Playing to their strengths
Hard work pays off as Islanders knock off QMJHL’s hottest team
The Charlottetown Islanders are proving the sum is greater than the parts.
No Pierre-Olivier Joseph, no Nikita Alexandrov, no problem.
The Islanders knocked off the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League’s hottest team, the Acadie-Bathurst Titan, who entered the game 8-2 in its last 10 games, 4-0 Tuesday at the Eastlink Centre.
“It’s a group effort every night,” goalie Matthew Welsh said. “Obviously, they’re huge in our roster, but it doesn’t mean we don’t have 20 other guys down the roster who are going to be working really hard. I think hard work is just paying off.”
Sam King pointed to good chemistry within the squad that has them in the top half of the standings, despite a poor start.
“We’re just a good character group of guys,” King said. “We all know our roles and we all play to our strengths.”
Joseph missed the first of a three-game suspension for slashing while Alexandrov is out with a bruised ankle.
Keith Getson got the Islanders going early with a shorthanded goal 2:35 into the game. Matthew Grouchy added a power-play marker 10 minutes later.
The Islanders outshot the Titan 18-8 in the first 20 minutes. The statistic turned in the visitor’s favour in the second (14-4), but the game remained 2-0 heading to the third. The
Islanders started strong and carried the play and a heavy shot advantage for the early part of the final frame.
Sam King scored six minutes in, and Liam Peyton netted his first goal in his first game as an Islander 45 seconds later.
“Getting the first goal is obviously a big milestone, but I was happy that the team came out and got the win,” Peyton said.
The 17-year-old Orleans, Ont., native started the season with the OHL’s Kitchener Rangers.
He hadn’t played since Sept. 30 and cleared waivers on Monday.
He had a 2-on-1 in the second period and passed. During the third period, he carried the puck in on a 2-on-0 with Samuel Meisenheimer.
“I looked over and the goalie was kind of already cheating over, thinking I was going to pass, so I just shot and it went in and I was pretty excited,” Peyton said.
King’s goal came a shift or two after he was hit into the boards in front of the Titan bench with the door open. He was down for a minute, but didn’t miss a beat. When Sullivan Sparkes made a move to the middle later in the period, King knew what he had to do.
“I just drove the net thinking he was going to get a shot off and I got lucky enough that it bounced off the goalie’s shoulder and came right to me then I just tapped it in.”
The Titan seemed to pick up their play as the period wore on and had a number of chances to break Welsh’s shutout bid, but every time they threatened, the Halifax native stepped up. None of the saves were bigger than the one he made on recent acquisition German Rubtsov, the Philadelphia Flyers first-round pick.
“I kind of thought of my family back home when I made it and was like, ‘oh I wonder what they thought of that save,” Welsh admitted. “Usually that’s what it takes to get a shutout, you need to get lucky at least once whether it’s a post or a save like that.”