Saint John Sea Dogs defeat Mississauga St. Michael’s Majors 3-1 for Memorial Cup Win
The Saint John Sea Dogs defeated the Mississauga St. Michael’s Majors, 3-1, on Sunday night in the MasterCard Memorial Cup Finals. Since the Sea Dogs has been a team for over six years, it is their first cup which made the moment even more thrilling for
it.
In the 93 years of the Memorial Cup Finals, the Sea Dogs became the first Atlantic team to win the major junior championship which was held at the Hershey Centre in Mississauga, where a crowd of 5,429 came to watch the game.
“This mean so much to Atlantic Canada”, said Sea Dogs’ coach, Gerard Gallant. “It just shows you how much talent we have out there. We had 10 or 11 kids from Atlantic Canada on our team. That’s outstanding and it’s only going to help develop more kids”.
Jacob Deserres, Sea Dogs’ goalie, was shocked when he realised that his team had won.
Deserres who played for the Brandon Wheat Kings reached the finals last year but lost by an embarrassing 9-1 score, causing the team to let him go.
The Sea Dogs grabbed the opportunity and picked him up, and Deserres now made 34 saves and gave Sea Dogs its first championship.
"I don't know what I was thinking", a smiling DeSerres said on the Hershey Centre ice afterward. "I still hadn't heard the buzzer. I was still playing it out. I was almost so excited and so happy you don't show it. It's just all inside".
The Sea Dogs took an early lead as Simon Després scored the opening goal of the game, shorthanded 2:24 into the first period. Després remains a huge contributing factor for his team.
The 30th overall pick by the Pittsburgh Penguins in the 2010 NHL Entry Draft continues to play extremely well.
After a number of penalties were given by Majors, Sea Dogs took benefit of them.
Defenceman, Zack Phillips, potted their second straight, nearly 10 minutes later to take a commanding 2-0 lead.
Riley Brace, Majors’ left wing, took advantage of the momentum built up by his team in the second period as they outshot Sea Dogs by 15-6 and scored to bring them within a goals’ reach to tying it.
The final period was desperation time for Majors which was all over the net but it was Jonathan Huberdeau who capitalised with 3:43 remaining and secured the match for Sea Dogs.
As the 2011 NHL Entry Draft is set to begin next month, a number of players have high hopes of being picked up, which after this win will take their reputation to a whole new level.
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