Ross Johnston scored a pair of goals and assists in a wild 7-6 win over the Moncton Wildcats Saturday afternoon at Moncton Coliseum.
The overage forward skated in his last regular season QMJHL game along with Ryan MacKinnon and Spenser Cobbold.
It was a great way to finish, said Johnston who began his junior career with the Wildcats.
"This is where it all started. There was a little extra motivation when (Conor) Garland and (Ivan) Barbashev we're spinning their sticks in the last game. It was great for this team."
The Islanders end the season with a 35-28-1-4 record with 75 points which will clinch second place in Maritimes Division and ninth overall. The Islanders will play the 8th placed Sherbrooke Phoenix in the first round of the playoffs.
The Wildcats fall to 46-18-0-3 with one game left on their schedule.
Johnston said the win is huge for the team's confidence.
"Anytime you end the season with two big wins like that it goes a long way. Hopefully it rides into playoffs."
The team battled through a lot of adversity in the last two games, said Johnston.
"We bent a little but we didn't break once again...it's great for this team, character wise."
Islanders forward Daniel Sprong scored two goals and one assist in the win. He said it was high scoring but the team will take the two points.
"We wrecked their chance at winning the league and that was our goal coming in. We knew this was a tough crowd to play in.
"We have a couple of things to work on. We gave up six but also scored seven so that means we played good offensively and need to work on our D zone before playoffs."
All four lines were rolling, said Sprong.
"We stayed out of the box pretty well. Just a couple of things in the D zone we got to fix."
Moncton opened the scoring 2:59 into the contest off the stick of Kyle Tibbo for his 11th of the season. William Bower and Lane Cormier drew assists.
Luc Deschenes tied the game with a power play goal at 15:06 for his fourth of the season. Johnston and Kameron Kielly picked up assists.
Johnston gave the Islanders a 2-1 lead at the 17-minute mark with his 17th of the season. Spenser Cobbold and Dexter Weber drew assists.
Just 31 seconds into the second period, Cameron Askew scored his 17th of the season to tie the game up. Matthew Klebasnkyj and Bronson Beaton drew assists.
Islanders took the lead back with Sprong's 38th of the season at 2:47 on the power play. Johnston and Kielly drew assists.
The Wildcats once again evened the game up this time from Ivan Barbashev at 4:57 for his 45th of season. Conor Garland and Stephen Johnson drew assists.
Moncton took its second lead of the game at the 7:54 mark with a goal from Will Smith. Taylor Burke and Noah Zilbert drew assists.
The back-and-forth action continued as Alexandre Goulet scored his 35th of the season on the power play at 10:53 to even the game at four. Filip Chlapik and Sprong drew assists n
Charlottetown took a 5-4 lead into the third period with Johnston's second of the game and 18th of the season. Oliver Cooper and Weber drew assists.
Just like most of the game, the Wildcats tied the game at five at the 7:01 mark of the third period for his second goal of the season. Garland and Barbashev drew assists.
Sprong responded just 20 seconds later to give the Islanders a 6-5 lead. Weber and Chlapik drew assists.
Islanders took the first two-goal lead of the game at 8:30 with Quinn O’Brien scoring his eighth of the season and first as a member of the Islanders. Samuel Guilbault and Guillaume Rioux-Legault drew assists.
Moncton made it interesting at 17:12 while playing with an extra attacker as Dominic Talbot-Tassi made it a 7-6 game. Barbashev drew the lone assist.
Daryl MacCallum made 35 saves in the win for Charlottetown. Jason Rioux suffered the loss for Moncton making 26 saves. Hugo Talbot-Tassi stopped all three shots in relief of Rioux in 9:19 of playing time.
The Islanders will open the 2015 playoffs on the road in Sherbrooke for Games 1 and 2 on Friday March 27 and Saturday March 28. The playoff schedule will be released at a later time.
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