Steelheads Complete Sweep with 7-0 Win

The Mississauga Steelheads took home the Bobby Orr Trophy and will play for the OHL championship as they completed a four game sweep of the Peterborough Petes with a 7-0 win at the Hershey Centre tonight.

Owen Tippett scored from Trent Fox and Devils prospect Nathan Bastian at 8:29 of the first period and that was all they needed.

Ryan McLeod scored at 11:54 of the first with assists to his brother, Devils prospect Michael McLeod and Stefan LeBlanc. From there, the Steelheads got goals from Vili Saarijarvi (2:05 of the second), Jacob Moverare (9:20 of the second), Trent Fox (16:58 of the second), Michael McLeod (33 seconds into the third period) and Brendan Harrogate (17:18 of the third).

Matthew Mancina made 24 saves in getting the shutout, while Dylan Wells made 24 saves on 31 shots for Peterborough. Mancina was named the game’s first star. Saarijarvi was the second star and Fox was the third star.

Michael McLeod’s stat line saw him with the goal and assist for two points, a plus-3 rating and one shot on goal. He won nine of twelve faceoffs taken. Bastian had the assist for one point, was also a plus-3, had three shots on goal and won six of thirteen faceoffs taken.

With this win, the Steelheads claimed the Bobby Orr Trophy as winners of the OHL’s Eastern Conference and will face the winners of the Owen Sound Attack and the Erie Otters, who are battling for the Wayne Gretzky Trophy in the Eastern Conference, the OHL Finals and the chance to go play for the Memorial Cup. Owen Sound currently has a 2-1 series lead with game four being played tonight.

Congratulations to the Mississauga Steelheads and Michael McLeod and Nathan Bastian on making it this far and good luck in the next round.

Meanwhile, in the AHL tonight, the Albany Devils and the Toronto Marlies got together in game three at the Ricoh Coliseum in Toronto. That game took an overtime to finish, but the Marlies won 3-2, going up two games to one in their best-of-five first round series.

Brendan Leipsic scored first for Toronto at 3:49 of the first period, with assists to Kasperi Kapanen and Travis Dermott. That put the Marlies up 1-0 in the first before John Quenneville tied things up with assists to Karl Stollery and Ben Sexton. That goal came on the power play, set up when Kapanen went off for tripping at 9:49. The goal came at the 10:16 mark of the first. Albany went 1-for-4 on the power play while Toronto was 0-for-2.

Toronto retook the lead at the 17:59 mark of the second period when Leipsic scored his second of the game from Kapanen and Frederik Gauthier.

That lead only lasted about 23 seconds. At the 18:22 mark, Carter Camper tied it up for the A-Devils (assists to Steve Santini and Blake Pietila). And that was the scoring in regulation.

The game winner came at the 45 second mark of the first OT when Colin Greening scored for the Marlies from Justin Holl to win the game and give Toronto the 2-1 series lead.

In goal, Mackenzie Blackwood made 22 saves on 25 Toronto shots in the 60:45 of game time. Opposing him, Kasimir Kaskisuo made 27 saves on 29 Albany shots.

Greening was named the game’s first star with the overtime game winning goal. Leipsic was named the second star with his two regulation goals and Kapanen was the third star with two assists.

Game four takes place in Toronto on Friday. The Marlies have a chance to wrap things up then.

McLeod Scores Game Winner in Double OT

Devils prospect Michael McLeod scored in double overtime to end a marathon game three at the Hershey Centre in Mississauga, 2-1. With the win, the Steelheads took a 3 games to 0 lead over the Peterborough Petes.

The Petes got on the board first, striking when Nikita Korostelev scored just 2:03 into the game. That would be end of the scoring for the night for Peterborough, however.

Mississauga tied things up 28 seconds into the second period when Spencer Watson scored from both McLeod brothers (Ryan got the primary assist while Michael nabbed the secondary).

And that was the scoring for the game until the 10:29 mark of the second overtime when Mikey McLeod scored off assists from his brother Ryan and Watson.

With his goal and assist, Michael McLeod was named the first star of the game. Peterborough goaltender Dylan Wells was named second star while Watson was the third star of the game.

In goal, Wells made 53 saves on 55 shots on goal for the Steelheads. Matthew Mancina made 28 saves on 29 shots for Mississauga. Both goalies played over an hour and a half in the nets.

Prior to McLeod’s game winner, the Steelheads had their best chance at the 13:28 mark of the first OT when Christopher Paquette of the Petes was called for cross checking, putting Mississauga on the power play. They failed to convert, as the Steelheads went 0-for-3 on the man advantage. Peterborough also was 0-for-3.

In addition to his goal and assist, Michael McLeod was also a plus-1 with nine shots on goal. He won 20 of the 32 faceoffs that he took. Fellow Devils prospect Nathan Bastian had three shots on goal, won 12 of 22 draws he took and had two penalty minutes (a tripping call at 1:18 of the third period).

Game four, with a chance to sweep for Mississauga, comes on Wednesday, April 26 in Mississauga.