Rocket Lineup

Danick Martel – Laurent Dauphin – Cole Caufield

Gabriel Bourque – Jean-Sebastien Dea – Jesse Ylonen

Rafael Harvey-Pinard – Lukas Vejdemo – Kevin Roy

Brandon Baddock – Brendan Gignac – Alexandre Fortin

Gianni Fairbrother – Xavier Ouellet

Corey Schueneman – Louie Belpedio

Tobie Paquette-Bisson – Tory Dello

Cayden Primeau – Michael McNiven

Carl Neill, Cam Hillis

Joel Teasdale (surgery), Josh Brook (surgery), Jean-Christophe Beaudin (DTD)

Game Report

Game Report written by Chris G

The Rocket concluded their three-game home stand on Saturday afternoon against division rivals, the Utica Comets. Utica defeated Laval 4-2 in the last head-to-head matchup. 

It was a quick turnaround for Laval, as they headed into the game following a 5-4 overtime win on Friday night against the Islanders. The undefeated Comets downed the Crunch 3-1 on Thursday. 

Jean-Francois Houle made no changes to the forward lines and defensive pairings. In goal, Cayden Primeau got the start. Primeau stopped 32 pucks against Belleville to record his second shutout of the season in his last appearance.

First Period

The Comets came out firing on Saturday afternoon. They dominated the frame outshooting Laval 13-5. 

Ryan Schmelzer opened the scoring with 4:55 remaining, when he found himself behind Corey Schueneman and redirected Tyler Weatherspoon’s shot into the goal. 

Laval was fortunate that they headed into the intermission down only by one goal. Primeau kept his team in the game with several key saves, including four saves during Danick Martel’s penalty. Utica spent the entire two minutes in Laval’s zone, and the home team was not able to get fresh legs on the ice.

Second Period

The Comets increased their lead to 2-0, when Frederik Gauthier found Joe Gambardella on the side of the net for the goal. Gambardella escaped from Martel’s coverage. 

Utica continued to dominate the match until Jean-Sebastien Dea put Laval on the board. Tory Dello attempted to pass the puck around the boards, when it took an odd bounce and landed right on Dea’s blade for the tap in goal. 

At that point, momentum swung Laval’s way and 2:57 later, Cole Caufield scored his first goal of the season. From behind the red line, Caufield banked the puck off Nico Daws back and into the net. 

The Rocket successfully killed off a tripping penalty against Lukas Vejdemo and headed into the locker room tied 2-2 through 40 minutes.

Third Period

Laval began the third period on the power play, and they capitalized on it to take their first lead of afternoon. Xavier Ouellet found Jesse Ylonen at the top of the faceoff circle for the one-timer goal. Caufield’s assist on the goal was his fourth point in last four games. 

At the 11:36 mark, Schueneman was not able to clear the puck out of the zone, and it led to Gambardella scoring his second of the contest for the tie.

With 1:43 remaining, Graeme Clarke scored the eventual game-winning goal on a sequence filled with errors. Vejdemo left Clarke uncovered and he headed to the net, where he took two shots on Primeau before succeeding on his third attempt. The defenders Tobie Paquette-Bisson and Dello were nowhere to be seen. 

Utica sealed the 5-3 victory with an empty net goal with 1:10 remaining.

What’s Next?

It was a disappointing way for Laval to lose against the league’s best team. The Rocket finished their three-game home stand with two victories. On Wednesday, Laval heads to Toronto to face the Marlies at 7:00 pm eastern. 

Be sure to scroll down to hear post-game interviews with Dea, Caufield, Dauphin and Houle by the AHL Report team and other members of the media.

Plus / Minus

▲ Cayden Primeau, Cole Caufield, Jesse Ylonen

▼ Danick Martel, Lukas Vejdemo, Corey Schueneman, Gabriel Bourque