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QMJHL Charlottetown Islanders

Penalty Kill Comes up Big as Isles Defeat Sea Dogs in Home Opener

October 23, 2020 - Quebec Maritimes Junior Hockey League (QMJHL)
Charlottetown Islanders News Release


The first home game of the Charlottetown Islanders season was a memorable one for Ryan Maynard.

The 18-year-old picked up his first career QMJHL goal, along with his first career assist, in a great effort to lead the Islanders to a 5-1 victory over the Saint John Sea Dogs.

"To see a young kid like that come in and blossom like that in his first home game was great," said Islanders head coach Jim Hulton on Maynard's performance. "This kid has no idea how good he can be, and it's great to see his confidence grow offensively. I thought he played a terrific game, I'm really happy for him."

"It's good to get it under the belt, and get that monkey off the back." Maynard said on his goal.

The Isles' role players came up large in this game, and it started right from the get-go. Felix Tremblay found Keiran Gallant with a long stretch pass and the Covehead native would find paydirt, getting a friendly bounce off of Christopher Inniss's skate in front as the puck dribbled past Noah Patenaude for Gallant's second goal on the year.

Charlottetown kept the pressure up throughout the first two periods, and it paid off. On a 2-on-1 break, Maynard picked up his first career QMJHL point with a great pass cross-ice to Drew Elliott, who wired the puck past Patenaude top shelf for his first goal on the season.

Maynard wasted little time keeping it going, getting on the board just two minutes later. Some great work in the corner by Zac Beauregard allowed him to come away with the puck and feed a pinching Maynard, who fired a quick one-timer over the shoulder of Patenaude to cap off a great period for the Cochrane, Ontario native.

The Islanders found themselves in quite a bit of penalty trouble throughout the game, but they refused to let that slow them down. Near the end of the second period, Patrick Leblanc sprung Cedric Desruisseaux on a shorthanded break and he made no mistake, flipping the puck over Patenaude's glove for his league-leading eighth goal of the season.

Saint John would push back in the third as Peter Reynolds added a goal, but it wasn't enough. Sam Oliver capitalized on a powerplay opportunity late to give the Isles their 5-1 victory.

Maynard and Gallant each ended up with a goal and an assist, while William Trudeau had two assists of his own. Leblanc, Thomas Casey, and Felix Trudeau each ended up with single assists. Colten Ellis made 24 saves en route to his fifth straight victory to start his Islanders career.

Despite the big score, Hulton wasn't enamoured with his team's performance, calling it "good, but not great". The Isles head coach noted that discipline needs to be improved upon.

"That's 15 minor penalties in two games. We can't do that. Thank God our penalty kill was good again tonight; part of that was Ellis, but it was just foolishness. This is a team that can skate, so it tells me we have to do a little more conditioning to get our feet moving."

The Islanders are back in action tomorrow night at the Eastlink Centre as the Moncton Wildcats make their way to Charlottetown. You'll be able to catch the action at the Brackley Drive-In once again along with The Factory Downtown and Boston Pizza. You can also listen to the action live on Ocean 100's Saturday Night Hockey!

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Quebec Maritimes Junior Hockey League Stories from October 23, 2020


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