Islanders’ season on the line tonight
Ryan MacKinnon has played 278 regular season and playoff games in the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League.
Tonight could be his last.
“That’s obviously in the back of your head,” the Charlottetown Islanders’ captain said Wednesday. “With how close our team is no players want it to be over tonight.”
The Islanders host the Quebec Remparts tonight at 7 p.m. in Game 4 of their best-of-seven quarter-final. Charlottetown trails 3-0 after losing 5-2 in Tuesday’s Game 3.
“It’s not the result we hoped for, or wanted, but (we’ve) turn the page,” coach Gordie Dwyer said. “The one thing I told my team after the game was simple: Thursday night.”
Advancing to the next round will take four straight victories for the Islanders.
“Not many teams have done it before, but it’s also that little bit of inspiration to kind of put yourself in history and be one of those teams,” said MacKinnon, a 20-year-old Summerside native in his fourth and final season in the league.
Remparts’ goalie Zachary Fucale is one player who has experienced it.
In 2012, Fucale and his Halifax Mooseheads teammates lost the first three games to the Remparts before winning the next four games to advance to the semifinal.
Anthony Duclair, Adam Erne and Kurt Etchegary were on that Remparts team and this year’s club.
MacKinnon said players couldn’t put extra pressure on themselves with their season on the line.
“We can’t change a thing. We’ve been playing with an identity all season long,” he said. “We just have to stick to the game plan.”
One thing the Islanders would like to do is get more pucks to the net and make it tougher on Fucale.
Dwyer said most of its goals have come around the blue paint and he would like to see the team get more chances from that area.
Dwyer said the team had no new injury or health concerns on Wednesday.
The Remparts will be without the services of former Islanders defenceman Ryan Graves tonight. He was suspended for a game on Wednesday for a crosscheck on MacKinnon during Tuesday’s second period.
MacKinnon said he thought he was going to lose a row of teeth after the crosscheck, but it only resulted in a bruise on the chin.
“I know Graves. I know he didn’t mean to and it was just the heat of the moment,” MacKinnon said.