Rocket Home versus Olympiques
By Nolan Reid
A four-goal effort by the P.E.I. Rocket in the second period was all it took in a 6-2 win over the Gatineau Olympiques Sunday afternoon at the Charlottetown Civic Centre.
Ben Duffy, Jimmy Oligny and Josh Currie each had a goal and an assist to lead the way for the Rocket who improve to 3-1-0-0 on the season.
Erik Robichaud, who had the game winning goal in the second period, said everyone battled hard.
“We knew they were on their third game of this road trip. Right off the hop we got on to them quick and stuck to our game plan.”
Robichaud’s goal was his first as a Rocket and he said it felt good.
“It’s always nice to get that off your shoulders.”
Gatineau opened the scoring in the first period from Rock Regimbald at 12:36.
In the second period, Currie tied the game at one on a nice tic-tac-toe play from Duffy and Louick Marcotte at 5:07. Oligny gave the Rocket a 2-1 lead at 9:52. Robichaud added a shorthanded goal at 14:21 to give the Rocket a 3-1 lead before Matej Beran made it 4-1 at 15:47.
The success in the second period was sticking to the game plan and capitalizing on chances, said Robichaud.
“Once you get one goal, as a team, it builds up energy and we just kept going on that energy which brought us goals.”
Gatineau cut the Rocket lead to 4-2 on a short handed goal from Emile Poirier at 7:58. Duffy regained the Rocket lead on the powerplay at 9:05. Matt Bursey made it 6-2 at 11:03 to round out the scoring.
Maxime Lagace made 21 saves in net for the Rocket.
Michael Nishi made 21 saves for Gatineau through two periods before being chased and replaced by Eric Brassard to start the third period. Brassard made 10 saves.
The Rocket begins its road trip on Friday against the Blainville-Boisbriand Armada. Game time is 8:30 p.m.