Mississauga prevails 5-4 via shootout
MISSISSAUGA, Ont. – Justin Rasmussen scored the deciding goal in the eighth round of a shootout to lift the Mississauga St. Michael’s Majors to a 5-4 Ontario Hockey League victory Friday night over the Brampton Battalion.
Mika Partanen and Sergey Kuptsov also scored in the shootout for Mississauga, which improved its won-lost-extended record to 21-18-6 for 48 points, fifth in the Central Division.
Riley Brace had three goals and one assist in regulation time, scoring two third-period goals that rallied Mississauga from a 4-2 deficit. The Majors got one goal and two assists from Kristoff Kontos, and goaltender Brandon Maxwell made 34 saves through overtime.
Sam Carrick scored two goals for the Battalion, while Patrik Machac and Alex O’Neil had one goal each and Ian Watters contributed two assists. Goaltender Keegan Wilson faced 21 shots through 65 minutes before a crowd of 1,998.
The Battalion is 25-11-9 for 59 points atop the division, two points behind the Ottawa 67’s in the Eastern Conference.
“In the first two periods we played very well and were in control of the game,” said Battalion coach Stan Butler. “We had a really good rhythm with four lines going pretty well.”
Said Butler: “When it was 4-2 the referee made a non-call on Watters that should have been a penalty, and after that we took two bad penalties. Both penalties that Spencer Abraham and Dylan Blujus took were bad penalties, penalties you can’t take at that time in the game.
“In the shootout, Keegan gave us three or four chances to win, and our guys just couldn’t put the puck in. You have to give Maxwell and Mississauga credit. They battled hard all game and, as I said to the coaching staff, it’s tough when you leave points like that on the table.”
Said Wilson: “We started out really good, carrying our momentum over from last night, but as the game progressed we kind of deviated from our plan. We started taking a lot of penalties and giving them a lot of opportunities, and they capitalized on them.
“I think our intensity dropped off. We were battling really hard in the first two periods, but then we kind of just sat back and they took it to us.”
Brace netted his team-leading 25th goal of the season to tie it 4-4 on the power play at 19:19 of the third period, redirecting a pass from Jamie Wise into an open net from the top of the crease while Blujus was off for tripping.
Brace pulled Mississauga within one at 13:47 of the period, finishing off a three-way passing play with Kontos and Dylan DeMelo. DeMelo sent a cross-zone pass to Kontos deep in the right circle, and he fed the puck to Brace at the goalmouth.
Carrick scored his team-leading 24th goal on the power play to give the Troops a 4-2 lead at 17:30 of the second period while younger brother Trevor served a slashing penalty. Barclay Goodrow took a left-wing pass from Watters and released a shot that was blocked by Alex Cord, but a streaking Carrick picked up the puck and promptly snapped a shot over Maxwell’s glove.
O’Neil scored his first goal at 14:11 to break a 2-2 tie. Connor Jarvis centred the puck to O’Neil, who turned and fired from the left of the crease.
Carrick opened the scoring at 12:48 of the first period, capitalizing on the rebound of a point shot by Zach Bell.
Kontos connected at 4:10 of the second period on a one-timer from the high slot which appeared to deflect off Bell’s stick. Brace then scored with the man advantage at 11:18, taking advantage of a loose puck that bounced off several defenders’ skates.
Machac tied it at 13:49, skating into a lead pass from Brandon Robinson and firing a wrister from deep in the left circle that beat Maxwell to the far side.
In the shootout, the Majors shot first, with Partanen and Watters exchanging third-round goals before Kuptsov beat Wilson between the legs and the Troops’ Brett Mackie connected into the top left corner in the sixth round.
Rasmussen cut across the goal from right to left and moved to his forehand before sliding the puck between Wilson’s pads. Mitchell Porowski had a chance to extend the shootout but was denied trying to slip the puck through the five-hole.
Mississauga shooters who failed to score were Wise, Brace, DeMelo, Kontos and Scott Teskey. Battalion shooters denied included Carrick, Machac, Goodrow, Robinson and Blujus.
The Battalion scratched Philip Lane, Andreas Tsogkas and Brenden Miller. Mississauga, which dressed 19, one below the limit, scratched David Corrente, Doug Harvey, Grant Syrette and Stuart Percy.
The Battalion hosts the Sudbury Wolves at 2 p.m. Sunday.
BATTALION NOTEBOOK: The Battalion went 1-for-4 on the power play. Mississauga was 2-for-6 … The Troops are 11-5-7 on the road, while Mississauga is 9-9-3 at home … The Battalion is 10-5-3 within the division and 19-7-5 against Eastern Conference opponents … The Troops are 18-0-1 when leading after two periods and 16-2-4 when they open the scoring … Opening line combinations included Carrick centring left winger Watters and right winger Goodrow, Machac pivoting left winger Porowski and Robinson on right wing and Jamie Lewis centring left winger Mackie and right winger Matt MacLeod. Jarvis centred left winger O’Neil and Derek Froats on right wing … Lane sat out with a concussion suffered in a 3-0 home-ice victory Thursday night over the Plymouth Whalers … Wilson, a first-year goaltender with a record of 8-4-5, faced Mississauga for the first time. Partner Matej Machovsky is 4-0-1 in five starts against the Majors … Machovsky, who recorded his fifth shutout in the win over Plymouth and is tied with Michael Houser of the London Knights for the league lead, tied the Battalion record for most shutouts in a season set by Patrick Killeen in 2009-10 … Carrick moved into a 13th-place tie with Chris Rowan on the all-time Battalion scoring list. Carrick has 71 goals and 75 assists for 146 points in 231 games … Kontos’s goal was his first in eight games with the Majors since a Jan. 5 trade from Sudbury … Right winger Andrew Goldberg made his OHL debut with Mississauga after being called up from the junior A Aurora Tigers, with whom he has nine goals and 11 assists for 20 points in 21 games … The referees were Jason Faist and Joe Park … The Battalion visits Mississauga on Feb. 17 for the seventh of eight season meetings.
