Islanders close out road-trip with a big win over Rimouski
Charlottetown closed out their road-trip with a 5-1 win over the Rimouski Océanic on Thanksgiving Monday.
First star, Carter Bickle, picked up his second win of the season, stopping 31 of 32 shots faced.
But the story early on in the game was how strong Giovanni Morneau looked to start. Morneau was shooting the puck early, creating chance after chance for the Isles.
As Rimouski began to respond, they were halted by a great defensive effort by Brett Arsenault, turning the play back around.
Morneau continued his strong play, breaking the puck out with a nice feed to send Cole Huckins in all alone but he was turned away by Rimouski native and goaltender, Cédric Massé.
It would be the Isles getting on the board first as Ross Campbell would fire a shot from the blue line. The seeing-eye shot got through everyone for his first of the season.
Defensemen Anton Topilnyckyj and Isaac Vos both recorded their first points of the season with assists on the goal.
The Océanic tried responding with a spin move pass in the slot, but Bickle turned it away, as well as all nine other shots faced in the period, sending the Isles into the intermission up 1-0.
Early into the second frame, Charlottetown got into some penalty trouble. On the same play, Lucas Romeo received a five-minute major for spearing and Arsenault took a high-sticking penalty, sending Rimouski to a 5-on-3 power play.
They would convert once on the five minute man-advantage as Alexandre Blais buried his third of the season. Maxime Coursol added to his top-five point total with an assist on the goal.
Michael Horth ended up on the breakaway late in the penalty kill, but Massé turned him away, just for rookie Anthony Flanagan to be in all alone on Massé again, but this time there was a penalty shot awarded to Flanagan.
He made a nifty play with his stick on the penalty shot, scoring his second of the season, giving back the Islanders lead. It would eventually be deemed the game-winning goal.
Just over six minutes later, Horth would add to his league leading goal total making it nine goals in just eight games.
Then, with just a minute and ten seconds left in the period, Ondrej Maruna pocketed his third goal of the year, sending the Isles into the second intermission up 4-1.
Rimouski came out strong in the third period, a period the Islanders have struggled in on this road trip.
Bickle then proved why he deserved to be named first star of this hockey game. Chance after chance the Océanic had, Bickle would turn them away.
Then, with just under two minutes to go, the captain added another goal to his total, becoming the first player in the 2023-24 season to reach double-digit goals.
Charlottetown improved to 4-4-0-0 on the season defeating the Océanic 5-1 in Rimouski.
Both teams went 1 for 4 in the game on the powerplay and the final shots in the contest were 32-29 in favor of the Océanic.
The Isles return home to the Eastlink Centre to play the Drummondville Voltigeurs Friday night at 7:00 p.m. Purchase tickets here.
