Rocket Lineup

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

Gabriel Bourque – Brandon Gignac – Joel Teasdale

Kevin Roy – Lukas Vejdemo – Nate Schnarr

Justin Ducharme – Peter Abbandonato – Devante Smith-Pelly

Xavier Ouellet – Josh Brook

Terrance Amorosa – Louie Belpedio

Olivier Galipeau – Sami Niku

Kevin Poulin – Cayden Primeau

Darien Kielb, Nicolas Mattinen, Jean-Christophe Beaudin

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

The Laval Rocket were back on the ice in Winnipeg just 24 hours after their shootout loss to the Manitoba Moose. The single point they managed to get by making it to overtime certainly helps maintain their position in the standings, but Jean-Francois Houle‘s team would be hunting the full two points in Wednesday night’s game.

A few changes to Houle’s lineup came mostly out of necessity. Cedric Paquette and Jean-Christophe Beaudin came out of the lineup, the former reportedly due to an injury sustained in Tuesday’s game, while Peter Abbandonato and Devante Smith-Pelly drew in.

On the back end, Nicolas Mattinen was scratched as Josh Brook made his second return from injury this season. He was placed back on the top pairing with captain Xavier Ouellet. With Cayden Primeau facing more than 40 shots the previous night, the head coach turned to veteran Kevin Poulin to man the crease this time around.

First Period

The opening five or six minutes of the game seemed eerily similar to Tuesday’s tilt, with both teams playing tight, defensive hockey at a quick pace. Both goaltenders, Poulin and Arvid Holm, had to be sharp early on as the Moose and Rocket exchanged some quality scoring chances.

Laval got their first power play of the back-to-back series when Cole Maier took a delay of game penalty, but they had difficulty establishing themselves in Manitoba’s zone and didn’t get much generated on the man advantage. Once again, the Moose seemed to have no trouble getting pucks through to the net, but the Rocket were kept at arms length when they could establish a presence in the offensive zone.

Then, after Rafael Harvey-Pinard took a roughing penalty late in the game, Jeff Malott continued being a thorn in Laval’s side as he scooped up a loose puck in the crease and put it into the back of the net for the third cumulative power play goal for Manitoba through both games.

Second Period

Not even 90 seconds into the middle frame, the Rocket evened the score. Terrance Amorosa passed the puck off the wall and into the slot to a waiting Joel Teasdale, who put the puck over Holm to make it 1-1.

Almost three minutes later, the Rocket grabbed their first lead of the night as Danick Martel drove the net and lifted the puck into the air. Holm got a piece of it, but the puck floated past him and, despite a last-second effort by Johnathan Kovacevic to bat it out of the cage, found the back of the net.

Olivier Galipeau and Malott took holding and interference penalties just three seconds apart, and on the ensuing four-on-four play Martel fired a shot on Holm and Louie Belpedio pounced on the rebound. He then deftly went forehand-backhand around the Moose goaltender to make it 3-1 for the Rocket.

The Rocket were successfully able to kill off a Manitoba power play later in the period after Jean-Sebastien Dea laid a dangerous-looking hit on Mikey Eyssimont along the end boards and was assessed an elbowing penalty.

But Laval’s luck didn’t last long after that when Morgan Barron fed a back pass from below the goal line to Austin Poganski who was waiting at the top of the crease to tap the puck in.

Dea didn’t help matters when he took a second penalty, this time for slashing, and put his team down a man to face the dangerous Moose power play units once again. Fortunately for the Rocket, they were able to kill this one off and head into intermission holding onto a 3-2 lead.

Third Period

An early power play opportunity for Laval didn’t result in additional scoring; the man advantage has not been very productive this season, and Houle has commented frequently on the need to improve in that area.

Brook laid a heavy, open-ice hit on Haralds Egle that drew a big crowd of Manitoba players. The result was the Laval defenseman and Leon Gawanke sitting in the box on matching roughing minors.

Laval looked to have a prime chance to extend their lead when Evan Polei took minor penalties for slashing and unsportsmanlike conduct, however the Rocket weren’t able to convert on the long four-minute power play.

Despite getting outshot 14-4 in the third period, the Rocket held on and even managed to add an empty-netter by Gabriel Bourque to their score as an insurance marker. The goal came off of a nice play by Harvey-Pinard, making a good effort to beat his man back to the puck in the corner.

What’s Next?

Plus / Minus

▲ Kevin Poulin, Danick Martel, Rafael Harvey-Pinard

▼ Devante Smith-Pelly, Nate Schnarr