m.)
The Majors had the best defensive record in the OHL in the regular season, and that return to tight defensive hockey was the difference in Game 4, according to Brace.
“We pride ourselves on defensive hockey and if we can get one or two goals, we know we’re going to have a chance to win,” Brace said. “That’s the way we play.
“It was a big win for us, we didn’t want to be going back (to Ottawa) down 3-1. We did a great job.”
The Majors were the better team most of the night. When they didn’t carry the play, Anderson was solid in goal. Chris Carrozzi started the first three games of the series for Mississauga and all four wins in the opening round.
Mississauga finished the regular season with the second-most points in the East despite being just 10th in goals scored, so winning tight, low-scoring games has been its specialty all season.
“We just played our game, we have to be able to play four lines and six D (defencemen) and play with composure,” Mississauga coach and GM Dave Cameron said. “We have depth in goal, too.
“JP will play the next game, but we have two goalies we feel pretty good about and that’s an advantage.”
The teams played a scoreless first period, with the Majors outshooting the 67’s 13-10, before Mississauga finally got on the scoreboard late in the second period.
Brace swatted a shot from the crease past Mrazek at 15:55 to put the Majors on the scoreboard, but Mrazek stood his ground the rest of the period, even though the Majors outshot Ottawa 16-2.
Mississauga clung to that 1-0 lead until Lopes scored on a wraparound with 1:37 left in the third to give the Majors a little breathing room.
The 67’s pulled Mrazek right after the second goal, but couldn’t get anything past Anderson.
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