Rocket Lineup

Anthony Richard – Peter Abbandonato – Rem Pitlick

Rafael Harvey-Pinard – Brandon Gignac – Xavier Simoneau

Danick Martel – Mitchell Stephens – Jesse Ylonen

Lucas Condotta – Jan Mysak – Joel Teasdale

Otto Leskinen – Justin Barron

William Trudeau – Corey Schueneman

Nicolas Beaudin – Madison Bowey

Cayden Primeau – Kevin Poulin

Alex Green, Tory Dello, Ryan Francis

Gianni Fairbrother (knee), Alex Belzile (lower-body), Nate Schnarr (lower-body), Gabriel Bourque (upper-body), Mattias Norlinder (upper-body)

Game Report

Game Report written by Amy Johnson

Coming off of a week where the Laval Rocket suffered one of their worst losses of the season, but still managed to accrue four out of a possible six points, the team took to the road for a back-to-back series against the Senators in Belleville. Laval was beaten by the Abbotsford Canucks on Wednesday night, and the Sens have been difficult for the Rocket to beat this year, so a challenge was definitely ahead of them.

Belleville has spent the entire season plagued with the injury bug, particularly at the goaltending position. With additional injuries to their netminders, along with a goaltending recall of Kevin Mandolese to Ottawa earlier in the day, the Rocket faced off tonight against Logan Flodell. 

For Jean-Francois Houle‘s starter, Cayden Primeau returned to the crease, and in the lineup Nicolas Beaudin drew in.

First Period

In what ended up being a relatively sleepy period, Belleville opened the scoring just over two minutes into the game with a net-front tip-in by Matthew Boucher.

It then took almost 10 minutes for the Rocket to register their first shot on goal. Otto Leskinen soon tapped in a loose puck behind Flodell to tie the game on Laval’s third shot of the night.

The Rocket gained a bit of momentum through the remainder of the frame, but the Senators still outshot their visitors 10-8.

Second Period

Laval began the middle period with a better grip on the game, putting pressure on Belleville right from puck drop. 

After about five minutes, the Sens took the first penalty of the night, and almost immediately got a good opportunity shorthanded which they couldn’t complete.

It was followed right away with another Belleville penalty, putting the Rocket with a two-man advantage for just under two minutes. Anthony Richard wasted no time in blasting a puck into the Belleville net to put the Rocket up by a goal.

A few minutes later, Madison Bowey made a sharp feed across the crease to Jan Mysak who quickly fires a wrister past the goaltender. About 30 seconds later, Rafael Harvey-Pinard gave his team a three-goal lead when Brandon Gignac fed him the puck and he ripped a shot into the net. 

Flodell was pulled from the game, and within seconds of the goaltending change, Scott Sabourin got a goal back for the home team when he danced the puck through the crease and lifted it into the top corner after Primeau went down.

But Laval’s big lead was soon restored when the Rocket went on another power play and Justin Barron buried a one-time from the point. You know what comes next: another Belleville goal, this time by Angus Crookshank left all alone in the circle.

Third Period

Belleville came on strong to begin the third period, and soon they pulled within one goal of Laval when former Rocket forward Jake Lucchini took a pass down low from former Rocket forward Brennan Saulnier, and tapped the puck over the line as he skated toward the crease.

The Rocket then gave their opponents two opportunities on the power play. Laval successfully killed off the first one, but weren’t so lucky on the second one. Maxence Guenette lit the lamp to complete the comeback for Belleville and tie the game 5-5.

Almost immediately after that, William Trudeau took his second penalty in about five minutes when he crashed into Antoine Bibeau, giving the Sens yet another power play. After surviving those two minutes, Beaudin scored his first of the season and allowed Laval to retake the lead when he shot the puck from the point through traffic.

Tensions increased as the end of the game drew closer, and Laval managed to get an empty-net goal thanks to Barron to put an end to the game.

What’s Next?

Plus / Minus

▲ Rafael Harvey-Pinard, Justin Barron, Jan Mysak, Jesse Ylonen

▼ William Trudeau, Danick Martel