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Charlottetown Islanders

Islanders Pleased with Effort Despite Loss to Shawinigan

February 3, 2016 - Quebec Maritimes Junior Hockey League (QMJHL)
Charlottetown Islanders News Release


The Charlottetown Islanders aren't letting themselves get down despite a 7-3 loss to the Shawinigan Cataractes on Wednesday night at the Eastlink Centre.

Head Coach Jim Hulton said the scoreboard definitely wasn't a reflection on the game.

"Overall, I don't think it was a 7-3 game. I don't think that was a fair reflection of the game.

"If I walked away with anything from this evening, it's that we can play with anybody in the league when our focus is where it needs to be."

The Isles got on the board first with a power play opportunity just a few minutes into the game. A minute into the penalty, Oliver Cooper tipped a shot from the point by Filip Chlapik past Philippe Cadorette to open the scoring. There was a lengthy review to see if it was a high-stick, but it was deemed a good goal.

The Cataractes responded almost immediately, with Anthony Beauvillier ripping a shot past Mason McDonald less than a minute after the Islanders had taken the lead, at the 7:23 mark.

Later in the period, Gabriel Gagne launched a quick shot over the blocker of McDonald to make it 2-1 at 16:04, but before the period was over the Islanders had another shot on the power play and Luc Deschenes launched a shot through traffic to send the teams into the intermission tied.

The Cataractes came on hard in the second period and gained some momentum after Mathieu Olivier got one around the pads of Mason McDonald to give Shawinigan the go-ahead goal at 7:48.

Less than a minute later it was a two-goal lead as Nicholas Welsh wristed a shot from the faceoff dots that beat McDonald.

Despite the Islanders killing some big penalties in the latter half of the second, they gave the Cataractes a gift late in the period as Bradley Kennedy turned the puck over in front of his own night right onto the stick of Dmytro Timashov, who set up Beauvillier to make it 5-2.

The Islanders fired plenty of shots on Cadorette in the third, and Daniel Sprong gave the team some life with a power play marker midway through the period to make it 5-3. They had a chance to get right back in the game when they had another power play a couple of minutes later, but they gave up a shorthanded goal to Alex Pawelczyk at 15:22.

Brandon Gignac sealed the deal with an empty net goal with a couple of minutes left in the game.

Despite the end result, there were plenty of positives to take away from the game, said Hulton.

One of the biggest positives was the Islanders' special teams. Each of their three goals were scored on the power play and their penalty kill was perfect against the league's top power play unit.

"We knew we'd have to stay out of the box, but when we took the ones we did, (the penalty kill) did a terrific job. The power play did its job to give us a ton of life," said Hulton.

Hulton said there's still lots for the team to feel good about heading into a big weekend in Nova Scotia against Cape Breton and Halifax.

"We lost a tough game, but there's a lot of positives to build on. I think our starting point is that third period - we dominated play there, drew a bunch of penalties and that's the way we want to play."

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Quebec Maritimes Junior Hockey League Stories from February 3, 2016


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