The tactic worked, as the Capitals are on the road to the second round after defeating the Dieppe Commandos 5-2 at Credit Union Place on Saturday. Summerside won the opening round series 4-2.
Morgan MacDonald, who paced the Capitals with a goal and two assists, said it was important for the Capitals to finish the series on home ice, citing the afternoon bus ride as key to the team’s success.
“We wanted to have some energy coming into the game, and it seemed to work tonight, so we’ll take it,” he said.
Austin Taylor, Josh Pugsley, Kallum Muirhead and Marc-Andre Lecouffe also scored for Summerside.
Western Capitals head coach Billy McGuigan was proud of how his team battled with a lineup missing four 20-year-olds, including captain Nathan Yetman.
“This was a team that had the will to win,” he said. “There (were) a lot of things that went on in the series. At the end of the day, we weren’t looking for retribution or to retaliate, we were just looking to win.”
Joey Richard had a goal and an assist for the Commandos, while Lukas Kane also scored for Dieppe.
Matt Williams made 28 saves in the Summerside goal, while Frederic Foulem turned aside 25 for the Commandos.
Taylor got things going seven minutes in for the Western Capitals, as the puck slipped past a Commandos defenceman at the Summerside blue-line, and Taylor beat Foulem with a backhand on a breakaway to put the Western Capitals up one.
“It was something we needed,” MacDonald said of Taylor’s marker. “We were killing a penalty, and to be able to get a short one off the bat that early in the game really got the guys sparked.”
Dieppe nearly answered less than a minute later, but Williams stopped Kane at the top of the crease to preserve Summerside’s lead.
The Capitals got a fortunate bounce on the second goal, as Nolan Alward’s attempt to bring the puck out of his own zone bounced off Foulem and in with just over four minutes left in the period. MacDonald was credited with the goal, his third of the playoffs, to give Summerside a 2-0 lead after one.
Summerside extended its lead 7:14 into the second period, as Brodie MacArthur dug the puck out in the Commandos slot before feeding Pugsley for his first of the playoffs and the 3-0 advantage.
Click here for story on schedule released for division final series vs. Miramichi:
Dieppe got back in the game with two goals in 1:38 midway through the second, with both goals coming as the result of bounces around Williams’ net.
“We never wavered,” McGuigan said of the Commandos comeback. “We stayed with our game and we stayed with our systems, and we just kept going forward.”
The Commandos nearly tied it up with seven minutes to play, but Williams got a pad out to stop a Richard’s one-timer to keep the Capitals up one through 40 minutes.
Dieppe nearly tied the game with 7:35 remaining as Williams stopped Alexandre Jacob in the slot, but Ryan Chiasson couldn’t handle the rebound.
Muirhead iced the game for Summerside, taking the puck in the slot and snapping it past Foulem with 4:35 remaining before Lecouffe added an empty-netter two minutes later.
The Western Capitals will now play the Miramichi Timberwolves, who completed a sweep of the St. Stephen Aces on Friday.
Getting healthy will be critical to Summerside’s success going forward, McGuigan said.
“Miramichi’s a great hockey club, but they play seven-game series in hockey,” he said. “They’ve already predicted that they’re going to the finals, and we’re just hoping that we’re going to give them a little bit of a rough go.”
The Western Capitals know it won’t be an easy series against the Timberwolves, MacDonald said.
“They have a great team, almost like an all-star team for our division, but we know we have more character and more battle, so we’re going to try and go to work right away on those guys,” he said.
