Isles drop final game of road trip to Foreurs
Sunday afternoon in Val d’Or, two of the hottest teams in the QMJHL did battle. The Charlottetown Islanders, at the tail end of a long road trip, met the Val d’Or Foreurs for a matinee affair.
Unfortunately for Charlottetown, it appeared that the road trip caught up to the team one night after a victory in Rouyn-Noranda. Four different Foreurs players found the back of the net as Val d’Or took this game 4-1.
“The travel took it’s toll on us today as we lacked energy and legs for most of the game.” said Islanders head coach Jim Hulton following the game. “Our effort was there but it wasn’t enough to complete the job.”
The Foreurs would get to work early in the game, scoring just 1:05 in to the game. It would be the league’s fastest-rising scorer, Nicolas Ouellet, who would continue his hot streak. The 20 year-old forward sniped a wrister past Isles starter Jacob Goobie for his tenth goal in five games and 12th goal on the season.
The Isles would tie the game up not long after that on the red-hot powerplay. Kevin Gursoy would find a loose puck to the side of the net and bang it past Foreurs starter Francesco Lapenna. For Gursoy, that would be his eighth of the season, completing an impressive October that saw him rack up 16 points in 12 games.
From there, the Foreurs would flex their muscles on a road-weary team. Despite injuries to a number of key players, the home team proved why they’ve been on such a torrid pace as of late. Marshall Lessard would lead off the scoring for Val d’Or in the second period, picking up a bouncing puck right in front of Goobie and tucking it in through a small crack in the wall. For Lessard, that would be his fourth of the season.
Before the end of the period, Justin Robidas and Alexandre Couture would extend the Foreurs leads to 3. For Robidas, the 2nd overall pick of the 2019 QMJHL Draft, that would be his fourth goal of the season, while Couture’s would be his third of the season.
The game would get chippy as it drew to a close. Two separate fights would break out between the two teams along with a number of skirmishes. Although they were tired, the Isles didn’t give up until the final buzzer.
Despite the loss, Jacob Goobie was stellar in nets for the Isles, making 36 saves in the loss. Francesco Lapenna was equally impressive, making 23 saves in the victory. With assists on the Gursoy goal, Nikita Alexandrov and Brett Budgell each extended their point streaks to six games.
The bus will be a little lighter on the drive home from Quebec, as Goobie and Oscar Plandowski will be dropped off in Montreal to make a flight to the 2019 World Under-17 Hockey Challenge. Announcements regarding the roster are expecting to be made later in the week.
The Isles next game is Friday night at the Eastlink Centre when they welcome a hot ticket to town in Alexis Lafreniere and the Rimouski Oceanic. Tickets are available now at the Eastlink Centre box office, by phone at 902-629-6625, or online by clicking HERE.
