Eagles And Islanders Renew Hostilities In Game Two
It’s a quick turnaround for the Cape Breton Screaming Eagles and the Charlottetown Islanders as game two of their first round playoff series goes tonight at the Eastlink Centre. Last night Charlottetown prevailed in game one in double overtime on Brett Budgell’s game winning goal.
It was a pair of former Islanders- and Sydney natives- producing the offense for the Eagles as Derek Gentile and Mitchell Balmas scored in the 3-2 loss in game one. For Balmas, the goal marks eight games in a row with a point, while Gentile continues a point per game playoff pace dating back to last year’s post-season when he was with the Islanders.
Charlottetown received goals from Kevin Gursoy and Daniel Hardie prior to Budgell’s overtime winner. Both goaltenders did not make things easy as Charltotetown’s Matthew Welsh and Cape Breton’s Kevin Mandolese each made 40 saves.
The health of Eagles defenseman Antoine Crête-Belzile, who made his return to the Eagles lineup after missing the final nine games of the regular season with an upper body injury, is a question mark. After missing the final nine games of the regular season with an upper body injury, he made his return to the lineup last night and was on the ice for the Eagles first goal- but left the ice hurt in the second period and didn’t return.
On the other end of the ice, Hunter Drew logged a heavy amount of ice time for Charlottetown and contributed at all 200 feet. The Anaheim Ducks draft pick had two assists and was +2. Drew will certainly see much of Cape Breton’s top line- Mathias Laferrière, Shawn Boudrias, and Balmas who combined for 15 shots on goal- nine of which belonged to Balmas. Charlottetown’s top trio of Hardie, Gursoy, and Nikita Alexandrov recorded 16 shots, although the three spent shifts apart due to the Islanders dressing 11 forwards and 7 defensemen.
Tonight’s game goes at 7:30 PM, and you can catch all the action on Eastlink Television, as well as on 1270 CJCB AM (or online at cjcbradio.com) beginning with the pre-game show at 7:00 with Patrick McNeil. Tonight’s game will be also shown at Boston Pizza. Go Eagles Go!
