Rocket Lineup

Charles Hudon – Ryan Poehling – Alex Belzile

Phil Varone – Jake Evans – Riley Barber

Nikita Jevpalovs – Lukas Vejdemo – Joe Cox

Alexandre Alain – Michael McCarron – Dale Weise

Otto Leskinen – Xavier Ouellet

Gustav Olofsson – Maxim Lamarche

Karl Alzner – Josh Brook

Cayden Primeau – Charlie Lindgren

David Sklenicka, Michael Pezzetta, Noah Juulsen, Kevin Lynch

Matthew Peca (day-to-day), William Pelletier (undisclosed)

Game Report

Game Report written by Chris G

The Rocket was on a two-game win streak headed into Friday night’s game against the Bruins. Providence was looking to pay back Laval for Wednesday’s 5-4 loss in a shootout, in a game that the Bruins forced into extra time after Laval took a 4-0 lead after 20 minutes of play. 

Alexandre Alain made his way back into the lineup after sitting out the last two games, replacing Michael Pezzetta. Cayden Primeau got the start in goal. In his last start, Primeau made 21 saves to record his first professional win. 

Earlier in the day, Joel Bouchard confirmed that Noah Juulsen will not play this weekend as the medical staff determined that he requires more practice time with the team before making his season debut. Matthew Peca and William Pelletier are also reported to be injured. 

Laval was able to generate scoring chances early into the game. Moments after Nikita Jevpalovs hit the post, Alain put his team on the board at the 2:27 mark with his first goal of the season. Alain capitalized on a rebound from Maxim Lamarche’s point shot to slide the puck passed Max Lagace. 

With 5:12 played in the period, Michael McCarron and Brendan Gaunce collided at centre ice. Gaunce got the worst of the hit and was stretchered off the ice after laying face down for several minutes. 

During the Rocket’s first power play of the night, Dale Weise scored his first goal of the season to give his team a two goal lead. Weise was attempting a pass to Ryan Poehling that deflected on a defender and slid between Legace’s pads. 

Alex Petrovich opened the scoring for the Bruins with a point shot through traffic off the faceoff with 4:41 remaining in the first. 

Alex Belzile wasn’t able to finish a pair of scoring chances. While Rocket had the extra man advantage, he knocked in a loose puck into the net, but the goal was disallowed as the official had blown the whistle. In the second period, Belzile took a wrist shot on a 2-on-1 play with Charles Hudon, that was stopped by a Lagace glove save. 

For the second consecutive game, the Bruins tied the game after trailing by multiple goals. Ryan Fitzgerald took advantage of a lot of traffic in Primeau’s crease to slide the puck in the goal. Jake Evans, Riley Barber, and Gustav Olofsson weren’t able to clear the puck out of danger during that sequence. 

The Bruins came out strong in the third period taking 14 shots on Primeau, eight of them being between the goal line and the faceoff dots. The goalie made several key saves throughout the game including a pad save on Zach Senyshyn while laying on the ice that had the crowd chanting his name inside Place Bell. 

Poehling broke the 2-2 tie with 9:20 remaining in the period as he stole the puck from the defender, skated into the zone and beat Lagace glove side with a hard slap shop.

Providence pulled the goalie in the final moments of the game, but Laval’s five man unit did a good job defending the goal. 

The Rocket wrap up their three game home stand against the Hershey Bears at Place Bell on Saturday night. Charlie Lindgren is expected to make the start in goal and there will likely be no other lineup changes, according to Bouchard. Listen to full audio of player and coach post-game interviews in the audio player below.

Plus / Minus

▲  Cayden Primeau, Ryan Poehling, Josh Brook, Riley Barber

▼  Gustav Olofsson