Islanders drop close game vs Halifax in North Rustico
Fans in North Rustico were treated to a back-and-forth battle where the Islanders fell short 4-3 in overtime to the Halifax Mooseheads, Saturday night.
Lucas Romeo sparked a late game comeback and played hard from puck drop as he fought off two Mooseheads’ defenders early in the first period, but Jack Milner stopped him in his tracks.
Milner looked sharp for the Mooseheads, making a toe save stopping a two-on-one rush for Charlottetown.
After some high pressure offense from the Isles, Aksels Ozols, who stopped 29 of 33 shots, made a flurry of saves to keep the first period scoreless.
The second period action started quickly as the Magog, Quebec native, Carl-Etienne Michel, opened the scoring with his first goal of the preseason.
Ozols helped the Isles kill off the only penalty to that point and carried a shutout into the third.
On an Isles’ powerplay, Matthew Butler turned it over in the offensive zone, which resulted in Liam Kilfoil beating Ozols to tie the game.
Kilfoil’s goal was a momentum shift as the Mooseheads had sustained pressure on the Islanders, and Antoine Fontaine scored twice to give Halifax a two-goal lead late into the period,
Lucas Romeo responded by popping the water bottle behind Halifax netminder, Jack Milner, to spark a comeback.
With just over one minute to go in the frame, Kevin Walker would continue to impress as he snuck one through Milner to send the game to overtime,
After some back-and-forth action to start overtime, Mooseheads forward Reece Peitzsche ripped it short side to secure the win for Halifax in an action packed game.
The Isles are 2-1-1 in the preseason. They are back in action Sunday, Sep. 10, against the Saint John Sea Dogs at the MacLauchlan Arena at UPEI.
