Rocket Lineup

Charles Hudon – Jake Evans – Dale Weise

Alexandre Alain – Lukas Vejdemo – Joe Cox

Nikita Jevpalovs – Kevin Lynch – Ralph Cuddemi

Hayden Verbeek – Michael Pezzetta – Antoine Waked

Evan McEneny – Xavier Ouellet

Gustav Olofsson – Maxim Lamarche

Karl Alzner – Josh Brook

Charlie Lindgren – Keith Kinkaid

Ryan Culkin, James Phelan

William Pelletier (undisclosed), Phil Varone (wrist), Noah Juulsen (upper body), Alex Belzile (day-to-day), Michael McCarron (day-to-day)

Game Report

Game Report written by Chris G

The Rocket hosted the Americans on Friday night at Place Bell. It was the first game of the season between the division rivals. Last season, Rochester won three of the four games. 

Ralph Cuddemi and Evan McEneny both made their AHL season debut, replacing Ryan Poehling and Christian Folin. Folin returned to Montreal at the end of his conditioning stint on Tuesday, and Poehling was recalled ahead of Saturday’s game against the Red Wings. 

McEneny was signed to a professional tryout on November 25th, and has been recovering from knee surgery. His last game was on March 6th when he was with the Utica Comets. 

Cuddemi was signed to a professional tryout on Thursday and is currently the leading scorer in the ECHL with 34 points in 25 games played with the Reading Royals. Friday was his first career game in the AHL.  

For the first time of the season, there wasn’t a rotation of the starting goalie as Joel Bouchard started Charlie Lindgren for a second consecutive game. In his last start, Lindgren made 21 saves in 3-2 shootout win against Cleveland. 

It took 53 seconds for Rochester to open the scoring in the game. On a lost faceoff by Lukas Vejdemo, Casey Nelson took a shot from the point that through traffic that trickled between Lindgren’s pads. 

It took Laval less than two minutes to tie the game and it was on their first shot. While on a power play, Charles Hudon scored on a breakaway with his back hand after receiving a pass from Dale Weise in the neutral zone. Hudon has scored a goal in four consecutive games. 

The Rocket’s second opportunity wasn’t as successful. Hudon wasn’t able to control the puck from the boards in the offensive zone and it led to a short handed goal. Sean Malone scored on the 2-on-1 after tapping the rebound from Eric Cornel’s shot on the post. 

There was no scoring in the second period. After delivering a hard hit on Jacob Bryson behind the net in the offensive zone, Michael Pezzetta dropped the gloves against Dalton Smith.

Rochester was undisciplined, taking two consecutive minor penalties in the final five minutes of the period, however Laval wasn’t able to capitalize. The home team spent most of the time in their opponents zone not being able to get a dangerous shot on goal. 

The Americans most dangerous scoring opportunity of the period came with 9:11 remaining in the period when C.J. Smith’s shot hit the post to the left of Lindgren.  

Rochester increased their lead to two goals about two minutes into the third period as Cornel was left open by Gustav Olofsson to put in the rebound from Malone’s shot. 

It took 28 seconds for the Rocket to cut the lead as Nikita Jevpalovs scored from a bad angle with a shot that hit the post before crossing the red line. It was Jevpalovs’ first goal in 15 games. 

The majority of the final period was spent in Rochester’s zone, however Laval wasn’t able to get one past Jonas Johansson. Johansson finished the night with 35 saves to lead his team to the victory. 

These two teams face each other again on Saturday at 3:00pm ET. Listen to full audio of player and coach post-game interviews in the player below.

Plus / Minus

▲  Charles Hudon, Alexandre Alain, Nikita Jevpalovs

▼  Xavier Ouellet, Gustav Olofsson, Antoine Waked