SYDNEY, N.S. — Matthew Welsh made 35 saves to backstop a victory Saturday night in Sydney, N.S., for a Charlottetown Islanders squad depleted by injuries and absences.
Rookie Justin Gill scored his first of his Quebec Major Junior Hockey League career while Brett Budgell and Gaetan Jobin added power-play goals as the Islanders defeated the Cape Breton Eagles 3-2. The Eagles were ranked 10th in this week's Kia CHL Top 10 list.
Noah Laaouan, who played the first 1 ½ seasons of his junior career with the Eagles, had two assists while Keiran Gallant, Liam Peyton, Nikita Alexandrov and Kevin Gursoy each chipped in one. Welsh stopped Brooklyn Kalmikov on a third-period penalty shot.
Rookie Ivan Ivan and veteran Mathias Laferriere scored for Cape Breton with assists going to Shaun Miller, Jarrett Baker and Felix Lafrance. William Grimard made 23 saves in the loss.
Charlottetown led 2-1 after the first period while the game was tied heading to the third. Jobin scored the winner with 5:52 to play in regulation. The Islanders went 2-for-5 with the man advantage while Cape Breton was 1-for-4.
The Islanders began the game with 12 forwards and five defenceman and Nikita Alexandrov didn’t play in the third. Charlottetown was missing defenceman Oscar Plandowski and goalie Jacob Goobie, who are away at the Under-17 World Hockey Challenge, as well as Cedric Desruisseaux, Thomas Casey, Lukas Cormier and Xavier Bernard.
The Islanders improved to 12-5-3-0 while the Eagles are 12-6-1-0. Charlottetown hosts the Gatineau Olympiques (6-11-3-0, but 4-0-1-0 in their last five games) Monday at 3 p.m.
