St. Michael’s Majors were Steelheads’ predecessors
The Petes have no playoff history with the Mississauga Steelheads but they do with the team’s predecessor the Mississauga and Toronto St. Michael’s Majors.
The Majors were revived by owner Eugene Melnyk in the 1996-97 season, after a 35-year absence from the league, and played out of the St. Michael’s College School Arena. In 2007, he moved the team to the Hershey Centre and added Mississauga to its name. In 2012 Melnyk sold the team to Elliott Kerr and the Landmark Sport Group with the St. Michael’s Majors name reverting back to the St. Michael’s College as part of the deal. At this time, a name-the-team contest was held with MIssissauga fans selecting Steelheads.
This is the first time since the ownership and name change that the Steelheads have made it by the opening round of the playoffs. They lost 4-2 to the Belleville Bulls in 2012-13, 4-0 to the Oshawa Generals in 201314, missed the 2014-15 playoffs and fell 4-3 to the Barrie Colts last season.
The Petes last played Mississauga in the playoffs as the St. Michael’s Majors in 200910 and were swept in four games in the opening round. In 200405, the Petes beat the Toronto St. Michael’s Majors, then based out of the school arena, 4-1 in the conference semifinals. The Petes lost a seven-game series to the Majors in 2000-01 in the opening round.
The only other meeting between the teams, before the Majors left the OHA junior A loop in 1961 was a classic eight-game series in the 1958-59 OHA final won 9-7 in points by the Petes in their third season of existence.
Rookie of the year
Guelph Storm defenceman and 2016 No. 1 overall OHL draft pick Ryan Merkley is the winner of the Emms Family Trophy as OHL Rookie of the Year.
Merkley led all OHL rookie with 55 points on 12 goals and 43 assists in 62 games. d Niagara IceDogs forward Akil Thomas was the runner-up and Oshawa Generals forward Allan McShane third.
Meanwhile Owen Sound Attack coach Ryan McGill was named the Matt Leyden Trophy winner as OHL Coach of the Year on Thursday.
Erie Otters’ Kris Knoblauch was the runner-up and Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds’ Drew Bannister third in voting. Petes coach Jody Hull was one of the six finalists.
Fan bus
The Petes are sending fan buses to games in Mississauga on Monday and Wednesday.
The cost is $60 which includes bus, game ticket and snacks. The bus leaves the PMC parking lot at 5 p.m. each day.
To reserve a spot on the bus sign up in the front lobby at Saturday’s game or contact Julia Tanner at 705-977-0127 or by email vjtanner@nexicom.net.
Roster notes
The Petes iced the same lineup for the sixth consecutive game dating back to Game 3 of their opening round series against Niagara when Matthew Timms suffered a shoulder injury. Timms is back skating but not yet participating in practice. Pavel Gogolev has yet to see action in the playoffs. Mississauga scratched were Scoley Dickerson, Marcus Dickerson, Ryan Wells and Jake Ramalho.