Rocket Lineup

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

Justin Ducharme – Danick Martel – Kevin Roy

Alexandre Fortin – Peter Abbandonato – Gabriel Bourque

Joel Teasdale – Cameron Hillis – Shawn St. Amant

Xavier Ouellet – Tory Dello

Sami Niku – Louie Belpedio

Terrance Amorosa – Olivier Galipeau

Kevin Poulin – Louis-Philip Guindon

Devante Smith-Pelly

Lukas Vejdemo (upper-body injury), Alex Belzile (lower-body injury), Tobie Paquette-Bisson (undisclosed), Gianni Fairbrother (undisclosed), Josh Brook (lower-body injury), Jean-Christophe Beaudin (DTD), Brandon Gignac (DTD)

Game Report

Game Report written by Amy Johnson

For the third week in a row, the Laval Rocket found themselves in game action on a Monday night. This time it was against the Springfield Thunderbirds, with none other than former Laval and Montreal goaltender Charlie Lindgren between the pipes.

For the Rocket, Jean-Francois Houle tapped Kevin Poulin for the start, hot off of a 3-0 shutout against the Abbotsford Canucks on Saturday.

First Period

The opening 15 minutes of this game very closely resembled last Monday’s game against Cleveland, with both teams seeming to try to settle into a rhythm while sizing each other up.

Both sides did a decent job of forcing turnovers, jumping on loose pucks, and clogging up the neutral zone and not many pucks were getting through to Lindgren and Poulin. When tested, however, both netminders had solid saves.

Not far into the second power play opportunity for Laval, Joel Teasdale parked himself in front of the Thunderbirds’ net. That screen provided a perfect lane for Xavier Ouellet to blast a snap shot from the top of the circle and put the puck top shelf and in.

Three minutes later, Springfield answered back when the Rocket failed to clear the zone and James Neal put the puck on net through traffic. Nathan Todd altered the puck’s direction directly through Poulin’s pads to make it 1-1.

Second Period

Four goals were scored in the middle frame, but unfortunately for the Rocket it was Springfield who got three of them.

Hugh McGing tallied the first go-ahead goal for the Thunderbirds when he got the puck off his stick as he was falling in front of the Laval crease and found an opening.

Nikita Alexandrov was the next to score when he lasered a one-timer past Poulin. Just 17 seconds later, however, Danick Martel got one back for Laval on a two-on-one advantage. Lindgren made a good save on Martel’s initial shot, but the Rocket forward scooped up his own rebound and put it over the goal line.

Alexandrov finished the period by scoring his second of the night when he deflected a puck in close, giving the Thunderbirds a 4-2 lead heading into intermission.

Third Period

Laval dominated the shot clock in the final frame, but they weren’t able to make any progress on their goal total. Lindgren stood on his head and was helped out tremendously by his defense to keep the Rocket out of the net.

With about two and a half minutes remaining, former Montreal Canadiens forward Matthew Peca potted an empty-netter to put a final stamp on this meeting.

What’s Next?

Plus / Minus

▲ Xavier Ouellet, Sami Niku, Cameron Hillis

▼ Kevin Poulin, Justin Ducharme, Kevin Roy