Rocket Lineup

Yannick Veilleux – Jordan Weal – Rafael Harvey-Pinard

Joseph Blandisi – Ryan Poehling – Jesse Ylonen

Laurent Dauphin – Lukas Vejdemo – Joel Teasdale

Michael Pezzetta – Kevin Lynch – Brandon Baddock

Kaiden Guhle – Otto Leskinen

Gustav Olofsson – Corey Schueneman

Gianni Fairbrother – Xavier Ouellet

Charlie Lindgren – Cayden Primeau

Tobie Paquette-Bisson, Nathanael Halbert, Liam Hawel, Hayden Verbeek, Jacob Leguerrier, Josh Brook, Jan Mysak, Cameron Hillis, Jake Lucchini, Arsen Khisamutdinov, Vasily Demchenko

N/A

Game Report

Game Report written by Chris G

The Rocket hosted the Moose on Wednesday night at the Bell Centre in the second of four matchups this week. On Monday night, Manitoba beat Laval 3-2 in overtime. 

Francis Bouillon was behind Laval’s bench for the night, replacing Alex Burrows. Burrows joined the Canadiens in Winnipeg after being added to the coaching staff earlier in the day.  

Joel Teasdale, Michael Pezzetta, and Brandon Baddock returned to the lineup after sitting out Monday’s match. They replaced forwards Arsen Khisamutdinov, Jake Lucchini, and Cam Hillis.  

Charlie Lindgren got the start in goal. He was assigned to the American Hockey League on Tuesday in order to get some action with Laval. His last start was on March 7, 2020 when he was in goal for the Canadiens against the Panthers.

First Period

Laval opened the scoring on their second shot of the game. Otto Leskinen made a pass to Baddock and he drove to the slot area to beat Mikhail Berdin with a wrist shot. The assist extended Leskinen’s point streak to four games. 

The Rocket killed penalties against Xavier Ouellet and Jordan Weal before allowing the Moose on the board. Nick Jones was left all alone in front of Lindgren to pick up the rebound of Hayden Shaw’s point shot for the goal. 

Manitoba had a chance to take a lead when Laurent Dauphin and Gustav Olofsson collided in the offensive zone, which led the opposition to come on a four-on-one rush. On the sequence, Tyler Gravoac’s shot hit the post on Lindgren’s blocker side.

Second Period

The ice in the second period was tilted in Laval’s favour. The Rocket obtained several scoring opportunities that they weren’t able to capitalize on. Kaiden Guhle intercepted a pass in the neutral zone, and skated into Manitoba’s zone on a two-on-one with Jesse Ylonen that shot the puck wide of the net. 

On the same shift, Leskinen carried the puck from the neutral zone into the slot, and hit the post with his shot.

Rafael Harvey-Pinard was alone in front of Berdin and the goalie came up with a key right pad save to keep the score tied. With just over three minutes remaining in the period, Dauphin redirected Gianni Fairbrother’s shot right on the post. 

The Rocket outshot the Moose 14-2 in the period. Moose’s first shot came from the slot area, while the second came from the neutral zone at almost the midway mark. Laval prevented Manitoba from taking another shot on goal for the balance of the middle frame.

Third Period

Laval’s indiscipline was costly in the third period. Ylonen was in the penalty box when Kristian Reichel was wide open to the right of the net to score a power play goal 32 seconds into the period. 

Later in the period, Baddock was in the penalty box when the Moose extended their lead to two goals. Nathan Todd separated himself from Leskinen that allowed him to receive Cole Perfetti’s pass to score. 

On the next shift, Yannick Veilleux found Ylonen in the neutral zone. Ylonen skated into the offensive zone and did a toe drag around the defender to score from the slot. That was his fourth point in the last three games, while the assist was Veilleux’s fourth point in last four games.  

Todd sealed the match with an empty net goal with 1:38 remaining in the game.

What’s Next?

Joel Bouchard was satisfied with the team’s effort, and felt that his players were getting frustrated with their inability to get the puck in the net. The coach confirmed that Bouillon will not remain as an assistant coach, and for the moment Bouchard and Daniel Jacob will handle the duties.

The two teams face each other again on Friday night at 7:00pm ET. 

Be sure to scroll down for full audio from our AHL Report team and other members of the media in post-game interviews with Lindgren, Ylonen, Ouellet, and Bouchard.

Plus / Minus

▲  Jesse Ylonen, Kaiden Guhle, Otto Leskinen

▼  Jordan Weal, Xavier Ouellet, Gustav Olofsson