Matej Beran scored two third-period goals Friday to lead the P.E.I. Rocket to a 3-2 victory over the country’s seventh-ranked major junior hockey team.
The Rocket was trailing the Rimouski Oceanic 2-1 through 40 minutes, but Beran scored 1:22 into the third and tallied the winner nine minutes later. After the marker he gave a salute to the crowd reminding some of Jaromir Jagr and others of the NFL’s Denver Broncos.
The Rocket improves to 30-20-2 while the Oceanic fall to 35-12-1-5.
The teams traded first-period goals before Rimouski took a 2-1 lead after 40 minutes.
Louick Marcotte from Victor Provencher and Yan-Pavel Laplante had the other Rocket goal. It was Laplante’s first point of the season in only his second game. He returned to the lineup Thursday in Saint John, N.B. after a shoulder injury in the summer sidelined him for the first four months of the season.
Ben Duffy had a pair of assists Friday while Tomas Pavelka and Josh Currie had singles. Duffy now has 84 points and a two-point lead over Currie atop the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League scoring race.
Alexandre Lavoie and Jean-Francois Plante scored for the Oceanic with assists from Peter Trainor, Kevin Gagne, Alexis Loiseau and Jasmin Boutet.
Trainor is third in league scoring with 81 points.
Antoine Bibeau stopped 23 saves for the win while Robin Gusse made 35 saves.
The Rocket cancelled today’s skills competition due to the pending storm.
They return to action Sunday when they host the Moncton Wildcatsat 4 p.m.
