MISSISSAUGA, Ont. – Riley Brace and Jordan Mayer scored in a five-round shootout to give the Mississauga St. Michael’s Majors a 3-2 Ontario Hockey League victory Friday night over the Brampton Battalion.
Jamie Wise and Sergey Kuptsov scored in regulation time for Mississauga, while goaltender Brandon Maxwell, fresh off a trade from the Sarnia Sting, made 40 saves through overtime.
The Majors, who won for the first time in five games this season between the Peel Region rivals, have a won-lost-extended record of 18-15-5 for 41 points, fifth in the Central Division.
Barclay Goodrow scored both regulation-time goals for the Battalion, 22-10-6 for 50 points, first in the division. Dylan Blujus contributed two assists, while goaltender Matej Machovsky faced 38 shots through overtime before a crowd of 2,306.
“In the first period they outplayed us, but I thought in the second period we really took the game over,” said Battalion coach Stan Butler. “But you have to give Maxwell credit tonight. It was his first game here, and he came out and played really, really well.”
Kuptsov tied the game at 5:53 of the third period, 39 seconds after Goodrow gave the Troops a 2-1 lead. Kuptsov tipped home a right-point shot by Jacob Graves.
Goodrow scored his team-leading 18th goal of the season after the Battalion put steady pressure on the Mississauga net. Goodrow put a shot wide before retrieving the puck himself on the end boards and emerging on the right wing to beat Maxwell to the short side.
Referee Mike Marley ruled no goal on an apparent Battalion scoring play at 17:11 with Maxwell seated in his crease during a scramble.
“The puck was lying in the crease, and we were trying to put it in and we did end up putting it in,” said Goodrow. “But the ref said he was in the motion of blowing his whistle. It was a tough call for him, but I don’t know why he’d be blowing his whistle when the puck was so loose in the crease like that.”
Goodrow opened the scoring on the power play at 14:03 of the second period, jamming the puck under Maxwell from the right-wing post. Blujus and Sam Carrick drew the assists.
Carrick extended a career-high points streak to nine games, during which he has seven goals and eight assists for 15 points. He is tied with assistant coach Ryan Oulahen for 16th place in Battalion career scoring, with 64 goals and 72 assists for 136 points in 224 games.
Wise, who was off for hooking when Goodrow scored, tied it with the man advantage at 18:52, driving into the slot to take a pass from Mika Partanen behind the net and beating Machovsky low to the stick side.
Goodrow’s goal was the fifth straight Battalion score against Mississauga that Wise watched from the penalty box, having seen four goals by the Troops from that vantage point in their 4-1 home-ice victory last Saturday.
Machovsky produced several fine saves in the first period, including denying Brace and Mayer on rapid-fire efforts at the goaltender’s right post with the Majors on the power play after Adam Lloyd was banished for tripping at 4:47.
Carrick had two whacks at the puck in Maxwell’s crease in the ninth minute, and Machovsky stoned Kristoff Kontos, whom Mississauga acquired Wednesday from the Sudbury Wolves, from the deep slot after a giveaway by Zach Bell in the 18th.
In the shootout, in which the Majors shot first, Machovsky denied Dylan DeMelo and Wise before Brace scored. Kontos was stopped before Mayer netted what proved to be the deciding goal.
Maxwell foiled Ian Watters and Goodrow, but Patrik Machac extended the penalty-shot competition with his score. Jamie Lewis and Carrick then were denied.
The Battalion scratched Marcus McIvor, Brandon Robinson and Andreas Tsogkas. Mississauga scratches were David Corrente, Doug Harvey and Stuart Percy.
The Battalion visits the Owen Sound Attack at 7:30 p.m. Saturday. The game can be seen live in Brampton on Rogers Cable 10 and in Bolton, Caledon and Orangeville on Rogers Cable 63.
BATTALION NOTEBOOK: Mississauga undertook a major rebuild this week, the latest element the announcement Friday of Maxwell’s acquisition from Sarnia for goaltender J.P. Anderson. The Majors also received five OHL Priority Selection picks, comprising three second-rounders and two fifth-rounders from 2012 to 2015. On Wednesday, the Majors sent centre Joseph Cramarossa to the Belleville Bulls for second-round picks in 2012 and 2013 and got centre Kontos from Sudbury for right winger Derek Schoenmakers, a conditional fourth-rounder in 2014 and a conditional first-round choice in the Canadian Hockey League’s Import Draft in 2013 … The Majors have returned goaltender Taylor Edwards to the junior B London Nationals and were waiting to see whether left winger Devante Smith-Pelly would be assigned to the team from the National Hockey League’s Anaheim Ducks after suffering a broken foot with the Canadian entry at the World Junior Championship that ended Thursday night at Calgary … Maxwell, 17-12-3 with Sarnia, is second in the league in wins with 18 … The Battalion went 1-for-4 on the power play. Mississauga was 1-for-6 … The Troops are 11-5-4 on the road, while Mississauga is 8-8-3 at home … Opening line combinations included Carrick centring left winger Watters and right winger Goodrow, Machac pivoting left winger Mitchell Porowski and right winger Philip Lane and Lewis centring left winger Brett Mackie and right winger Matt MacLeod. Connor Jarvis centred left winger Alex O’Neil and Lloyd on right wing … McIvor incurred a high-ankle sprain in an off-ice workout, while Robinson suffered a concussion with Team Ontario at the World Under-17 Challenge at Windsor.