CHARLOTTETOWN, P.E.I. – The Charlottetown Islanders refused to go away Friday night in Halifax.
They were rewarded with a 4-3 overtime win over the high-powered Mooseheads in Game 1 of their Quebec Major Junior Hockey League quarter-final.
Pascal Aquin scored the winner nine minutes into the fourth period by tipping an Olivier Desjardins shot. He scored four times in Game 7 of the first-round series with the Quebec Remparts on Tuesday.
It was the team’s fifth game in eight days and came after travelling all day Thursday from Quebec after being storm-stayed following their first-round series win.
“They don't let these things bother them,” head coach Jim Hulton said. “Highly impressive, the resilience throughout the game. We get a goal called back, they don’t blink. We give up the first goal, we get one back. We just kept fighting back all night. A total team performance. (Matthew) Welsh was outstanding at key moments, as he always is, both goaltenders were.”
The game was tied 1-1 after the first and second periods.
Rookie Nikita Alexandrov scored 42 seconds into the third to give the Islanders the lead, but the one-goal advantage quickly became a one-goal deficit as rookies Xavier Parent and Filip Zadina scored at 3:04 and 6:19 to give the home side the lead.
“He was fantastic,” Hulton said of Parent. “I thought he was easily their best forward and that’s saying something. . . He was flying tonight.”
Aquin said the team knew it just had to remain dialed-in to its game plan despite losing the lead.
“We knew it was going to be hard,” he said. “It’s not going to be easy to win against Halifax, so we just kept our focus.”
Islanders veteran Keith Getson tipped a Daniel Hardie shot from the blue-line for his second of the night at 11:42 to tie the game.
The 20-year-old forward from Bridgewater, N.S., had seven shots and was 23-for-36 in the faceoff circle.
“Getson was enormous,” Hulton said. “We used him a ton. . . You can’t ask for anything more out of a veteran like that. That line sets the tone for us, and they were terrific. It was fitting they scored the winner.”
The forward was rocked early by a Justin Barron check that knocked his helmet off, but the assistant captain bounced right back up.
“I think we dodged a bullet on that one,” Hulton said.
It was one of a couple of dodged bullets for the visitors on the night, as captain Pierre-Olivier (P.O.) Joseph left momentarily in the third after a knee-on-knee hit. He returned and continued to play his regular shift. Aquin went hard into the end boards late in the game, trying to nullify an icing. He, too, bounced right back up.
The initial report after the game was the team came through the contest healthy despite the physical affair.
“There were some hard hits,” Hulton said. “A couple of our guys got rocked, but they were clean hits.”
Game 2 is today at 7 p.m. in Halifax.
The Islanders won the opener of the first-round series in Quebec City only to lose Game 2.
“I think our intensity dropped in Game 2, and we got the result we deserved, so let’s see what we learned,” Hulton said. “That’s the challenge tomorrow: Can we be better tomorrow that we were today?”
Highlight reel
Outcome
Charlottetown – 4 OT.
Halifax – 3.
Goals
Charlottetown – Keith Getson 2, Nikita Alexandrov and Pascal Aquin.
Halifax – Connor Moynihan, Xavier Parent and Filip Zadina.
Assists
Charlottetown – Hunter Drew 2, Daniel Hardie 2, Brendon Clavelle, Cam Askew, Olivier Desjardins and Pierre-Olivier (P.O.) Joseph.
Halifax – Arnaud Durandeau 2, Jocktan Chainey, Walter Flower, Maxime Fortier, Benoit-Olivier Groulx.
Goalies
Charlottetown – Matthew Welsh, 41 saves on 44 shots.
Halifax – Alexis Gravel, 38 saves on 42 shots.
Power plays
Charlottetown – 1-for-2.
Halifax – 1-for-1.
Faceoff wins
Charlottetown – 43.
Halifax – 42.
Attendance – 7,456.
Head coach Jim Hulton: “That's the way we’re going to have play. We’re going to have to shut their skill down. We did it on certain shifts, we got lucky on other shifts.”
