Sprong scores OT winner for Islanders
Sprong scores overtime winner, Weber has career game
It was a game that shouldn’t have gone to overtime, but it did and the Charlottetown Islanders prevailed 6-5 over the Halifax Mooseheads on Sunday in Charlottetown.
Credit Daniel Sprong for the winning goal 58 seconds into extra time on a tip-in during a scramble in front of Halifax’s net.
It erased the fact the Isles led 5-2 with 10 minutes left in the third on Sprong’s first goal of the game (it was reviewed and found to have hit the underside of the top of the net).
Things fell apart defensively for Charlottetown after a power-play goal by Halifax’s Joel Bishop and a score by Maxime Fortier came 15 seconds apart and closed the gap to 5-4.
Then with 13 seconds left in the third, Islanders forward Bradley Kennedy was called for icing. Off the face-off in Charlottetown’s zone, the Herd’s Otto Somppi evened the game 5-5 with two seconds remaining.
Halifax’s Danny Moynihan assisted on the tying goal. He also scored in the second and added a helper on Fortier’s marker.
“It was one of those games where everybody had a slow start. We got better and better as the game went along and the third (period) was our best,” said Moynihan, who leads the Herd with 24 goals. “We just started outworking the other team . . . started keeping things simple, started getting pucks to the net. That’s when we got our goals.”
Charlottetown upped its mark to 15-20-2-2 in the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League while Halifax dropped to 13-20-5-1.
Charlottetown led 1-0 after the first period on Dexter Weber’s third goal of the season. It took a 3-0 lead five minutes into the second frame thanks to scores by newcomer Samuel Blais and Mitchell Balmas. Barrett Dachyshyn made things 3-1 until the Isles Johnny Foley upped the lead to 4-1. Moynihan struck at the 19:03 of the second and Charlottetown went into intermission leading 4-2.
Sprong’s goal in the third gave the Isles a three-score edge, but, said Weber, the team survived despite slipping into automatic mode far too early.
“Our intensity dropped for a bit. It was a lack of focus. We were focusing on we already had the game in hand,” said Weber, who added four assists, including helping to set up the game-winning goal, for his first career five-point game. “You can’t do that because it will come back to bite you.”
Matthew Welsh stopped 25 shots for the win while Eric Brassard faced 50 shots in the loss. New acquisitions Alexis Vanier and Nicolas Leblond made their Islanders debuts Sunday.
Vanier had an assist and three shots while Leblond was scoreless but had three shots.
The teams play Tuesday at 7 p.m. in Halifax.