Introducing the Charlottetown Islanders

The PEI Rocket are now officially no more. In a press conference this morning that started at 10am, the new owners were revealed and the team officially announced the new name as well as the new logo and colors.

The franchise already announced their new team name a couple months but then the Q tried to move the team to Quebec so it was on the rocks for a bit. The PEI Rocket are now officially the Charlottetown Islanders. This is a much better name than what most people thought it was going to be after the Islander nickname was announced. PEI Islanders does not make sense. As with a new name there must be a new logo. The logo is a hoop with Charlottetown written in it, the bridge in the middle and Islanders written in front.

The team also announced the ownership group which includes 15 people. Some of the new ownership include Peter MacDonald of MacDonald Automotive Group, Jason Hunter, Ron MacAulay, Ron Murray and Steve Gauthier of Markan Hardwood, and Cyril, Jeff and Craig Chapman of Chapman Brothers Construction.

The jerseys will not be revealed until June 15 at a team sponsored event however people can most likely catch glimpses of the new unis during the QMJHL draft on June 8.

The team still needs to fix the media outlets but you can follow the Islanders now at @IslandersHKY and their website is now www.charlottetownislanders.com


R.I.P. Prince Edward Island Rocket and hello to the Charlottetown Islanders. Welcome to the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League see you in September.

Photo: PEI Gaurdian Twitter

UPDATE on PEI

Nine days after the season ended for the PEI Rocket with a 4-3 triple overtime loss in Game 6 of their first round series, the owners of the island team announced that they had a deal in place from a group who would like to buy the team. This prevented the QMJHL from buying the team and move them to Sorel, Quebec. Instead the Rocket are staying on the island. It was announced earlier in the season that the team would be called the PEI Islanders next season.

A report has announced that the team will be called the Charlottetown Islanders for the 2013-14 season. Thank goodness they decided to change the PEI part it didn't really make sense.

Keep checking back for more updates on the team.

PEI Rocket update

Good news Maritime fans. The PEI Rocket/Islanders announced yesterday that they are staying on the island. The QMJHL approached the PEI ownership on April 15 with an offer to buy the team. The team has been owned by the Savard family for awhile. No details have been released by the team of how the new group is made of. For full report click here. No word on whether or not if the new management will still change the team name.

Bye bye Rocket

The Prince Edward Island Rocket played their last game as the Rocket last night. The Maritime team was playing the Val-d'Or Foreurs in the first round of the playoffs. The Foreurs led Game 6 3-1 after two period. However the Rocket were able to score two goals in the third period to tie the game and force overtime. The two teams played an extra 41:03 minutes of hockey so clearly PEI wasn't ready to leave just yet. Cedrick Hanley scored the overtime winner at the 1:03 minute of the 3rd overtime period which eliminated the PEI Rocket from this years playoffs. Val-d'Or won the series 4-2 and will now play Blainville.

With the loss, the PEI Rocket are no more. They aren't disbanding or even moving, they are just changing their nickname. The name was announced earlier in the season and will take affect when they begin the 2013-14 season in August. PEI will now be nicknamed the Islanders after a fan vote took place in September.

The changes to logo, colors, and uniforms have not been announced but keep it plugged in to my blog as I will have a post when the information comes available.

PEI figure out defense card

The PEI Rocket have finally figured out how to play defence this season against the league's leading goals scored team, the Halifax Mooseheads. Though the shots indicate differently (35-29 Moose), the team who will next year be called the Islanders, finally limited the red and green to 3 goals after 3 games played this season allowing 7.33 goals/game. In Halifax's record tying 15 straight home win of the season, the home team won 3-1 without their star players Nate, Jo and Marty.

Notes: Beauchemin was credited with 2 goals tonight... MacKinnon, Drouin, Frk and Abeltshauser were all not in the lineup and won't be in tomorrow's game either... Konrad missed his 6th straight game with a wrist injury...

50/50
Congratulations to Michelle of Hubbards who got $8,200 winning tonight's 50/50

Three stars:
3. Currie (PEI)
2. Fucale (HAL)
1. Beauchemin (HAL)

Beauchemin also received Dickies hardest working player of the game

Attendence: 7,032

Nathan and Jonathan also were named to Canada's world junior team and will miss games until the 2 road games in January.


Score
Rocket 1 at Mooseheads 3

UP NEXT: versus Acadie-Bathurst tomorrow night at the Metro Centre

Dec 13: PEI vs. Mooseheads game preview

Home game number 16 goes tonight at 7:00pm and will be played against the Prince Edward Island Rocket. The Rocket are hosts to two of the top three scoring leaders so far this season with the Moose being host to the other, Nathan MacKinnon, who will not be playing tonight. Both Nate and Jonathan Drouin are currently playing for the Canadian junior team against the University of Calgary as I write this. They will know by tonight if they will represent our nation later in the month starting on Boxing Day in Ufa, Russia. Halifax can tie a team record tonight for consective home wins if they are able to beat PEI for the fourth time this season. In three games versus the Rocket, Halifax has scored an average of 7.33 goals, winning 8-1 on Sept 23 and 7-5 on October 17 in PEI, and most recently 7-3 at the Metro Centre on October 28.
Brad Cuzner will play tonight as a replacement for the still injured Konrad Abeltshauser. Halifax is going into the game with a 8-1-1-0 record in their last 10 games overall while PEI are 5-4-1-0 in their last 10 and have a 6-7-1-0 record on the road so far this season.

Overall record:
PEI: 17-12-2-0 = 36 points (3rd in Maritimes Division, 8th overall)
HFX: 25-3-1-1 = 52 points (1st in Maritimes Division, 1st overall)

Top Scorers:
ROCKET: #19 Josh Currie (27G, 25A, 52 PTS), #16 Ben Duffy (20G, 31A, 51 PTS), #29 Tomas Pavelka (6G, 20A, 26 PTS)
HALIFAX: #22 Nathan MacKinnon (22G, 30A, 52 PTS), #27 Jonathan Drouin (19G, 29A, 48 PTS), #91 Martin Frk (12G, 25A, 37 PTS)