Rookie rises to occasion
Budgell scores twice to lead Islanders to victory, tie first-round series 2-2
Brett Budgell scored twice, including the winner, to make Good Friday great for the Charlottetown Islanders.
The Isles defeated the Quebec Remparts 4-2 to even the bestof-seven Quebec Major Junior Hockey League series 2-2. Game 5 is today at 3 p.m. at the Eastlink Centre.
“It was nice to contribute, but obviously it was a team effort and the team comes first,” Budgell said. “It was definitely nice to get the win here tonight especially in front of the home crowd.”
Budgell scored his first on the power play to open the game’s scoring 12:39 into the first. Budgell said Derek Gentile made a nice playing coming into the offensive zone and got the puck to Nikita Alexandrov, who shot the puck on net. Budgell was there to go backhand to beat Remparts goalie Antoine Samuel.
“I just picked up the rebound, so credit to those guys,” Budgell said. “It’s pretty cool to get the first one.”
Andrew Coxhead tied it three minutes later, converting a 2-on-1 opportunity off a Matthew Grouchy feed. Grouchy, the former Isles forward, now has a goal and four assists in four games this series.
Overage forwards Pascal Aquin (14:41) for Charlottetown and Matthew Boucher (19:25) for Quebec exchanged second period goals.
The game looked like it could be heading to overtime until Budgell went hard to the net and got the puck past Samuel for his second of the night with 5:30 left on the clock.
“That’s why we thought Brett Budgell was special,” head coach Jim Hulton said. “He rises to the occasion. The only 16-year-old in our lineup gets two huge goals.”
The goal came after defenceman Hunter Drew pinched down the wall to steal a puck and get it to Alexandrov, who shot the puck that created the rebound. Being aggressive down the boards is part of the team’s game plan this season.
“When we’re doing it in the series we’re effective, when we back off, we’re not,” Hulton said.
With the Islanders clinging to a 3-2 lead, a loose puck was getting close to the goal-line when Islanders captain Pierre-Olivier Joseph extended his arms and pushed the puck to safety.
“I just saw the puck going (toward) the net,” he explained. “I know Welshy always has our back, so I just wanted to have his back for one second.”
Matthew Welsh made 24
saves for the win while Samuel stopped 28 shots in the loss.
The Islanders side of the rink was excited after the game, including Thomas Casey, who lost a tooth during a play in the second period.
“Their D man pinned me up to the boards and I spun off him and his stick swung up and got me in the mouth,” Casey explained. “I was like, ‘Uh-oh, Mom’s not going to like this’.”
Casey went to the bench and was attended to by athletic therapist Kevin Elliott before returning to the ice for his next shift.
The series is a matchup between the eighth- and ninthplace teams from the regular season. Many people expected a long series from the beginning, and it’s playing out that way. There’s only a one-goal difference between the teams in the first four games while it’s now a best-of-three affair.
“It’s getting better and more intense with each game,” Hulton said. “It’s is a classic boxing match: it’s punch-counter punch.
“They did a good job tonight. We couldn’t get any sustained momentum until the end.”
He expects the swings of momentum throughout the game will continue today when the teams meet for Game 5 before the series moves back to Quebec City for Game 6 and, if necessary, Game 7.
“It’s a huge game tomorrow,” Casey said. “To go back up to Quebec, we need to be up 3-2 and that’s our mindset right now.”