ROCKET
Laval

5-6

PENGUINS
Wilkes-Barre/Scranton

Lineup

Forward lines and defense pairings: 

[one_half]Terry – McCarron – Scherbak
Carr – Holland – Froese
Reway – Audette – Holland
Broll – Eisenschmid – Baun[/one_half]

[one_half_last]Taormina – Jerabek
Gelinas – Lernout
Parisi – Leblanc[/one_half_last]

Goaltenders:
Lindgren
Fucale

Scratches:

Niki Petti, Nick Deslauriers, Simon Bourque, Jeremy Gregoire

Injury List:

Noah Juulsen (foot), Jeremiah Addison (shoulder)

Game Report

It was the first road game of the season for the Laval Rocket, and the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins were not going to make it easy on them. Coming off a disappointing 5-1 loss to Binghamton the previous weekend, the Rocket needed to generate offense and shore up the ice in front of Charlie Lindgren.

The first part of that equation came in full force. After the Penguins struck first with a shot from the top of the faceoff circle by Daniel Sprong, Laval shifted into an assertive gear, controlling the pace of the game and getting shots on net. Chris Terry found the back of the net first for the Rocket, shooting from down low while Michael McCarron provided a screen in front of Tristan Jarry.

Then Tom Parisi fired home a shot from the blue line; this time it was David Broll who made things difficult in the crease, blocking Jarry from a clear view of the puck. Parisi then took a tripping penalty, and on the ensuing power play the Penguins gained control of the puck off the faceoff and evened the score as Sprong potted his second goal of the night.

On the next power play opportunity, Broll was the one firing off a one-timer that found mesh and gave the Rocket another one-goal lead. But as before, it wasn’t long before Wilkes-Barre/Scranton evened things up again as they buried a rebound off of Lindgren. The teams went into the dressing room tied at 3-3 to end the first period.

Peter Holland left the game early in the second period after careening into the post on a hard drive to the net. He would not return, nor would Markus Eisenschmid who later took two big hits along the boards in quick succession and was later seen heading down the tunnel.

Eric Gelinas scored his second of the season, a power play goal, in the second period, but immediately the Penguins tied it up again. Things continued to go back and forth in this fashion, as McCarron took a nice feed from Scherbak to wrist the puck past Jarry for his second goal of the season.

However, down two forwards and with tensions ramping up as the intensity of the game wore on, the Rocket started taking some unnecessary penalties, which the Penguins took full advantage of.  The Rocket’s defense continued to break down as Lindgren stood tall during a lengthy five-on-three for the home team, but Sprong was able to finally break through and completed a hat trick.

The game went to overtime, and Wilkes-Barre/Scranton controlled the puck for much of the three-on-three, eventually scoring the game winner and sending the Rocket packing.

Laval continues their road trip on Saturday night when they travel to Bridgeport to take on the Sound Tigers.

▲     Chris Terry, Michael McCarron, Nikita Scherbak, David Broll, Daniel Audette

▼     Martin Reway, Antoine Waked, Eric Gelinas, Tom Parisi

1. Daniel Sprong  WBS
2. Teddy Blueger  WBS
3. Tom Sestito  WBS

Post-game interview with David Broll

Post-game interview with Nikita Scherbak

Interviews conducted by Amy Johnson for AHL Report

We know you want to see that @dustintokarski save last night from every. single. angle. pic.twitter.com/aDwkl24eU4

— American Hockey League (@TheAHL) October 21, 2017

« Il faut être plus alerte, je pense que c’est juste une question de garder le plan de match initial et nous aurons du succès » -E.Gélinas pic.twitter.com/jtyj1aNGwM

— Rocket de Laval (@RocketLaval) October 21, 2017

HABS PROSPECTS | Michael McNiven Has What It Takes https://t.co/wUe56GZzab pic.twitter.com/po40Jz4vth

— AHL Report (@TheAHLReport) October 20, 2017

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