Home Featured RECAP | Crunch – Rocket: Vejdemo Scores Late, Laval Can’t Finish

RECAP | Crunch – Rocket: Vejdemo Scores Late, Laval Can’t Finish

0
RECAP | Crunch – Rocket: Vejdemo Scores Late, Laval Can’t Finish
Photo by Laval Rocket

Syracuse Crunch vs Laval Rocket Game Recap: Score, Line-up, Game Report, Statistics, Three Stars, Highlights, Post-Game Interviews, Social Media

FINAL | 2018-19 Season, Game 62 | Wednesday, March 13, 2019 
Place Bell, Laval, QC

ROCKET
Laval

2-4

CRUNCH
Syracuse

Photo by Laval Rocket

Lineup

Forward lines and defense pairings: 

[one_half]Cox – Evans – Grenier
Belzile – Vejdemo – Alain
Audette – Pezzetta – Jevpalovs
Kile – Verbeek – Waked[/one_half]

[one_half_last]Alzner – Lernout
Ouellet – Fleury
Sklenicka – Lamarche[/one_half_last]

Goaltenders:
McNiven
LaCouvee

Scratches:

Ryan Culkin, Marco Roy, Morgan Adams-Moisan

Injury List:

Gustav Olofsson (shoulder), Noah Juulsen (eye), Michael McCarron (shoulder), Hunter Shinkaruk (upper body injury)

Game Report

After an enormous comeback victory on Saturday night against the Utica Comets, the Laval Rocket were back on home ice Wednesday to face off against another division rival, the Syracuse Crunch. With Charlie Lindgren recalled to Montreal for the remainder of the regular season, Michael McNiven takes over as the top goaltender on the farm team with Connor LaCouvee recalled from the ECHL to serve as his backup.

The Rocket started the game very strongly, particularly when the Crunch took a delay of game penalty less than a minute after the initial puck drop. Xavier Ouellet fired the puck past Eddie Pasquale in the waning seconds of the power play to put Laval up 1-0 early in the period.

After controlling play and the pace of the game for the next few minutes, but then Syracuse began to push back. The visitors put together a solid penalty kill near the midway point and then, with just over five minutes left in the frame, Cal Foote found the back of the net through traffic with a clean shot from the slot.

The second period was pretty uneventful, with both teams spending some time in the penalty box. Laval took three minor penalties in the period, and the penalty kill finally gave up a goal late in the period when Taylor Raddysh found himself all alone in the circle and patiently waited to fire the puck until after McNiven had already gone down.

Syracuse extended their lead early in the third period when Alexandre Grenier deflected a shot into the air and Gabriel Dumont batted the puck into the Laval net. The Rocket continued to put plenty of shots on Pasquale, but couldn’t seem to get any through.

McNiven had a couple of very good saves to keep his team in the game, and then with just over a minute left in the game, Lukas Vejdemo pulled his team within one when he scooped up a rebound in the crease.

But then Pasquale sent the puck flying down the ice toward Laval’s empty net, and although he missed it, Alex Barre-Boulet did not and put Syracuse back up by two goals to end the game.

The Rocket next face another division rival, the Belleville Senators, on the road Friday and Saturday. The Senators currently sit in that coveted fourth place position in the North Division, which is the cutoff spot for the playoffs.

Plus/Minus

▲    Brett Lernout, David Sklenicka

▼    Alexandre Alain, Alexandre Grenier

The Numbers

 Game Statistics 
ROCKET CRUNCH
31 Shots 21
1 for 5 Power Play 1 for 3
6 Penalty Minutes 10
 Scoring Summary
 FINAL 1 2 3 OT SO T
 Rocket (25-27-6-4) 1 0 1 2
 Crunch (38-17-4-2) 1 1 2 4
Scorers Goalies
  • LAV: Ouellet (4), Vejdemo (12)
  • SYR: Foote (8), Raddysh (16), Dumont (10), Barre-Boulet (29)
  • LAV: McNiven (L) 9-9-2-2
  • UTI: Pasquale (W) 22-10-5-4

Stars of the Game

 AHL Official Three Stars
ahl14_200  

  1. Eddie Pasquale  SYR
  2. Gabriel Dumont  SYR
  3. Lukas Vejdemo  LAV

Watch

 Video highlights

What Did They Say?

 Post-game interviews
Post-game interview with Joel Bouchard:

Post-game interview with Michael McNiven:

Post-game interview with Michael Pezzetta:

Post-game interview with Alex Belzile:

Interviews conducted by Chris G for AHL Report

Social Media

 Social Media: Follow @TheAHLReport on Twitter
https://twitter.com/JoeWhalen19/status/1105600804776562688

Follow @theAHLReport on Twitter

Be sure to follow @AllHabs on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, YouTube

LEAVE A REPLY

Please enter your comment!
Please enter your name here