CHARLOTTETOWN, P.E.I. — The Charlottetown Islanders hear head coach Jim Hulton say often, “You have to earn the right to win, day in and day out.”
It comes from practising the right way. Those practice skills transfer to how good teams play when the games begin.
“We kind of took that for granted this week,” an honest Thomas Casey said Friday night after a 4-2 loss to the Rimouski Oceanic in Quebec Major Junior Hockey League (QMJHL) action at the Eastlink Centre. “We played better than we practised but it wasn't good enough and it cost us. If you don’t practice well then it shows in the games. We had some lapses that cost us and that starts in practice.”
A couple of times during Thursday’s practice at the Eastlink Centre, Hulton made a point to let his players know a team building for a long playoff run was coming to their building in about 30 hours and they needed to be ready.
Cedric Desruisseaux, a veteran of 150 games in the league, said the Islanders were not ready on Friday night, despite the marquee matchup and a near sellout crowd of 3,626 – a rarity for a regular season game in Charlottetown, particularly for one on Nov. 1.
“It was a big test and a lot of guys here are new and they don't know that every team can win in this league and if you’re not ready, you’re going to lose. Tonight, we saw it. If we’re ready, I think we can beat this team, but we were not,” Desruisseaux said. “We have to wake up, starting with our practice.”
Hulton acknowledged he didn't like the team’s week of preparation, but he saw some positives from Friday.
“Quite frankly, I thought we were going to get our ass kicked tonight. We didn't,” he said.
“We came up short on a night when I didn't think we had anywhere close to our A game, so that’s a good sign,” he added. “I think we’ve gradually strayed away from what we believe our identity is. I don't think we’ve seen the trademark forecheck, the tenacity, that our club is accustomed to.”
The Islanders were facing a goalie making his first QMJHL start and only had to play about half the game against one of the league’s stars, but it did run into some bad luck along the way.
Nathan Ouellet opened the scoring 13 minutes in by batting home a puck at the side of the net.
Cole Cormier made it 2-0 with 56 seconds left in the first period after being sprung on a breakaway with Islanders defenceman Anthony Hamel on the ice after receiving a hit to the head that wasn’t called.
Fifty-eight seconds into the second period, the Isles gave up a shorthanded goal to fall behind 3-0. Six minutes later, the top-ranked prospect for the 2020 NHL draft and the league’s second-leading scorer, Alexis Lafreniere, was tossed from the game for a hit the head of Xavier Bernard behind the Islanders net.
The home side scored once on the five-minute major but were unable to build on the momentum. It looked like Desruisseaux had brought the home side back to within one in the third, but the ref waved it off and the call stood upon review.
Cedric Pare, the league’s leading scorer, had an insurance goal nine seconds into a third-period power play to make it 4-1.
The Isles do have a strong record (10-4-3-0) but haven’t beat a lot of the top-end teams in the league.
While too much can be made of Friday’s lost opportunity, the Islanders also know they have to show they can beat top teams if they want to be considered a contender when the trade period opens in December.
“You look at the standings and it’s real, real tight and there’s some powerhouses that will probably going for it at Christmas,” Casey said, noting while there’s no panic the team has to get back to its identity. “If we take advantage of these dress rehearsals (for playoffs) and we capitalize on our chances, then we’ll have a better standing going into the playoffs and we have to start picking that up now.”
Highlight reel
A look at Friday's Quebec Major Junior Hockey League game between the Charlottetown Islanders and the Rimouski Oceanic.
Outcome
Rimouski – 4.
Charlottetown – 2.
Goals
Rimouski – Nathan Ouellet, Cole Cormier, Jeffrey Durocher and Cedric Pare.
Charlottetown – Nikita Alexandrov 2.
Assists
Rimouski – Cole Cormier 2, Maxime Collin, Adam Raska, Isaac Belliveau and Jeffrey Durocher.
Charlottetown – Zac Beauregard, Kevin Gursoy, Brett Budgell and Noah Laaouan.
Goalies
Rimouski – Jonathan Labrie, 25 saves on 27 shots.
Charlottetown – Matthew Welsh, 19 saves on 23 shots
Power plays
Rimouski – 1-for-2.
Charlottetown – 2-for-5.
Records
Rimouski – 11-4-1-2.
Charlottetown – 10-4-3-0.
Up next – Charlottetown travels to Acadie-Bathurst Saturday to play the last-place Titan (0-11-2-3).
