RECAP | Americans – Rocket: Plenty of Youth on Display Against Rochester

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(Photo by Stephane Dube | © Rocket Sports Media) Mandatory Credit Required

 

FINAL | 2017-18 Season, Game 72 | Wednesday April 4, 2018 
Place Bell, Laval, QC

ROCKET
Laval

2-3

AMERICANS
Rochester

(Photo by Stephane Dube | © Rocket Sports Media) Mandatory Credit Required

Lineup

Forward lines and defense pairings: 

[one_half]Boucher – Cracknell – Terry
Korostelev – Petti – Gregoire
Veilleux – Eisenschmid – Felhaber
Broll – Beauregard – Waked[/one_half]

[one_half_last]Plant – Valiev
Austin – Taormina
McFadden – Owens[/one_half_last]

Goaltenders:
Lindgren
Fucale

Scratches:

Tom Parisi, Eric Gelinas, Michael McNiven, Jeremiah Addison (flu), Simon Bourque (DTD), Thomas Ebbing (DTD), Daniel Audette (lower body), Stefan Leblanc (day to day)

Injury List:

Game Report

With injuries and callups continuing to work against the Laval Rocket, the lineup featured 11 rookies – plenty of them on ATO and PTO – on Wednesday night when the Rochester Americans came to Place Bell.

The game started with ten minutes of uneventful, end-to-end hockey, but just after the midway point in the period the Amerks took the first penalty of the night. Adam Cracknell scooped up Matt Taormina‘s rebound off the endboards to put the Rocket up 1-0. Chris Terry also notched an assist, tying him with Phil Varone for the league lead in points at 67.

(Photo by Stephane Dube | © Rocket Sports Media) Mandatory Credit Required

Just a couple of minutes later, however, Rochester got that goal right back as they took advantage of a turnover which created an odd-man rush in Laval’s defensive zone. The remainder of the period was spent with both teams alternating time on the power play.

In the middle frame, it was more of the same: nothing overly special, just consistent back and forth play.  Antoine Waked woke the bench up, however, when he laid a big slapshot on the Rochester net from the point and the puck found its way through to give Laval a 2-1 lead.

(Photo by Stephane Dube | © Rocket Sports Media) Mandatory Credit Required

But when it looked like the Rocket would take that lead into the third period, Rochester found themselves with a lot of open ice as Laval was slow on a late-period change. They tied the game at 2-2 with just 20.5 seconds left in the period.

To make matters worse, they would score again 36 seconds into the third period when Colin Blackwell got his second goal of the night by lifting the puck over a sprawling Charlie Lindgren.

(Photo by Stephane Dube | © Rocket Sports Media) Mandatory Credit Required

Three Laval penalties in the final frame didn’t help the Rocket as they tried to find an equalizer in this one, but they fought hard to battle back.  Lindgren was strong in net to keep the team within one goal but the home team couldn’t find a way to get the puck into the net one more time.

The Rocket have won just 10 games on home ice all season. They’ll look to bring that number to 11 on Friday when the Springfield Thunderbirds visit Place Bell.

▲     Adam Cracknell, Matt Taormina, Chris Terry

▼     Trevor Owens

 Statistics 
ROCKET   AMERICANS
27 Shots 33
1 for 4 Power Play 0 for 4
10 Penalty Minutes 10
 Scoring
 FINAL 1 2 3 OT SO T
 Rocket (24-39-7-2) 1 1 0 2
 Americans (34-20-11-6) 1 1 1 3
Scorers Goalies
  • LAV: Cracknell (28), Waked (7)
  • RCH: Blackwell (13), Malone (11), Blackwell (14)
  • LAV: Lindgren (L) 8-18-8-2
  • RCH: Johansson (W) 3-2-0-0
 AHL Three Stars
ahl14_200  

  1. Colin Blackwell  RCH
  2. Danny O’Regan  RCH
  3. Charlie Lindgren  LAV

 Video highlights

 

 Post-game interview
 

Interviews conducted by Amy Johnson for AHL Report

 Social Media: Follow @TheAHLReport on Twitter
https://twitter.com/Baygold2/status/981348456370524160

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