| Last updated at 12:23 AM on 24/11/09 |
Rocket heads out on road trip 
BY CHARLES REID
The Guardian
Wins have a funny way of piling up in the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League. Get enough of them and you own a tidy little streak.
Quietly, the P.E.I. Rocket has won three of its last four games, the latest a 6-5 overtime win against Chicoutimi on Sunday at the Civic Centre.
Matthew Hobbs scored the winner against the Saguenéens with one-10th of a second left on the clock.
Those kind of victories, said Rocket forward Jarrad Struthers, can spur a winning streak.
“Yeah, for sure, you don’t always want to win one, lose one,” said Struthers, who notched a goal and and two assists on Sunday and four shots in Saturdays 3-2 victory over the Sags.
Of course, the opposite can be true and inside out.
Saint John’s league-leading 15-game undefeated run started after the Rocket shutout the Sea Dogs 4-0 on Oct. 13. And the Lewiston Maineiacs current six-game winless streak began after a 5-4 victory over the Montreal Junior Nov. 4 in Montreal.
The Dogs lead the QMJHL with 23 wins and 47 points, 18 points higher than the ninth-overall Rocket in the Atlantic Division.
P.E.I. (13-9-1-2) can add to its points total against the Tigres on Wednesday in Victoriaville against its former head coach Yanick Jean, who coached the Rocket from 2005-07. Game time is 8 p.m., AT.
Jean has the talented Tigres (19-7-0-1) sitting third overall, thanks to a nine-game winning streak. His former assistant with the Rocket, Corrado Micalef, prefers a victory to launch a winning streak.
And Micalef isn’t above a third-period comeback, the Rocket was down 3-1 to Chicoutimi after two periods on Sunday, to start it.
“It’s our second time this year we made a big comeback in the third period,” said Micalef after Rocket practice Monday. “It builds up a belief we can come back. We did it in Cape Breton (Oct. 24, down 3-0), we could do it (here).”
Forwards Jordan Escott (left shoulder) and Benjamin Casavant (thigh muscle) are nursing injuries, but will make the trip which concludes with back-to-back games with the Maineiacs on Friday and Saturday in Lewiston. Game times are 8 p.m. AT.
Rookie defenseman Lauri Tokoi, 18, is returning to his home in Finland after playing just 10 of 25 games this season. The first round (52nd overall) CHL import draft pick in June had two assists and a plus-two rating. P.E.I. called up Vincent Richer, 17, from St. Eustache in Quebec midget AAA to take Tokoi’s spot. Richer was a sixth-round selection, 100th overall, in the 2009 Q draft.
The Rocket bus leaves today at 7 a.m. from the Civic Centre for Quebec.
League notes: The league chose Chicoutimi forward Nicolas Deschamps and Baie-Comeau goaltender Nathan Dunnett as the offensive and defensive players of the week on Monday. Deschamps recorded three goals, including two shorthanded, and four assists in three road games while Dunnett went 2-0, including a shutout, with a 0.50 goals-against-average and a .980 save percentage. P.E.I. Rocket defenceman Matthew Hobbs was also considered . . . The league suspended Chicoutimi winger Rock Régimbald four games for kneeing a Rocket player in P.E.I.’s 3-2 win Saturday at the Civic Centre . . . Flu virus worries cancelled Monday’s game between Gatineau and Val-d’Or. Meanwhile, the league rescheduled seven games lost earlier in the month to the flu, including Rocket home games against Baie-Comeau, now Jan. 19, and Shawinigan, moved to Jan. 20. Start times are 7 p.m. at the CCC.
creid@theguardian.pe.ca
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