Rocket Lineup

Phil Varone – Ryan Poehling – Alex Belzile

Charles Hudon – Jake Evans – Riley Barber

Nikita Jevpalovs – Lukas Vejdemo – Joe Cox

Michael Pezzetta – Kevin Lynch – Alexandre Alain

Otto Leskinen – Xavier Ouellet

Gustav Olofsson – Noah Juulsen

Karl Alzner – Josh Brook

Charlie Lindgren – Cayden Primeau

David Sklenicka, Dale Weise, Maxim Lamarche, Michael McCarron (suspended)

Matthew Peca (day-to-day), William Pelletier (undisclosed)

Game Report

After dropping Wednesday night’s game in Belleville 3-2, the Laval Rocket looked to get a much better start at their next stop on this road trip: a visit to the Hartford Wolf Pack.

A few notable lineup items for the game include Dale Weise being a healthy scratch in favor of Michael Pezzetta returning to the lineup. This is Weise’s first scratch of the season, and in the rink where he got his pro hockey start.

Additionally, goaltender Charlie Lindgren would face off against his younger brother, defenseman Ryan Lindgren, who plays for Hartford. 

Finally, defenseman Noah Juulsen would make his season debut for Laval, returning to the ice after being absent for the better part of a year dealing with lingering injuries from being hit in the face by a puck twice last year.

The Rocket should be pleased with the fact that they came away from the opening period tied 0-0 with the Wolf Pack. Shots were low at both ends of the ice and both teams killed off two penalties a piece, but Lindgren and Igor Shesterkin kept all pucks out of their nets.

In the second period, Laval seemed to settle into a bit of a rhythm and controlled much of the play. Each team took another minor penalty, but this time Laval made the Wolf Pack pay as Phil Varone seemed to score his first goal of the season, assisted by Alex Belzile and Jake Evans. But the goal was later changed to Ryan Poehling, however, as the puck seemed to deflect off of the rookie before going into the net.

Tight, evenly-played hockey continued to be the theme in the third period, as well as the continual parade to the penalty box for both teams. Lindgren made some very good saves and the Rocket forwards did their best to get quality shots on Shesterkin. 

About a minute into the final frame, though, Shesterkin went down and spent a good amount of time with trainers on the ice, gesturing to his arm. But after a few minutes he got up and stayed in the game.

Just when it looked like Laval was going to hand Hartford their first regulation loss of the season, and give Lindgren a shutout, Nick Ebert put a big shot on goal that seemed to change direction and found the back of the net with just 1:37 left in the game.

In the overtime period, Laval took yet another penalty which gave Hartford plenty of momentum in the offensive zone. After killing off the Josh Brook tripping minor, the Rocket managed to get the puck on a two-on-one breakaway. They weren’t successful, however, and the Wolf Pack took the puck quickly up the ice and ended the game on a slick give and go with just 42 seconds left.

The Rocket will finish up this road trip on Saturday night as they head to Providence to take on the Bruins for the third time in just over a week.

Plus / Minus

▲  Charlie Lindgren, Ryan Poehling

▼  Josh Brook, Karl Alzner, Kevin Lynch