RECAP | Isles lose 4-3 in extra time to the Wildcats
By Kyle Cotton
Charlottetown, PE – The Charlottetown Islanders fall to the Moncton Wildcats 4-3 in extra time at the Eastlink Centre on Saturday night.
Aksels Ozols played well in the loss, stopping 32-36 shots, earning third star honor.
Isles jump ahead early
The Isles started the game off right, drawing a power play under two minutes into the game.
While a man up, Marcus Kearsey lasered a shot from the point that picked a corner behind Moncton netminder Keegan Warren. His seventh goal of the year was assisted by Anton Topilnyckyj and Cole Huckins.
Not even three minutes later, Owen Conrad followed suit. Alexis Michaud fed him a tape-to-tape pass from behind the net and he wired his sixth of the year. Ross Campbell added an assist on the lead-doubling goal.
Max Jardine gave Moncton their first man advantage of the game soon after as he was called for holding.
The Isles managed to kill off the league’s best power play with the help of a sharp save by Ozols.
It was a back-and-forth period from there but Charlottetown carried their 2-0 lead into the intermission. They were outshooting the Wildcats 12-10.
Moncton shocks the Isles late in second
Will Shields and Simon Duguay helped the Isles get off to a hot start in the second period with a flurry of shots early.
Julius Sumph and Duguay then took penalties five minutes apart from each other, but both teams’ penalty kill units stood their ground with stops from both Ozols and Warren.
The game started getting rough. Simon Hughes and Etienne Morin each took coincidental minors after Hughes was called for slashing. Ozols and the Islanders killed off the penalty though.
Moncton brought the game to within one though. After a failed clearing attempt in the final seconds of the middle frame, Miles Mueller took the puck and picked a corner to score the Cats’ first goal of the night.
The Isles were outshooting Moncton 29-23 going into the second intermission.
Late game heroics force OT
Anton Topilnyckyj and Carl-Ettienne Michel gave the Islanders momentum to open the final period, but Warren turned them aside.
Moncton tied it not even five minutes in though. Morin fired a shot far side through traffic that beat Ozols.
The teams started going back-and-forth again. Shields, Michel and Huckins continued to press Warren, but the door stayed shut.
On the other end of the ice, Ozols was just as strong. He turned away chances from Vince Collard, Natan Grenier and Mueller.
Eventually, the puck was turned over by the Isles. Sumpf walked in and sniped a shot over Ozols to give Moncton a 3-2 lead with just over five minutes to go.
A minute later, Kearsey drew a four-minute power play after Caleb Desnoyers took a high-sticking double-minor.
Then, with Ozols on the bench and the extra attacker out, the Isles tied it.
It was the captain, Michael Horth, extending his league lead in power play goals, tying the game. He fired a shot in-tight of Warren and it bounced in. Shields and Matthew Butler assisted on Horth’s 31st of the season.
Kearsey had a chance to end it with just one second left before overtime, but it was turned aside by Warren.
Moncton calls game
Huckins and Conrad had the first two opportunities with the game on their stick, but once again, Warren shut the door.
Then, Moncton came back and tested Ozols, but he kept the Islanders alive.
After a broken play near the Moncton blue line, the Wildcats ended up on a three-on-one rush. They ended it.
Yoan Loshing gave the puck to Desnoyers, who fed it to Adam Fortier-Gendron. He tapped it over the goal line to give Moncton the 4-3 win in overtime.
Charlottetown led in shots 42-36 but were outhit 30-25.
Head coach Jim Hulton isn’t disappointed in the team despite the loss.
“Down with four minutes to go, to have the character to come back. I think that’s what I’ll walk away with here,” he said. “I think we played a really good game. It was just a good hockey game.”
They hit the road tomorrow, March 10, to take on the Acadie-Bathurst Titan at the K.C. Irving Regional Centre. Puck drop is at 3 p.m.
