Impressive debut
Gentile lights it up in win over Drakkar in Charlottetown
Once again another Charlottetown Islanders’ trade period acquisition proved his worth as Derek Gentile scored and added two assists in a 4-1 win over the Baie-Comeau Drakkar on Monday in Charlottetown.
Gentile came the Isles’ way in a swap with Quebec for Matthew Grouchy and Gregor MacLeod.
He sat for a bit until an eye injury suffered in Quebec healed. Monday was his first game with his new team.
He wasted little time impressing in the first period, taking the puck at the Drakkar blue-line, driving hard to the net with a Baie-Comeau defender draping him and shuffling a shot under goalie Justin Blanchette’s pads for a 1-0 lead 16 minutes in.
Gentile added a helper on Sullivan Sparkes’ eventual game-winning power-play goal two minutes later.
Not bad for a new teammate in his first game, but Gentile said he doesn’t feel like a newbie in this group.
“It was the first time in a while I’ve been nervous before a game. The guys were real good to help me ease into it, help me be less nervous,” said Gentile, an 18-year-old Sydney, N.S., native.
“The biggest thing on our team is the chemistry. It’s unlike anything I’ve seen before. It’s a tight-knit group and it shows on the ice.”
Charlottetown went to 25-122, good for sixth overall in the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League and second in the Maritimes Division. It was also the Isles’ third straight win and seventh in its last 10.
Baie-Comeau dropped to 1720-2-1.
But it wasn’t lack of effort that sunk the Drakkar.
The team, despite a road trip that started almost a week ago and gone awry thanks to a fierce winter storm, had jump and regularly challenged the Isles’ defence.
Jordan Martel eventually cracked it and Isle goalie Dakota Lund-Cornish with a power-play marker 10 minutes into the second.
But three minutes later, Saku Vesterinen’s goal completed a three-way passing play with Brett Budgell and Gentile for a 3-1 lead.
Pascal Aquin scored an empty-netter late in the third with Blanchette on the bench for a sixth attacker and that was the game.
For Martel, the loss boiled down to lost opportunities.
“We didn’t capitalize on our chances. Opportunity was there. We had good O-zone coverage. Thirty shots and only one goal, that says it,” said Martel.
“Not sure it (the road trip) made a big difference. We had legs the whole game.”
Lund-Cornish, the game’s second star, stopped 29 shots and went to 3-5, while Blanchette (5-10) kicked aside 36 shots and was named the third star.
First star honours went to Gentile.
Next up, the Isles travel to Halifax, N.S., to face the leagueleading Mooseheads (26-10-41) on Thursday in the first of a two-game, home-and-home series. Game 2 is Friday, at 7 p.m., at the Link.