CHARLOTTETOWN, P.E.I. – It wasn’t the way the Charlottetown Islanders drew it up, but they will certainly take it.
The Islanders allowed four goals in a six-minute stretch of the first period and went to the intermission down 4-0 to the high-flying Acadie-Bathurst Titan.
Charlottetown scored once in the second and three in the third to force overtime, where Cam Askew won it 1:54 into the extra frame.
“It was a huge character win for the guys,” head coach Jim Hulton said.
“You’re going to hit adversity in the playoffs and it’s not always going to go as you scripted,” he added. “We talked about it at the end of the first. We just said: We have to get our game back. We were too passive. Our game plan going in was be aggressive and take away their time and space, and I think we were too respectful of them in the first period.”
While in a deep hole, Hulton said the team’s analytics showed they were almost even except on the scoreboard after 20 minutes.
The Derek Gentile-Nikita Alexandrov-Brett Budgell line followed up one of its worst games of the season with one of its best in front of 3,499 fans Friday at the Eastlink Centre. Gentile had two goals and an assist, Alexandrov scored once and set up another while Budgell had a pair of helpers.
“It speaks volumes of the character of the three of them, Gentile in particular,” Hulton said. “That’s what we thought we were acquiring when we got him, and he stepped to the forefront tonight in arguably the most important game of the year.”
Another of the team’s trade acquisitions was Askew, who has 13 points in 30 games with the Isles.
“He’s played really well and he’s played really hard for us recently,” Hulton said. “To me, it’s the five-year veteran getting ready for playoffs and that’s a wonderful sign for us.”
Sullivan Sparkes scored in the second period for the home side while Pascal Aquin had two assists during the game.
Ethan Crossman had a goal and two assists for the Titan while Samuel Asselin had a goal and a helper. Captain Jeffrey Truchon-Viel and Olivier Galipeau also scored while former Islanders forward Mitchell Balmas, Adam Holwell, Keenan MacIsaac and Felix-Antoine Drolet each chipped in an assist.
Matthew Welsh made 25 saves for the win while Evan Fitzpatrick stopped 35 shots in the loss.
Hulton said Welsh might want three, and maybe all four, of the goals back.
“That might be the first time I’ve said that all season, but we finally bailed him out. He’s won us enough games,” Hulton said. “It was so nice to see the team pick him up.”
The Titan was 0-for-6 on the power play while Charlottetown was 0-for-3 with the extra attacker.
The Islanders, who clinched ninth place with the win, improved to 36-24-7-0 while the Titan fell to 42-15-8-2. Charlottetown completes the regular season today by hosting the Moncton Wildcats at 3 p.m. at the Eastlink Centre.
Hulton said the team will be smart with its bench.
“You want to end on a good note, but you also don't want to burn anybody out,” he said.
