QUEBEC CITY, QUE. – Keith Getson tied it and won it Saturday as the Charlottetown Islanders defeated the host Quebec Remparts 6-2 to take Game 1 of their Quebec Major Junior Hockey League playoff series.
"He was terrific,” head coach Jim Hulton said of Getson, who scored three times and all were key.
Game 2 is Sunday at 4 p.m. Atlantic in Quebec City while the series shifts to Charlottetown on Wednesday for a 7 p.m. contest at the Eastlink Centre.
Sullivan Sparkes opened the scoring Saturday for the Islanders on the team’s first shot of the game 5:50 into the contest in front of 10,016 fans at the Videotron Centre.
Former Islanders forward Gregor MacLeod tied it with three minutes to play in the period and Sam Dunn gave them the lead midway through the second period with a power-play goal. It swung momentum in the home team's favour.
Getson, the longest serving member of the Isles, tied the game with six to play in the second with a goal on the man advantage. He then gave the visitors the lead 5:24 into the third.
"We did a great job tonight of recapturing (momentum) and he was the leader in that department with a big power-play goal on a much-maligned power play to get us back to 2-2 and then to score that one that really spring-boarded us into the win," Hulton said.
Former Remparts forward Derek Gentile provided an insurance goal three minutes after Getson's second. Sam King and Getson with his hat trick goal into the empty net rounded out the scoring.
Daniel Hardie had three assists while singles went to Cayse Ton, Hunter Drew, Pascal Aquin, Cam Askew, Saku Vesterinen and Brendon Clavelle. Pascal Laberge assisted on both goals for Quebec while Phillipp Krashev had one.
Matthew Welsh made 24 saves for the win while Antoine Samuel stopped 14 of the 19 shots he faced in the loss.
The game was tied 1-1 after the first period and 2-2 after 40 minutes.
Charlottetown was 1-for-1 on the power while Quebec was 1-for-4. The Remparts won 49 of 72 faceoffs.
Hulton was pleased to get the win in the opener and come through the game healthy, but he knows the team needs to be better Sunday, particularly it needs to shoot the puck more and be better in the faceoff circle.
“We know they're going to push because they don't want to go in a hole heading back to our building and, vice-versa, we’re going to push because we’d like to have them wounded coming back to our building," Hulton said.
