| RK | Team | GP | Pts |
| 12 | Vic | 70 | 60 |
| 13 | BaC | 70 | 57 |
| 14 | PEI | 70 | 55 |
| 15 | VdO | 70 | 54 |
| 16 | Bat | 70 | 46 |
| # | Player | GP | Pts |
| 22 | Bureau | 70 | 66 |
| 10 | Trukhno | 64 | 59 |
| 45 | Soucy | 70 | 55 |
| 25 | Lapierre (C) | 69 | 52 |
| 52 | Gragnani | 68 | 39 |
| 16 | Laliberté (A) | 41 | 36 |
| 3 | Bezeau | 68 | 23 |
| # | Name | Pts |
| 22 | Bureau | 31 |
| 1 | Mior | 25 |
| 10 | Trukhno | 21 |
| 16 | Laliberté (A) | 20 |
| 25 | Lapierre (C) | 14 |
| 45 | Soucy | 13 |
| 44 | Bonneau (A) | 9 |
The win moves the Screaming Eagles ahead of the Rocket in the division standings with a 13-10-5-2 record.
Marc-Andre Gragnani gave the Rocket a 1-0 lead at 2:44 of the first period on his third goal of the seaon, assisted by Pierre-Andre Bureau and Slava Trukhno.
Adam Pardy tied it at 8:55 for Cape Breton, while P.E.I. went into the intermission ahead 2-1 on Billy Bezeau’s goal at 16:20.
The Rocket then went up 3-1 on David Laliberte’s 16th of the season at 5:56 but the Screaming Eagles mounted a comeback later in the period to tie up the game.
Samuel Beland scored at 8:17 and Vincent Lambert made it 3-3 with 28 seconds left in the period.
Jonathan Boutin faced 29 shots for the Rocket, while Martin Houle blocked 25 for Cape Breton.
Rocket president and general manager Serge Savard Jr. pulled no punches in assessing his team’s 0-3-1 performance recently in Quebec.
“I was disappointed in Drummondville. We lost 8-1,” he said, referring to the pounding the Rocket endured Nov. 26 against the 11-11-4-3 Voltigeurs.
But he qualified that statement with a flippant nod to league schedulers, who slotted the Rocket into a late fall, four-game-in-five night road trip and, said Savard, the result meant a tired, burned out Island squad.
“It’s impossible. You can’t ask these kids to do that. (Against Quebec and Rimouski) it was like a junior A team against a junior B team.”
That scheduling tendency Savard would like to see the league change, mirroring the Ontario Hockey League’s three-games-in-three-nights weekend packages.
He said OHL attendance statistics show larger draws than weekday games and for the players it means less mid-week hockey, leaving extra time for school or university.
But back on the the ice, the Quebec and Maine games also produced a few unexpected twists as goaltender Ryan Mior and forward Tyler Hawes became sick with fever and sore throats.
Savard, worried something contagious might cut through the players huddled in the team bus, drove Mior back to P.E.I. from Rimouski.
Back home, fearing mononucleosis had struck the Rocket, Savard had Hawes and Mior checked out.
So far, Savard’s not sure of anything until “we look at the blood test results.”
Add defenceman Riku Kropinen, who’s day to day with a bruised back but played Friday night, and it means a depleted group for Sunday’s game against the 11-13-6 Maineiacs. The teams tied 2-2 in their first meeting Nov. 24 in Lewiston.
Recent pickup goalie Todd Gregory, the Rocket’s seventh-round pick in the 2004 midget draft, backs up Boutin.
If travel’s daunting now, next season it gets hairer as the Rocket land in two new destinations — Saint John, N.B. and St. John’s, Nfld., whose $3 million franchise fee per team secured them spots in the ‘Q’ for the 2005-06 campaign.
Savard, though, welcomes the teams and doesn’t mind puddle-jumping to Newfoundland on a plane, the costs of which the St. John’s club will cover for all QMJHL teams when they travel to the Rock.
“Those two markets are going to be unbelievable. They are going to be successful,” Savard said.
He’s also a bit jealous at the revenues the big markets and 7,000-8,000 fans at Harbour Station in Saint John and in Mile One Stadium in St. John’s might generate if the teams make the playoffs versus 3,800 stuffed in the Civic Centre.
“That’s where they (the teams) make the money,” he said.
