Titan fall to Islanders in shootout
BATHURST, N.B. – The Acadie-Bathurst Titan winning streak came to an end Wednesday night in a loss to the fifth-ranked team in the Canadian Hockey League. The Titan were edged by the Charlottetown Islanders at the K.C. Irving Regional Centre losing 4-3 in a shootout in front of the home crowd.
“It was a weird beginning obviously with the first goal in five seconds or whatever it was, but we got off to a little bit of a slow start,” said Jason Clarke, head coach of the Titan. “It was good to see us get a little bit of a spark in the third period and be able to come back and us get a point.”
Acadie-Bathurst entered the match-up having won their last nine games and were looking to add their 10th when the puck dropped against the Islanders. The game started with Kidney scoring five seconds into the game to edge Charlottetown 1-0. The goal tied the record for fastest goal in QMJHL history.
Islanders defenceman Noah Laaouan tied the game at 8:22, before Keiran Gallant gave them a 2-1 lead with less than 40 seconds left in the first. Charlottetown continued to widen the scoring gap a little over a minute into the second frame as Michael Horth scored to bring the game to 3-1. Charlottetown held the lead throughout the second and the first half of the final frame, before Logan Chisholm and Joseph Henneberry brought the home team out of their two-goal deficit. Chisholm scored on the powerplay at 11:49 and Henneberry at 17:55 to tie the game and force overtime.
After a scoreless extra frame, Bennett MacArthur and Hendrix Lapierre were both stopped by Francesco Lapenna in the shootout while Charlottetown’s Patrick Guay and Brett Budgell scored on their shootout chances against Jan Bednar to win the game. The Titan outshot the Islanders 41-33, but finished on one for four on the powerplay. Riley Kidney and Miguel Tourigny were named the first and second stars of the game.
Clarke said a “shootout’s a shootout” when asked how the team takes the tough shootout loss into Friday when they host the Moncton Wildcats. “I mean, just happy with the guys being able to come back down 3-1 going into the third period and we had, again a spark and, you know, we lost to a skills competition,” he said. “It is what it is. So, you just move forward, take the positives out of the game and you move forward for Friday.”
Puck drops at 7 p.m. on Friday between the Titan and Moncton at the K.C. Irving Regional Centre.
