The L/A Fighting Spirit had won the previous three meeting against the Cape Cod Islanders by one goal. On Friday, the Islanders flipped the script at the Androscoggin Bank Colisee with a 2-1 victory, sending the Fighting Spirit on their first losing streak of the season.

“Obviously, when you score one goal, it’s tough to win the game,” L/A interim coach) Cam Robichaud said. “I think this was a battle and a one-goal difference all four times we have had played them. It definitely comes down to power play opportunities. We scored one and they scored two. You win and lose on the power play at the highest levels of hockey. It’s something we need to capitalize on a little bit better.”

The Islanders jumped out to a 1-0 lead when Eric Szeker found the back of the net at the 11:34 mark of the opening frame. The assists went to Mike Jessman and Dylan Legarie.

The game remained 1-0 in favor of Cape Cod until Brett Bittner tied the game with 4:43 remaining in the second period. It was his fifth goal in eight games since rejoining the Fighting Spirit. The assists went to defensemen Mark Ferullo and Jordan Crowe.

L/A came out shooting in the third period, but it was Cape Cod’s first shot of the stanza, 5:51 into the period, that found the back of the net. Steven Matthews notched his seventh goal this season with Szeker and Chris O’Donnell notching the assists.

Anton Zemba made 29 saves in the victory while Claes Endre also stopped 29 shots in the losing effort.

“I will give (Zemba) credit, I think he played a strong game, he got two points for his team,” Robichaud said. “I don’t think he had to make some outstanding saves, I think there were a lot of perimeter shots and easily controlled by him. At times I thought he bobbled the puck and we weren’t having second waves of offense coming in to crash the net to get the rebounds for second, third and fourth efforts.”

The Fighting Spirit look get back in the win column Saturday night as they host the New England Stars at 7 p.m.

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