Rocket Lineup

Charles Hudon – Jake Evans – Alex Belzile

Matthew Peca – Phil Varone – Dale Weise

Nikita Jevpalovs – Ryan Poehling – Riley Barber

Alexandre Alain – Lukas Vejdemo – Kevin Lynch

Xavier Ouellet – Josh Brook

David Sklenicka – Maxim Lamarche

Karl Alzner – Otto Leskinen

Cayden Primeau – Charlie Lindgren

Michael Pezzetta, William Pelletier, Joe Cox, Ryan Culkin

Game Report

Game Report written by Chris G

The Rocket hosted the Monsters on Saturday afternoon in the second game of the weekend series between the two teams. On Friday night, the Monsters scored a goal late in the third period to go on to a 3-2 victory. 

Cayden Primeau made his professional debut in goal. In one pre-season start, Primeau allowed five goals on 17 shots. Kevin Lynch made his debut in a Rocket uniform, replacing Joe Cox. 

Joel Bouchard made a minor switch to the offensive lines. Ryan Poehling started the game on a line with Nikita Jevpalovs and Riley Barber on the wings; and Phil Varone was the centre of a line between Matthew Peca and Dale Weise. 

There was no scoring in the first period. The first half of the game was to the advantage of the Monsters leading the Rocket six to one for shots on goal as the play was primarily in the Rocket’s defensive zone.

Laval was able to get generate a pair of scoring chances in the period. Charles Hudon’s wrist shot on a two-on-one was stopped by Veini Vehvilainen. Alex Belzile setup the opportunity with a cross ice pass. Jake Evans deflection of David Sklznicka’s point shot trickled wide to the left of the net.  

Matthew Peca had a scoring chance for Laval in the opening minute of the second period as he picked up a rebound in front of the crease, and tried to sneak in the puck to the right of Vehvilainen, but the Monsters goalie was able to make a pad save while laying on his stomach on the ice. Rocket wasn’t able to generate anything else in the offensive zone for the remainder of the period. 

Cleveland opened up the scoring at the 9:10 mark of the period, while both teams had four players on the ice. Karl Alzner and Poehling were both covering Justin Scott, who managed to pass the puck to the front of the net to Eric Robinson and he scored his first goal of the season. 

The Monsters doubled their lead while Lynch was in the penalty box for hooking. Adam Clendening setup Zac Dalpe for a one-timer from the left face-off circle that beat Primeau on the blocker side. 

Belzile scored his second goal of the season at the 9:50 mark of the third period. While Laval was on the penalty kill, Belzile capitalized on a defender losing his balance to go on a breakaway and go top corner to beat Vehvilainen on the glove side. 

Cleveland put the nail in the coffin by scoring two goals in the final two minutes while Primeau was pulled for the extra attacker. 

There wasn’t many quality shots by Laval from their 31 shots they took on Saturday. The Hudon, Evans, Belzile line generated 11 of those shots. Bouchard wasn’t satisfied with his team’s opening weekend performance, saying that a lot of players had their minds elsewhere.

The Rocket head to Milwaukee on Saturday to face the Admirals at 7pm ET. Listen to the player below for full audio of our post-game interviews.

Plus / Minus

▲  Jake Evans, Alex Belzile, Charles Hudon, Cayden Primeau

▼  Riley Barber, Karl Alzner, Ryan Poehling, Dale Weise, Maxim Lamarche