Playing the role of hero
Hoyt, Mandolese lead Screaming Eagles past Islanders in overtime
Peyton Hoyt scored the overtime winner and Kevin Mandolese made 44 saves as the Cape Breton Screaming Eagles edged the Charlottetown Islanders 4-3 in Quebec Major Junior Hockey League action on Friday.
Hoyt, who has three goals in his past two games, netted the game-winner at the 3:24 mark of the extra frame to give the Screaming Eagles the two points, in front of 2,894 fans at Centre 200.
The win improves Cape Breton’s record to 30-27-6-1 as the team continues to chase the Gatineau Olympiques for 11th overall in the league standings. As of press time, Cape Breton trailed the Quebec-based club by four points, with Gatineau having a game in-hand.
As for the Islanders, who sit ninth overall in the standings, the loss drops the team’s record to 34-23-7-0 with four regularseason games remaining.
Cape Breton opened the scoring midway through the
first period with rookie Isiah Campbell finding the back of the net on the power play for his seventh goal of the season. The Screaming Eagles added to their lead later in the period with Hoyt’s first of two goals in the game at 16:16 of the frame.
The Islanders would cut the Screaming Eagles lead to one in the second period with Sam King’s 10th of the season, beating Mandolese.
In the middle frame, Cape
Breton’s penalty kill was to thank for keeping the lead as the Screaming Eagles would kill off a five-on-three penalty and later a five-minute major penalty, which was given to forward Jordan Ty Fournier for checking from behind.
With King in the box for hooking in the third period, the Screaming Eagles regained the two-goal lead with Mathias Laferrière scoring on the power play at the six-minute mark. The Islanders responded later in the period with goals from Daniel Hardie and Pascal Aquin, tying the game 3-3.
In overtime, defenceman Ross MacDougall, spinning off a defender, would find Hoyt breaking down the wing. Hoyt would make no mistake on the play, scoring his second goal of the game by beating Islanders’ netminder Matthew Welsh on the glove side.
Mandolese, who had family in attendance for the game, was kept busy. Among the 47 shots he faced in the contest, 25 of those came in the second period.
Welsh stopped 24 of 28 shots for the Islanders.
Cape Breton went 2-for-5 with the man advantage, while Charlottetown went 0-for6. The Islanders outshot the Screaming Eagles 47-28.
The Screaming Eagles and Islanders will wrap up the twogame weekend series tonight when the teams hit the ice for a 7 p.m. game at Centre 200 in Sydney.