Rocket Lineup

Rafael Harvey-Pinard – Mitchell Stephens – Jesse Ylonen

Anthony Richard – Brandon Gignac – Alex Belzile

Lucas Condotta – Nate Schnarr – Gabriel Bourque

Xavier Simoneau – Jan Mysak – Danick Martel

Otto Leskinen – Justin Barron

Mattias Norlinder – Tory Dello

William Trudeau – Madison Bowey

Cayden Primeau – Kevin Poulin

Brennan Saulnier, Joel Teasdale, Alex Green, Pierrick Dube, Peter Abbandonato

Gianni Fairbrother (knee)

Game Report

Game Report written by Amy Johnson

Coming off of their first win of the season, the Rocket find themselves south of the border this weekend with a pair of games in Pennsylvania and Connecticut. First up was a visit to the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins, and former captain Xavier Ouellet.

Not many changes were made to the Rocket lineup, with Cayden Primeau taking up netminder duties again after posting his first shutout of the season on Wednesday night, and Mitchell Stephens returning to the ice after serving a two-game suspension.

First Period

The opening 20 minutes of this game were likely ones that the Rocket would sooner rather forget. It took the visitors most of the period to get the number on their side of the shot clock above three, which was ironically the same number of power play opportunities they gifted to the Penguins.

On their first man-advantage chance, Wilkes-Barre came up big with a quick wrister by Alex Nylander. That was followed up in the second half of the period with a laser ripped past Primeau by Nathan Legare, who took advantage of a blue line turnover to put the Penguins up 2-0.

A combination of too many penalties and an inability to maintain puck possession made for a very tough period for the Rocket.

Second Period

Things evened out and settled down quite a bit in the second period, particularly when Wilkes-Barre was called for a penalty just 16 seconds after the opening faceoff. Although the Rocket couldn’t convert on the power play, it seemed to give them a bit of time to get into a rhythm.

Both teams had some golden opportunities, but both Primeau and Dustin Tokarski were able to keep the puck out their respective nets. With just 10 seconds left before intermission, the Rocket were given another power play opportunity, which would carry over into the third period.

Third Period

Laval really ramped up their offensive efforts in the third period, outshooting their opponent for the first time all night. They pressured the Penguins at every turn, and even drew a late penalty with less than five minutes to go.

Jean-Francois Houle pulled his goaltender at the start of the power play, and it paid off when Gabriel Bourque was able to shovel a loose rebound past Tokarski. The Rocket remained at a six-on-five advantage after that, but couldn’t come up with one more goal to tie the game and force overtime.

What’s Next?

Plus / Minus

▲ Justin Barron, Jesse Ylonen, Jan Mysak, Mattias Norlinder

▼ Lucas Condotta, Cayden Primeau, Danick Martel