Rocket Lineup

Matthew Peca – Jake Evans – Charles Hudon

Yannick Veilleux – Phil Varone – Riley Barber

Alexandre Alain – Laurent Dauphin – Joe Cox

Michael Pezzetta – Kevin Lynch – Nikita Jevpalovs

Gustav Olofsson – Christian Folin

Otto Leskinen – Cale Fleury

Karl Alzner – Josh Brook

Cayden Primeau – Keith Kinkaid

Maxim Lamarche, Will Pelletier, Ralph Cuddemi, Antoine Waked, Evan McEneny

Noah Juulsen (upper body), Alex Belzile (pectoral surgery), Andrew Sturtz, Hayden Verbeek, Lukas Vejdemo, Xavier Ouellet

Game Report

Game Report written by Chris G

Friday was a big day in Rocket history as they announced that Laval will host the 2021 AHL All-Star Classic from January 31 – February 1, 2021. The announcement was made at Place Bell prior to the team’s 100th regular season home game. 

The North Division-leading Senators were the visitors for the occasion, in the first of the two-game weekend series. It was the fifth matchup of the season between the division rivals, with Belleville winning the first three games before Laval obtained the victory in their last confrontation. 

A sold out crowd was on site hoping to see the Rocket snap their two-game losing streak. The Senators came into the game on a two-game winning streak.  

Joel Bouchard deviated from his rotation and gave Cayden Primeau the start in goal for a second consecutive game. In his last start, Primeau made 29 saves in a shootout loss against the Devils. 

Lukas Vejdemo and Xavier Ouellet were not in the lineup after suffering injuries in the game in Binghamton. Cale Fleury, assigned to Laval earlier in the day from Montreal, and Yannick Veilleux took their spots. Veilleux returned to the lineup after being a healthy scratch for the last five games. 

Laval started off strong, and kept possession for the majority of the first half of the opening period. The Senators took their first shot of the game at the 10:40 mark of the period. 

While Kevin Lynch was serving a tripping penalty, Jordan Murray beat Primeau with a wrist shot that went in top corner blocker side. 

The Rocket’s best scoring chance of the frame came on the ensuing play as Jake Evans set up Charles Hudon on a breakaway, however Joey Daccord made a left pad save. 

The teams started the second frame with four players on the ice following a scrum at the end of the first, and the Senators took advantage to increase their lead after 49 seconds. Josh Norris completed the tic-tac-toe play that was started by Christian Jaros and Alex Formenton. 

With 3:50 remaining in the second, Hudon passed the puck right to the opponent’s stick and Jaros’ shot from the slot beat Primeau. 

Michael Pezzetta dropped the gloves against Hubert Labrie to attempt to bring some energy to his team. 

Lynch put Laval on the board with 1.7 seconds remaining in the second after picking up a loose puck in the crease. It was his second goal in the last three games. 

The Rocket outshot the Senators 19-7 in the middle frame, obtaining several quality chances that were stopped. Daccord made key saves on Evans who had four shots from the blue paint in the same sequence, and a breakaway stop on Pezzetta. 

Logan Brown scored the Senators’ second power play of the goal of the night at the 3:11 mark of the third period. Brown beat Primeau to his right with a one-timer shot. 

Laval scored two power play goals to get back into the game. At 4:53 mark, Riley Barber scored his 100th career AHL goal with a shot that beat Daccord on his blocker side.

With 3:19 remaining, Phil Varone capitalized on a loose puck to the right of the goalie to score his third of the season. It was his second point of the night, his seventh in the last seven games.  

The Rocket continued to get quality chances for the balance of the game, but weren’t able to finish. Laval outshot Belleville 43-17 with the Senators making the most of their scoring chances on their way to win 4-3. 

The teams will face each other again on Saturday at 7:00 pm eastern time. Listen to full audio of player and coach post-game interviews in the player below.

Plus / Minus

▲  Kevin Lynch, Riley Barber

▼  Josh Brook, Charles Hudon, Cale Fleury