Friday, March 21, 2003

The Toronto St. Michael's Majors will host the Belleville Bulls on Sunday, March 23 in a game that will be telecast on Rogers Sportsnet Ontario. Sunday's game is one of thirty six Canadian Hockey League games that will be telecast on Rogers Sportsnet on either a national or regional basis this season. Included in the 2002-03 broadcast schedule are all games of the 2003 MasterCard Memorial Cup. Sunday's telecast will be tape delayed to 8:00 PM ET and game time at the St. Michael's College Arena is 6:30 PM.

Sunday's game will be the opening game of the best of seven first round playoff series between Toronto and Belleville. In the final Eastern Conference standings the Majors finished in fourth place with a won-lost-tied-overtime lost record of 32-24-7-5 while the fifth place Bulls finished the regular season with a 33-27-6-2 record. Toronto finished two points ahead of Belleville in the final standings.

The two teams met four times during the regular season with the Majors winning three of the four games including both games that were played in Toronto. At home Toronto won 4-2 on September 29 and 3-1 on February 28. In Belleville the Bulls won 6-5 on November 23 while the Majors were 3-2 winners on February 22.

Matt Stajan led the Bulls in scoring this season finishing in eighth place in Ontario Hockey League scoring with 94 points on 34 goals and 60 assists. Stajan, who was a member of Canada's silver medal winning team at the 2003 World Junior Hockey Championships, led the OHL with 11 game winning goals and his 60 assists were the fifth highest total in the OHL this season. Cody McCormick and Adam Paiement topped the 30 goal plateau this season as they scored 36 and 30 goals respectively.

Frantisek Lukes was Toronto's top scorer in the 2002-03 regular season as he posted totals of 27 goals and 46 assists for 73 points. Tim Brent was second in team scoring with 66 points on 24 goals and 42 assists. From the blueline Kevin Klein was an offensive factor this past season for the Majors. Klein, who was rated 23rd in the National Hockey League Central Scouting Bureau's Mid term ranking of North American players for this June's NHL Entry Draft, finished the season with 44 points on 11 goals and 33 assists. Klein played for Team Cherry in the 2003 Home Hardware CHL Top Prospects Game.

The Majors' Andy Chiodo and Belleville's Michael Mole were two of the busiest goaltenders in the OHL this past season. Mole and Chiodo were teammates on the OHL's Eastern Conference All-star team that played against the Western Hockey League's Western Conference All-stars in the 2002 Hershey Cup All-star game that was played in Vancouver in November. Mole played in 54 games this season finishing a save percentage of .905 and a goals against average of 2.93. Chiodo appeared in 57 games for Toronto this season and his 26 wins was the third best in the OHL in 2002-03. Chiodo recorded three shutouts this season and had the OHL's seventh best save percentage, a mark of .915.

The second game of the best of seven Eastern Conference first round playoff series will be in Belleville on Monday.

Series Schedule

Game 1 - Sunday, March 23 at Toronto 2:00
Game 2 - Monday, March 24 at Belleville 7:05
Game 3 - Thursday, March 27 at Toronto 7:30
Game 4 - Friday, March 28 at Belleville 7:15
Game 5* - Sunday, March 30 at Toronto 2:00
Game 6* - Monday, March 31 at Belleville 7:15
Game 7* - Tuesday, April 1 at Toronto 7:30

* if necessary

For complete stats and up to date game scoring visit the Ontario Hockey League's official website at www.ontariohockeyleague.com. Line ups and bios on all the players in Sunday's game can be found at the websites of the Bulls and the Majors. Belleville's website address is www.bellevillebulls.com and the Majors' website can be found at www.stmichaelsmajors.com.

The next CHL on Rogers Sportsnet game will be on Sunday, March 30 with another OHL first round playoff game to be telecast starting at 8 PM on Rogers Sportsnet Ontario. The two teams have yet to be determined.

NHL Draft Picks in Sunday's Game

Toronto
Tim Brent - Anaheim 2nd Round, 37th overall, in 2002
Andrey Mikhnov - St. Louis 2nd Round, 62nd overall, in 2002
Andy Chiodo - Islanders 6th Round, 166th overall, in 2001
Frantisek Lukes - Phoenix 8th Round, 243rd overall, in 2001

Belleville
Matt Stajan - Toronto's 2nd Round, 57th overall, in 2002