2022 President Cup Final | Game 4 Recap
The Charlottetown Islanders are clearly not ready to go home for the season. Instead, they’re headed home for Game 5.
With a dominating 7-0 victory over the Shawinigan Cataractes at the Centre Gervais Auto on Thursday, the Isles have not only extended their season, but the organization has earned its first ever win in President Cup Final competition.
William Trudeau and Brett Budgell each scored twice for Charlottetown, who outshot the Cataractes 47-16 on the night. Singles came off the sticks of Lukas Cormier, Jakub Brabenec and Patrick Guay. Brabenec added three assists while Xavier Simoneau recorded four helpers of his own. Francesco Lapenna notched his first career QMJHL playoff shutout, while Antoine Coulombe made 29 saves on 34 shots over two periods for the Cataractes before being relieved by Charles-Antoine Lavallee, who kicked aside 11 of 13 shots.
It was a strong opening period for the visitors, who parlayed a 21-8 shots advantage into a 1-0 lead after 20 minutes. After banging on the door of Coulombe repeatedly early on, the Isles were rewarded with the opening goal at the 11:27 mark when Trudeau rifled a wrister high to the short side of the Cataractes netminder.
The Islanders kept the pressure on throughout the second period and struck four times as a result. Lukas Cormier walked in and unleashed a shot that Coulombe got a piece of before it bounced into the net just 2:10 into the frame to double his club’s lead. For Cormier, it was his eighth of the playoffs and fourth goal in the past three games.
At 13:13, Budgell joined in the action, completing a perfect three-way passing play with Brabenec and Simoneau while on the man advantage. The Isles would extend their lead to 4-0 just over three minutes later, when Trudeau switched gears from defense to offense, walking in on Coulombe to tuck home his sixth of the playoffs.
Brabenec would cap things off with the Islanders on an extended powerplay, tipping in a Patrick Guay slap-pass for his third of the postseason with 44 seconds remaining. The Isles ended the middle frame by outshooting the Cataractes 13-5 to take a 5-0 lead.
It was more of the same in the third period. Budgell would record his second of the game and 12th of the postseason on another Islanders powerplay, once again completing a play with Simoneau and Brabenec at the 6:23 mark. Guay would provide some more firepower on the powerplay, converting from the slot at 16:39 to close out the scoring.
The Cataractes maintain a 3-1 lead in the best-of-seven championship series, which continues on Saturday at 4pm ET/5pm AT from the Eastlink Centre in Charlottetown. All games are viewable on CHL TV.
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