Sports stats



QMJHL Charlottetown Islanders

Another Slow First Period Proves Costly as Isles Fall to Eagles

February 6, 2021 - Quebec Maritimes Junior Hockey League (QMJHL)
Charlottetown Islanders News Release


The Charlottetown Islanders learned another hard lesson on Saturday night: Every game is 60 minutes.

A three-goal deficit after the first period was too much to overcome, despite the team's valiant effort. 16-year-old netminder Nicolas Ruccia made 39 saves as the Cape Breton Eagles thwarted Colten Ellis's undefeated streak, defeating the Islanders 5-4 on Saturday night.

"It's our second game this week that we didn't show up in the first period," said Cedric Desruisseaux on the loss. "We had a good first five minutes, but then we slowed down. It's costing us games; to win you have to play a full 60 minutes and we're not doing that right now. We're kind of always having to play catch up and it's killing us."

Desruisseaux, who scored twice in this game, added that while the team is playing with character, it's not being done over the full game.

While the problem in Wednesday's loss to the Mooseheads was that the Isles didn't start out strong, that wasn't the case tonight. Charlottetown came out of the gate hot, recording seven shots in the first five minutes before Cape Breton even registered their first. Unfortunately, the foot came off the gas pedal, the Islanders got sloppy, and the Eagles took advantage. Liam Kidney got the ball rolling with a powerplay goal before Emile Hegarty-Aubin took advantage of a turnover at the blueline and scored uncontested on Colten Ellis. That was followed shortly after by a Nathan Larose point shot that got past a screened netminder for his team-leading eleventh goal on the season.

Charlottetown would come out hungry in the second period and fight hard to right the ship. Their persistence would pay off shorthanded; Bailey Peach would pot his first as an Islander at a timely moment toe-dragging around a sprawling Eagles defender and going short-side on Ruccia for his first goal of the season.

Desruisseaux would follow up with a marker of his own before the period was out off a pretty give-and-go with Patrick Guay. The QMJHL's league leader in goals, who had his goal scoring streak snapped at the hands of the Eagles last week, wouldn't be denied in this game.

Matthew MacDonald and Thomas Casey would trade tallies in the third period before Dawson Stairs added his first goal as an Eagle, going short-side on Ellis for his fourth of the season.

Desruisseaux would make it interesting with his second of the night with the net empty, but that's as close as they'd come as Stairs's tally would eventually become the game-winner.

Desruisseaux added three points while Casey picked up yet another two points of his own. Guay, Brett Budgell, Noah Laaouan, Ryan Maynard, and Lukas Cormier would all add single assists.

The loss was Colten Ellis's first of the season, and ends his QMJHL record-tying streak of 12 straight wins to start the year.

After a busy week the Islanders will get a much-deserved week off before heading across the bridge to Nova Scotia to battle the Halifax Mooseheads on Saturday afternoon. It'll be the team's first full week of practice as a full unit after Patrick Guay and Braeden Virtue joined the team just one day before playing three games in four nights.

"It's going to be great to have a full week of practice," added Desruisseaux. "I think the biggest thing is that we have to be game-ready, even if it's at practice. We play like we practice, and if we aren't ready this week, it'll show up next weekend."

You can follow along at any one of our five viewing partners across Charlottetown, or by tuning in to Ocean 100's Saturday Night Hockey with George Matthews and Cory Arsenault!

Check out the Charlottetown Islanders Statistics



Quebec Maritimes Junior Hockey League Stories from February 6, 2021


The opinions expressed in this release are those of the organization issuing it, and do not necessarily reflect the thoughts or opinions of OurSports Central or its staff.

Other Recent Charlottetown Islanders Stories



Sports Statistics from the Stats Crew
OurSports Central