Rocket Lineup

Lucas Condotta – Mitchell Stephens – Joel Teasdale

Gabriel Bourque – Peter Abbandonato – Danick Martel

Nicolas Beaudin – Jan Mysak – Pierrick Dube

Nolan Yaremko – John Parker-Jones – Frederic Allard (seventh defenseman)

William Trudeau – Corey Schueneman

Mattias Norlinder – Tory Dello

Olivier Galipeau – Madison Bowey

Cayden Primeau – Philippe Desrosiers

Riley McKay (suspended)

Gianni Fairbrother (knee), Otto Leskinen, Kevin Poulin (upper-body), Xavier Simoneau, Brandon Gignac

Game Report

Game Report written by Amy Johnson

After going on a stretch of wins at Place Bell, the Laval Rocket found themselves on the short end of their last two games at home, including an ugly 5-1 loss to the Belleville Senators on Wednesday night.

With a two-game road trip on tap for the weekend, Jean-Francois Houle was met with challenges in his roster. Riley McKay would watch Friday night’s game in Syracuse from the press box, serving his one-game suspension earned from his actions on Wednesday night. Additionally, Xavier Simoneau was out of the lineup due to injury, and Anthony Richard had been recalled to Montreal.

At the last minute, just after warmups, the Rocket also announced that Brandon Gignac would be unable to play due to injury.

That left Houle icing seven defenseman for the tilt against the Crunch, while his eighth defenseman, Nicolas Beaudin, was forced to play at the forward position.  It also meant a season debut for forward Nolan Yaremko on a PTO.

First Period

The first 14 minutes or so of the game was a pretty sloppy and uneventful space of time. Syracuse looked particularly unorganized in their own end, and the Rocket were able to get an early lead on the shot clock. Max Lagace held his net, though, and no pucks got through.

Then the Rocket were found guilty of having too many men on the ice with about six minutes remaining in the frame. Beaudin served the penalty, and Laval’s PK units were able to hold off Syracuse. Almost as soon as the penalty expired, the Rocket had their own turn on the power play as Philippe Myers was called for tripping.

Laval wasn’t able to convert on the man-advantage, however Mitchell Stephens did manage to get a puck past Lagace with just 15 seconds left in the period.

Second Period

The second period brought some good scoring chances at both ends of the ice. Cayden Primeau and his Syracuse counterpart, however, were up to the task, and the score remained 1-0 for Laval.

Gage Goncalves then gifted the Rocket a four-minute power play after he was found guilty of high-sticking. Unfortunately, Laval’s power play has struggled mightily in the last couple of games, likely due to the firepower missing from the lineup on NHL callups. They were unsuccessful at converting the double minor.

Shortly after five-on-five play resumed, John Parker-Jones found himself in the penalty box for a two-minute hooking infraction. Not long after his teammates completed a successful penalty kill, he dropped the gloves for a lengthy fight with Shawn Element.

Third Period

Within the first few minutes of the third, the Rocket had dug themselves a hole. Mattias Norlinder was called for tripping, almost immediately followed by Corey Schueneman needing to serve a delay of game penalty. That gave the Crunch almost two minutes of five-on-three power play time.

The Laval penalty kill did manage to hold up through that, and then were given their second four-minute power play of the night when Element went to the box for drawing blood on a high-sticking call.

Syracuse found their moment on the penalty kill, however, when Daniel Walcott found himself all alone behind Primeau, who didn’t realize that his rebound went right to Walcott’s stick. He made no mistake with a gaping net to tie the game.

Despite one more opportunity on the power play before the end of regulation, Laval couldn’t get another puck over the line, and the game headed to overtime. The Rocket controlled the puck early in the extra minutes, and a turnover by the Crunch proved to be costly when Stephens set up Pierrick Dube for the game-winner.

What’s Next?

Plus / Minus

▲ Mitchell Stephens, Pierrick Dube

▼ John Parker-Jones, Frederic Allard