Ivan Barbashev scored a hat-trick to lead the Moncton Wildcats to a 5-3 win over the Charlottetown Islanders Sunday afternoon at Eastlink Centre.
The Islanders drop to 4-2-1-0 on the season as the Wildcats improve to 4-2-0-0 on the season.
Charlottetown trailed 4-0 going into the third period before scoring three of their own to make it interesting.
"We really made a push to comeback but we just came up short at the end," said Islanders rookie Mitchell Balmas.
It stings, said Islanders forward Bradley Kennedy.
"We kind of shot ourselves in the foot in the first period taking all those penalties but it's just the way things go."
Balmas said the team is pushing to play a full 60-minute game.
"We're not right there yet. We just got to keep going, be discipline, battle and do the little things right."
Both Balmas and Kennedy scored goals in the third period for the Islanders.
Moncton opened the scoring at 7:03 of the first period with Ivan Barbashev's first goal of the season and of the game. Christophe Lalonde and Conor Garland drew assists. Shots were 13-6 in favour of Moncton, despite having four power plays.
In the second period, Mathieu Olivier gave Moncton a 2-0 lead at 8:02 with his first goal of the season. Will Smith and Stephen Johnson drew assists. Barbashev added his second goal of the game at 14:48 to give the Wildcats a 3-0 lead before Lalonde's third of the season made it 4-0 at 16:50 on the power play. Shot were 16-7 Moncton.
"They buried their opportunities," said Kennedy on the second period. "I think we gave them two odd-man rushes and they capitalized."
The Islanders found the back of the net at the 7:24 mark of the third period with Balmas' second goal of the season. Kennedy drew the lone assist. Kennedy then made it a two-goal game with a power play goal at 13:26 with his second goal of the season. Oliver Cooper and Ryan MacKinnon picked up assists. Just 1:12 later, Julien Avon's first goal of the season made it 4-3 with Samuel Guilbault picking up the lone assist.
The comeback was short lived as Barbashev added his third of the game at 17:26.
Islanders held a 19-7 shot advantage in the third period.
Alex Dubeau made 29 saves in the winning cage for Moncton as Mason McDonald took the loss for Charlottetown making 31 saves.
The Islanders are in Saint John on Wednesday Oct. 1 to battle the Sea Dogs.
“We just got to take the positives out of the game, so we’ll worry about the negatives coming up this week and come back in Saint John…just play a full 60 minutes and work it down low,” said Balmas.
Game time on Wednesday is 7 p.m. AST
Islanders Insights:
-Islanders power play was one-for-two
-Islanders penalty kill was five-for-six
-Oliver Cooper led the team in hits with three
-Islanders outhit the Wildcats 13-12
-Kameron Kielly was 14-for-18 in the face-off circle
-Mitchell Balmas lead the team in shots with six, two of which were considered dangerous
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