BATHURST, N.B. — Defencemen Lukas Cormier and Noah Laaouan each had three points Thursday as the Charlottetown Islanders defeated the last-place Acadie-Bathurst Titan 5-3.
Laaouan scored twice, including the game-winning goal with about eight minutes to play in the second period, and added an assist in Bathurst, N.B., while Cormier had a goal and two assists for his first three-point game in the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League (QMJHL).
Defenceman Xavier Bernard scored his first as an Islander since being acquired in a December deal for Pierre-Olivier (P.O.) Joseph while Jordan Maher rounded out the scoring against his former team.
Nikita Alexandrov and rookie call-up Patrick LeBlanc each had two assists while singles went to Xavier Fortin, Daniel Hardie and Alexander Dersch. LeBlanc assisted on Cormier’s goal for his first QMJHL point in his fourth career game. The two were teammates last season with the Moncton Flyers and are both from Sainte-Marie-de-Kent, N.B.
Liam Leonard, Cole Rafuse and Yan-Cedric Gaudreault scored for the Titan with assists going to Evan MacKinnon, Jack Tucker, Jesse Sutton, Benjamin Roode, Rafuse and Mathieu Desgagnes.
Charlottetown held a 2-1 lead after the first period but was trailing 3-2 4:24 into the middle frame only to respond and take a 4-3 lead to the third.
Matthew Welsh made 22 stops for the victory while Tyriq allowed three goals on 23 shots in the loss in 46 minutes while former Islander Mark Grametbauer stopped six of the eight shots he faced in the first 10:55 before leaving the game.
The home side went 2-for-5 on the power play while killing all three of the visitors’ chances with the man advantage.
Charlottetown improved to 32-18-4-3 while Acadie-Bathurst is 7-46-3-1.
The Islanders host the Blainville-Boisbriand Armada Saturday at 7 p.m. and the Saint John Sea Dogs Sunday at 3 p.m.
