Need to be better

Islanders heading to Cape Breton to play rival Screaming Eagles

The Charlottetown Islanders won Round 1 but know they will need to be better to take the rematch with the Cape Breton Screaming Eagles.

The Isles, who defeated the Screaming Eagles 3-1 in Charlottetown on Saturday, go to Sydney, N.S., today for a 7 p.m. contest.

“We did our job in the first one,” Islanders head coach Jim Hulton said. “We’re happy because we got the win, but we’re going to have a lot more energy.”

Cape Breton carried the play early and continued to push. Matthew Welsh made 37 saves for the victory, and the Islanders scored two to take the lead iced the game with an insurance goal with 1:08 left. “We have to play better away from the puck against them,” Hulton said.

Charlottetown (25-10-2-1) is currently in third place in the Eastern Conference standings while Cape Breton (23-14-1-2) is sixth. If the playoffs started today, they would meet each other in the first round. The teams also play twice more this month with the Screaming Eagles coming to Charlottetown on Jan. 25 and 26.

The Islanders chose not to add a player through the waiver process, despite only having 12 forwards. It is looking at its options internally and considering free agents with rosters having to be finalized on Thursday. “We don’t want to add a body, just for the sake of adding one. We want to make sure it’s a value add,” Hulton said. “If we run into an injury problem, we’ve got a couple of guys close that can fill in on the short term.”

One guy is Patrick LeBlanc, the Moncton left-winger who is leading the New Brunswick/ Prince Edward Island Major Midget Hockey League in scoring with 52 points in 25 games. He hasn’t played a game with the Islanders this season. Players can dress for nine games without losing their midget eligibility.

“The last thing we want to do is to disrupt (his) dominant midget season because we think that’s a big key for his confidence down the road.”