Islanders double up the Wildcats at home
Coming off a poor performance on Friday against Victoriaville, the Isles stepped back out onto the ice for a Sunday matinee with the visiting Moncton Wildcats.
The Isles were quick to open the scoring on Sunday afternoon, as just over two minutes into the period Nikita Alexandrov made a pass from behind the net, finding the stick of Brett Budgell who wired his 9th of the season past Waite on the Isles second shot of the game.
Budgell was not done there, as just 12 seconds later the Isles rookie received a pass from Derek Gentile in the Wildcats zone before firing a shot past the glove of Waite to chase the Wildcats’ goalie from the game.
With his goals, Budgell breaks the Islanders franchise record for fastest two goals scored by the same player.
Halfway through the period the Isles would add to their lead on the power play, with Pascal Aquin getting his stick on a rebound, chipping a shot over former Islander Mark Grametbauer to give the Isles an early three goal lead.
The Isles continued their hot play in the second period, with Sullivan Sparkes setting up Cameron Askew on an early 2-on-1 chance. Askew picked up the pass from Sparkes before making a move to the backhand, beating Grametbauer between the legs to give the Isles a 4-0 lead.
Moncton would get one back before the end of the period though, with James Phelan beating a screened Welsh to cut the Isles’ lead to three.
The Isles would roll into the second intermission leading 4-1 despite being outshot 26 to 21.
Moncton would get another goal back early in the third with Phelan, again, firing a shot past Welsh, cutting the Isles lead to 4-2.
Charlottetown would answer back just under six minutes later with Aquin scoring his second goal of the game, beating his former teammate under the pads to restore the Isles’ three goal lead.
The momentum was short lived though, as less than two minutes later the Wildcats struck again on the power play with Russian rookie Alexander Khovanov firing a shot off the post and past Welsh to pull Moncton within striking distance.
Fortunately for the Islanders that is as close as the Wildcats would come, as with 43 seconds remaining in the period Aquin would shoot his third goal of the game into the empty Moncton net to complete the hat-trick and seal the victory for the Islanders.
Despite walking away with the victory Islanders head coach and general manager Jim Hulton was not satisfied with his team’s overall performance.
“Quite frankly, I didn’t like our game. I’m thrilled with the result and the way we bounced back but we put way too much onus and emphasis on Matt Welsh and quite honestly this was a goaltender win.”
The Isles are back in action on Wednesday in Saint John for a matchup with the last place Sea Dogs. Puck drop is set for 7PM and you can follow every second of the action live with Fair Isle Ford Isles Radio.
