Panthers storm back for win
UPEI erases early 4-0 deficit to defeat Moncton
The Charlottetown Islanders refused to fold Saturday, trailing the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League’s top team by three goals midway through the contest.
The Islanders tied it, before losing 6-5 in overtime to the Quebec Remparts at the Eastlink Centre.
“We were down by a few and we ended up working back to get a point in overtime, which . . . took a lot of hard work,” said overage forward Adam Marsh, who led the Islanders with two goals and two assists. “It’s one bounce in overtime that gives them the edge. We just keep working the way we did tonight (Saturday), I think, that bounce will be our’s next time.”
Benjamin Gagne tipped a Derek Gentile pass on an oddman rush for the winner after Marsh had a good chance at the other end of the ice.
“The overtime nowadays is just pretty much a crapshoot back and forth, back and forth, until someone scores,” Marsh said.
“It makes the game a lot of fun, but it really hurts sometimes when you miss once and they end up putting one in.”
The Islanders had scored six goals in the first six games of the season, but the offence broke out Saturday, including going 4-for-7 on the power play.
“We’ve just had a little slow start, but I think everyone realizes we can put the puck in the net,” Marsh said.
Jesse Sutton scored eight minutes into the second period to give the visitors a 4-1 lead. Keith Getson and Matthew Boucher traded goals to make it 5-2 with 3:32 remaining in the middle frame.
Marsh scored on the power play with 1:32 left and Samuel Meisenheimer brought the Isles within one with four seconds Charlottetown native Thomas Casey, a rookie with the Charlottetown Islanders, tries to beat Quebec Remparts defenceman Tomas Dajcar Saturday during Quebec Major Junior Hockey League action at the Eastlink Centre.
left in the period with a powerplay marker.
Getson scored his second of the night five minutes into the third while on the man advantage.
Head coach Jim Hulton said after being so close in other
Jesse Sutton, Louis-Filip Cote, Andrew Picco, Derek Gentile, Austin Eastman, Olivier Mathieu and Sam Dunn.
Charlottetown – Saku Vesterinen 4, Adam Marsh 2, Samuel Meisenheimer 2, Pierre-Olivier Joseph 2,
Goalies
Quebec – Dereck Baribeau, 30 saves on 35 shots.
Charlottetown – Matthew Welsh, 19 saves on 25 shots.
Power plays
Quebec – 1-for-3.
Charlottetown – 4-for-7. games this season it was nice to comeback and earn a point.
“It has the makings of what could be a turnaround,” he said.
The bench boss said he was proud of the bounce back game after a “horrible performance”
Friday in a 4-0 loss to the Saint John Sea Dogs on home ice.
“We challenged them in terms of their pride, their compete, their character and they responded with flying colours,” he said proudly.
“In particular, it would have been easy to fold the tent at 4-1, but they didn’t, they came back. Those are all stepping stones towards future success.”
The Remparts are 6-1-0-0 while the Islanders are 1-5-1-0.
“Now we can start to see the light at the end of the tunnel,” Hulton said.
Overage forward Pascal Aquin served his final game of an eight-game suspension on Saturday while Gregor MacLeod is improving from a knee injury sustained on opening night and could be ready as early as Wednesday’s game in Sydney, N.S., against the Cape Breton Screaming Eagles.
Marcus Power scored on a breakaway 2:36 into overtime Saturday to give the UPEI Panthers a 7-6 comeback victory at Moncton in Atlantic University Sport (AUS) men’s hockey action.
The Panthers erased a 4-0 deficit 13:52 into the game to record their first win of the season and even their record at 1-1-0.
“It’s a gutsy effort,” UPEI head coach Forbes MacPherson said Saturday night. “We had a really short bench and a number of the guys that were playing within that short bench logged a lot of minutes last night and were playing through bumps and bruises and injuries. There were a lot of good signs (Saturday).
“We don’t know what it means down the road, but I think the more experiences a group can have together the more resolve they have at the end.”
Marc-Anthony Therrien gave Moncton the
4-0 lead on the power play, leading to UPEI rookie goalie Matthew Mancina being pulled after five saves on nine shots.
Power got the Panthers on the board 36 seconds later and energized the group as it went to the room trailing 4-1.
Captain Brent Andrews struck 1:26 into the second and rookie Alex McQuaid tallied his first AUS goal 43 seconds later.
Moncton’s Joel Blanchard and UPEI’s Kameron Kielly traded goals as Moncton took a 5-4 lead to the third.
Darcy Ashley scored twice in the third, including a powerplay marker to force overtime with 25 seconds to play.
MacPherson said earlier this month he had liked the play of veterans Power, Andrews and Ashley and they were key in Saturday’s comeback.
“They’re winners and they’ve won at every level,” he said. “We’re hoping they can bring that to our program.”
Connor Wilkinson replaced Mancina and kept the team in it early and rose to the occasion in overtime, setting the stage for Power’s winner.
Kielly had a goal and three assists and was a plus-5 in only his second game with the Panthers. He came to the squad late after attending NHL and AHL camp with Winnipeg and Manitoba, respectively.
“He’s been a great addition to our lineup and our program,” said MacPherson, noting he has little time to really learn the team’s system, but is performing well on natural skill, ability and feel for the game.
The Panthers host Moncton Friday at 7 p.m.