The Islanders tied it, before losing 6-5 in overtime to the Quebec Remparts at the Eastlink Centre.
“We were down by a few and we ended up working back to get a point in overtime, which . . . took a lot of hard work,” said overage forward Adam Marsh, who led the Islanders with two goals and two assists. “It’s one bounce in overtime that gives them the edge. We just keep working the way we did tonight, I think, that bounce will be our’s next time.”
Benjamin Gagne tipped a Derek Gentile pass on an odd-man rush for the winner after Marsh had a good chance at the other end of the ice.
“The overtime nowadays is just pretty much a crapshoot back and forth, back and forth, until someone scores,” Marsh said. “It makes the game a lot of fun, but it really hurts sometimes when you miss once and they end up putting one in.”
The Islanders had scored six goals in the first six games of the season, but the offence broke out Saturday, including going 4-for-7 on the power play.
“We’ve just had a little slow start, but I think everyone realizes we can put the puck in the net,” Marsh said.
Jesse Sutton scored eight minutes into the second period to give the visitors a 4-1 lead. Keith Getson and Matthew Boucher traded goals to make it 5-2 with 3:32 remaining in the middle frame.
Marsh scored on the power play with 1:32 left and Samuel Meisenheimer brought the Isles within one with four seconds left in the period with a power-play marker.
Getson scored his second of the night five minutes into the third while on the man advantage.
Head coach Jim Hulton said after being so close in other games this season it was nice to comeback and earn a point.
“It has the makings of what could be a turnaround,” he said.
The bench boss said he was proud of the bounce back game after a “horrible performance” Friday in a 4-0 loss to the Saint John Sea Dogs on home ice.
“We challenged them in terms of their pride, their compete, their character and they responded with flying colours,” he said proudly. “In particular, it would have been easy to fold the tent at 4-1, but they didn’t, they came back. Those are all stepping stones towards future success.”
The Remparts improved to 6-0-0-0 while the Islanders are 1-5-1-0.
“Now we can start to see the light at the end of the tunnel,” Hulton said.
Overage forward Pascal Aquin served his final game of an eight-game suspension on Saturday while Gregor MacLeod is improving from a knee injury sustained on opening night and could be ready as early as Wednesday’s game in Sydney, N.S., against the Cape Breton Screaming Eagles.
Highlight reel
A look at Saturday’s Quebec Major Junior Hockey League game at the Eastlink Cente.
Outcome
Quebec – 6 OT.
Charlottetown – 5.
Goals
Quebec – Benjamin Gagne 2, Jeremy Laframboise, Derek Gentile, Jesse Sutton and Matthew Boucher.
Charlottetown – Adam Marsh 2, Keith Getson 2 and Samuel Meisenheimer.
Assists
Quebec – Philipp Kurashev, Jesse Sutton, Louis-Filip Cote, Andrew Picco, Derek Gentile, Austin Eastman, Olivier Mathieu and Sam Dunn.
Charlottetown – Saku Vesterinen 4, Adam Marsh 2, Samuel Meisenheimer 2, Pierre-Olivier Joseph 2,
Goalies
Quebec – Dereck Baribeau, 30 saves on 35 shots.
Charlottetown – Matthew Welsh, 19 saves on 25 shots.
Power plays
Quebec – 1-for-3.
Charlottetown – 4-for-7.
