Islanders hold serve at home

Charlottetown takes 2-0 lead in quarter-final series vs. Cape Breton

It wasn’t easy, but the Charlottetown Islanders fought off the pesky Cape Breton Screaming Eagles for a 5-3 win Saturday in Charlottetown.

The Islanders now own a 2-0 lead in the best-of-seven Quebec Major Junior Hockey League quarter-final series. Game 3 is Tuesday, at 7 p.m., in Sydney, N.S.

Down 3-2 in the third period, the Islanders’ Nicholas Meloche scored the team’s third powerplay goal of the game to tie it 3-3 at 11:28.

Then Kameron Kielly completed a snazzy passing play with Filip Chlapik and Adam Marsh for the 4-3 go-ahead goal less than a minute later.

Jim Hulton, Isles head coach, said he approved of what he saw from his charges on Saturday versus Thursday’s 4-1 seriesopening win.

“We had lot more emotion, it felt like a playoff game. We had some adversity.

“I liked the character we showed,” Hulton said. “(Tuesday) the big goal is to control the emotions.

“It’s a good thing we have the veteran guys for that. It will be a test. They won’t want to go down three games.” Marsh added an empty-net score with 1:04 left in the game. Daniel Sprong had power-play goals in the first and second periods.

Jordan Ty Fournier, Declan Smith and Giovanni Fiore netted the Eagles’ goals.

Fiore had the Eagles 3-2 goahead goal in the third, and nearly tied things at 4-4 with a bullet shot in the slot with 1:50 left in the game. But Isles goalie Mark Grametbauer, who’s yet to lose in the playoffs, made the stop.

“Both teams battled hard in the whole game, but at the end of the day they wanted it more. We have to bounce back (Tuesday),” said Fiore. “We played well and I give credit to our guys. The other team played well, too. We just have to be better in all three zones.”

Chlapik, Guillaume Brisebois and Alex Dostie each chipped in two assists. Grametbauer stopped 37 of 40 shots in the win while Kyle Jessiman saw 27 shots in the loss.

Game 4 is Wednesday in Cape Breton.