Conor Garland and Stephen Johnson each had four-point nights as the visiting Moncton Wildcats took a 5-3 decision over the Charlottetown Islanders Tuesday night at Eastlink Centre.
“Special teams killed us on that one,” said Islanders defenceman Dexter Weber.
The Wildcats scored three times on seven power play opportunities and added a short-handed goal in the second period.
Charlottetown drops its third straight game and are 8-10-1-1 on the season. The Wildcats pick up their third win of the season against Charlottetown and improve to 11-8-0-0.
Garland had a goal and three assists for Moncton, while Johnson had three goals and added an assist.
“We wanted this one bad,” said Weber. “Especially being divisional rivals and how they beat us last time, we wanted this one bad.”
Islanders assistant captain Kameron Kielly said it was a tough loss.
“It’s not fun losing to them but we’re going on a road trip here and gives us a chance to bond together again and hopefully come back with two or three wins.”
The Islanders held a 1-0 lead after the first period with Filip Chlapik’s seventh goal of the season at 16:25. Alexandre Goulet and Bradley Kennedy drew assists. Shots were 9-8 in favour of Charlottetown.
In the second period, Johnson scored back-to-back power play goals at 6:14 and 9:46 respectively to give the visitors a 2-1 lead.
Charlottetown responded with a power play goal of their own as Weber scored his first goal in an Islanders uniform at 11:15. Spenser Cobbold and Oliver Cooper drew assists.
The tie was broken when Moncton’s Johnson scored his third of the game, and of the period, at 16:07 while short-handed to give Moncton the 3-2 lead going into the dressing room.
“Bounces didn’t go our way obviously,” said Kielly. “Just tough breaks I guess.”
As for Weber, it was good to finally get the monkey of his back after scoring his first as an Islander.
“I was on the power play and I was yelling for Cobs to pass me the puck and I was wide open so I thought I’d give it a shot.”
Moncton had a 14-6 advantage in shots.
In the third period, Kennedy tied the game on the power play at 3:32 with his fifth goal of the season from Daniel Sprong and Ryan MacKinnon.
The Wildcats took the lead back with Garland’s seventh goal of the season and third point of the night at 8:14. Ivan Barbashev capped off the scoring with a power play goal at 10:01.
Alex Dubeau made 22 saves in the win for Moncton. Mason McDonald took the loss for Charlottetown stopping 29 shots.
The Islanders begin a three-games-in-three-nights road trip on Friday in Gatineau at 8:30 p.m. The Islanders then travel to Blainville-Boisbriand on Saturday at 5 p.m. and then to Drummondville on Sunday at 5 p.m. All times are AST.
Weber will make his return to Drummondville since being traded to the Islanders in May.
“It will be nice to see some familiar faces,” said Weber.
No comments:
Post a Comment