Rocket Lineup

Rafael Harvey-Pinard – Jean-Sebastien Dea – Jesse Ylonen

Joel Teasdale – Danick Martel – Alexandre Fortin

Devante Smith-Pelly – Peter Abbandonato – Shawn St. Amant

Cedric Desruisseaux – Cam Hillis – Mathew Santos

Xavier Ouellet – Louie Belpedio

Sami Niku – Tory Dello

Tobie Paquette-Bisson – Carl Neill

Cayden Primeau – Michael McNiven

Louis-Philip Guindon, Kevin Poulin, Josh Brook, Kevin Roy, Gabriel Bourque, Terrance Amorosa, Justin Ducharme

Brandon Gignac (upper-body injury), Lukas Vejdemo (upper-body injury), Alex Belzile (lower-body injury), Gianni Fairbrother (upper-body injury), Jean-Christophe Beaudin (DTD)

Game Report

Game Report written by Amy Johnson

After a tumultuous week of roster turnover due to a resurgence of positive COVID-19 tests amongst players and staff, the Laval Rocket played an uninspiring game Friday night in Syracuse, with a 5-2 loss to the Crunch.

Head coach Jean-Francois Houle and captain Xavier Ouellet both stated post-game that injuries, absences, altered travel plans, and delays due to weather all weren’t to be used as excuses. Instead, Houle believed there were a lot of holes in his team’s game, and costly turnovers proved to be too much to come back from.

On Sunday afternoon, the Rocket continued their road trip with a visit to Rochester to take on the Americans. The lineup remained the same, with Houle juggling personnel around a little bit. Cayden Primeau got a second consecutive start in net, with Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen in for Rochester.

First Period

Primeau and Luukkonen traded good saves right off the hop, with Rafael Harvey-Pinard driving the net and Alexandre Fortin getting a solid shot on net. This was a much stronger start to the game for Laval, applying most of the pressure in the opening five minutes.

Cedric Desruisseaux then scored his first AHL goal in just his second game when he got in tight to the crease and banged in loose puck. Then Tory Dello drew a penalty, which eventually turned into 39 seconds of a five-on-three advantage for Laval. Peter Abbandonato scored with just a few seconds left on the two-man advantage to give Laval a 2-0 lead.

Before the final horn, Jean-Sebastien Dea ripped a wrister top shelf just after a Rocket penalty expired, giving the Rocket a three-goal lead over the Amerks heading into intermission.

The significant thing to note in the period was the names on the scoring summary. Houle talked on Friday about guys needing to step up in the absence of many regular Laval players, and it’s obvious some of the new faces got that message. Desruisseaux and Abbandonato scored goals, and Shawn St. Amant, who scored his first AHL goal of the season on Friday, had two primary assists in the frame.

Second Period

It was Cam Hillis who would continue the scoring for the Rocket in the middle frame when he settled the puck and backhanded it past Luukkonen to give Laval a 4-0 lead. Hillis took a big open-ice hit later in the period, and that distraction gave Rochester just enough room on the ice for Ryan Scarfo to put a long wrister past Primeau for the Amerks’ first goal of the game.

Alexandre Fortin took a roughing penalty in a scuffle following that goal, and Danick Martel found himself in the locker room early after the officials sent him off with a 10-minute misconduct while trying to get set up for the next puck drop.

The rough stuff continued late into the period, when Joel Teasdale took J.J. Peterka hard into the boards and drew a crowd. Teasdale and Jimmy Schuldt dropped the gloves, but nothing much came of it.

Third Period

Fortin and Devante Smith-Pelly took penalties close together to give the Americans a five-on-three advantage of their own, but the Rocket held them off with good defense and some key saves by Primeau.

Rochester came on strong in the final frame, outshooting the Rocket for the first time all afternoon, but they could not find a way past Laval’s shutdown defense. Sami Niku potted an empty-netter for his first AHL goal of the season to sweeten the deal.

What’s Next?

The Rocket now travel back across the border to set up shop in Toronto for a few days. They’ll take on the Marlies on Monday afternoon and Wednesday night as their road trip against division rivals continues.

Be sure to scroll down to hear post-game interviews with Hillis, Desruisseaux, Louie Belpedio, and Houle by the AHL Report team and other members of the media.

Plus / Minus

▲ Shawn St. Amant, Cedric Desruisseaux, Cam Hillis

▼ Danick Martel