Rocket Lineup

Rafael Harvey-Pinard – Jean-Sebastien Dea – Danick Martel

Brandon Gignac – Nate Schnarr – Kevin Roy

Gabriel Bourque – Lukas Vejdemo – Joel Teasdale

Peter Abbandonato – Jean-Christophe Beaudin – Devante Smith-Pelly

Xavier Ouellet – Sami Niku

Terrance Amorosa – Louie Belpedio

Olivier Galipeau – Nicolas Mattinen

Kevin Poulin – Cayden Primeau

Darien Kielb, Josh Brook, Justin Ducharme, Lucas Condotta

Alex Belzile (lower-body injury), Tobie Paquette-Bisson (undisclosed), Gianni Fairbrother (undisclosed), Cameron Hillis, Tory Dello, Cedric Paquette

Game Report

Game Report written by Amy Johnson

After an ugly 60 minutes of hockey on Saturday night that resulted in a 6-1 loss by the Rocket to the Abbotsford Canucks, Laval didn’t have much time to reflect on what went wrong before they were back at it against the same team.

Jean-Francois Houle made some minor tweaks to his lineup, with Justin Ducharme and Josh Brook taking a seat to make room for Devante Smith-Pelly and Nicolas Mattinen. And as was planned going into the weekend, Kevin Poulin got the start in net.

First Period

After enduring a barrage of shots and goals against on Saturday night, the Laval Rocket opened Sunday’s game with plenty of pace and pressure. They managed to outshoot the Canucks 5-1 through the first 10 minutes of play. It was a stark difference from the previous game, when Abbotsford put up 19 shots on goal against Laval in the opening frame.

The Rocket controlled the play for most of the period, with Abbotsford really struggling to get set up. Late in the period, Sami Niku took a tripping penalty and put a very dangerous Canucks power play unit on the ice. It didn’t take long for Jack Rathbone to feed the puck to Sheldon Rempal at the point, who blasted a one-timer top shelf on Poulin’s glove side.

After that goal, the Rocket came on strong and peppered Michael DiPietro in the the Canucks’ net. They had a few good chances, and hit the post at least once, and had a late opportunity on the man advantage, but couldn’t find a way to light the lamp before the period expired.

Second Period

The Rocket continued to press in the second period, and had some spectacular chances and wide, yawning nets to shoot at, but the puck continued to not find its way to the back of the net.

Laval also had some decent scoring opportunities when they spent two minutes playing four-on-four hockey, but again they couldn’t find any finish. Shots were 9-8 for Abbotsford in the period, and neither team scored a goal in the frame.

Third Period

After 10 minutes of similar play from the middle frame, Xavier Ouellet finally broke through for Laval with a blast from the top of the circle. Smith-Pelly screened DiPietro and the Abbotsford goaltender never saw the shot coming.

Five minutes later, Rathbone came off the bench, skated into the zone and ripped a blistering shot from the point that sailed right past Poulin to restore the Canucks’ lead. With time ticking down, Poulin was pulled for an extra attacker and just then the Canucks took a delay of game penalty.

Instead of finally finding a solution on the power play, John Stevens cleared the puck down the ice and into the empty net, scoring the insurance goal shorthanded.

What’s Next?

After not having good starts for the past few games, the Rocket looked ready to go in this one, but didn’t take advantage of their opportunities. That, coupled with a power play sitting in the basement of the league statistics, are two areas that will need quick attention.

The Rocket now head back to Quebec to reset and get ready to welcome the Rochester Americans to Place Bell on Wednesday night.

Plus / Minus

▲ Jean-Sebastien Dea, Xavier Ouellet, Rafael Harvey-Pinard

▼ Louie Belpedio, Terrance Amorosa