Just like that the Halifax Mooseheads are done for the year.
The Charlottetown Islanders pulled off a 4-2 comeback win over the Mooseheads in Charlottetown on Wednesday to complete a 4-0 sweep in the secondround best-of-seven.
“They didn’t quit,” Mooseheads head coach Jim Midgley said of the Islanders. “They were resilient and they didn’t let off the gas pedal. They capitalized on some opportunities and got some bounces. They played well.”
Like in Game 3, the Mooseheads built a 2-0 lead and had themselves in good shape. Filip Zadina opened the scoring with his fifth goal of the playoffs on a second-period power play and Joel Bishop followed up less than three minutes later on a nice move in tight on Charlottetown goalie Matthew Welsh.
The Islanders got on the board with 2:04 left in the second period when Daniel Hardie scored on a one-timer from the face-off dot on the power
play. Nikita Alexandrov made it a tie game 78 seconds into the third period when he scored blocker side on a rush down the wing.
Bridgewater native Keith Getson gave the Islanders their first lead of the game at 14:34 of the third period when he gathered the puck just inside the Mooseheads blue line, cut to the middle and scored from the high slot. Derek Gentile clinched the sweep with an empty-net goal.
“They found another gear and they used their experience from last year,” Midgley said. “They have guys that went to the semis last year. Winning is hard in this league and each round when you’re getting closer to playing for the President’s Cup, it gets more difficult.
“I think our young guys learned a lesson on how hard it is to win in this league and they (the Islanders) worked hard for this. We also worked hard but they worked harder.”
Alexis Gravel turned aside 31 shots for Halifax and Welsh finished with 26 saves for Charlottetown.
Centre Otto Somppi returned to the Halifax lineup after missing seven games with a lower body injury. He drew an assist on Zadina’s goal. Captain Maxime Fortier had also been playing on a badlyinjured ankle.
“Neither one of them was close to 100 per cent,”Midgley said. “Jared (McIsaac) also got slashed on the wrist and missed half of the second period and (Bo) Groulx got slashed in the third period and couldn’t play for half of the third period. He tried but he couldn’t do it. That’s hockey and that’s playoffs.”
Forwards Kyle Petten and Gavin Hart and defencemen Ryan Barbosa and Cooper Jones were scratched for Halifax.
Wildcats 5, Armada 4: At Moncton, James Phelan’s back-toback goals in the second period helped the Wildcats avoid being swept by Blainville-Boisbriand.
Jeremy McKenna, Alexander Khovanov and Brady Pataki also scored for the Wildcats and Luke Henman, with two, and Joel Teasdale had the Armada goals.
Halifax native Mark Grametbauer made 38 saves for Moncton and Emile Samson and Mikhail Denisov combined to stop 28 shots for Blainville-Boisbriand.
-WILLY PALOV
