Rocket Lineup

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

Kevin Roy – Laurent Dauphin – Alex Belzile

Michael Pezzetta – Lukas Vejdemo – Gabriel Bourque

Brandon Baddock – Brandon Gignac – Jean-Christophe Beaudin

Gianni Fairbrother – Xavier Ouellet

Corey Schueneman – Louie Belpedio

Tobie Paquette-Bisson – Tory Dello

Cayden Primeau – Michael McNiven

Jesse Ylonen, Alexandre Fortin, Terrance Amorosa, Carl Neill

Joel Teasdale (surgery), Josh Brook (surgery), Ryan Poehling (undisclosed)

Game Report

Game Report written by Amy Johnson

The Rocket kicked off their short two-game New England road trip with an impressive shutout of the Providence Bruins on Saturday night. Following that, the team headed west to Connecticut for a Sunday afternoon matchup against the Bridgeport Islanders.

Jean-Francois Houle kept his lineup the same, with the exception of giving Cayden Primeau the start in net.

First Period

If the previous night’s game had plenty of excitement and scoring, the Sunday afternoon tilt was sleepy at best. The opening 20 minutes saw no goals by either team, nor any penalties.

Both teams seemed satisfied to skate the length of the ice and make a handful of attempts on net, with no luck. Shots were 13-6 for Bridgeport to end the period.

Second Period

Laval stepped up the shots on the Islanders net in the middle frame, but also found themselves in the penalty box a couple of times. One of those infractions was by captain Xavier Ouellet with just about a minute left in the period, but once again the penalty killers came up big and avoided a late-period tally.

Despite the added pressure in the offensive zone for the Rocket, it was Bridgeport who lit the lamp first. Anatolii Golyshev snapped a quick wrister from the point to beat Primeau clean.

Third Period

Golyshev went on to double the score early in the third period after Michael Pezzetta committed a turnover near the blue line, and with a line change in progress there was a defensive breakdown on the far side of the zone. Golyshev had no coverage to get in the way of his shot past Primeau.

The icing on the cake came when former Laval Rocket forward Chris Terry walked in all alone on a breakaway to pot a shorthanded goal late in the period. 

What’s Next?

This was not a memorable outing for the Rocket, particularly coming off of a big shutout the night before. One notable observation: Laval has won games when they are fresh, but in the two games they’ve played as the second half of a back-to-back, they’ve come up vastly short.

That and other things, like the power play, will surely be on tap at practice this week as the Rocket return to Quebec.

Plus / Minus

▲ Jean-Sebastien Dea, Lukas Vejdemo

▼ Xavier Ouellet, Cayden Primeau, Rafael Harvey-Pinard