ROCKET
Laval

3-6

BRUINS
Providence

Lineup

Forward lines and defense pairings: 

[one_half]Rychel – Cracknell – Terry
Boucher – McCarron – Waked
Petti – Eisenschmid – Gregoire
Broll – Blain – Ebbing[/one_half]

[one_half_last]Gelinas – Lernout
Bourque – Leblanc
Parisi – Corrin[/one_half_last]

Goaltenders:
McNiven
Fucale

Scratches:

Yannick Veilleux (lower body), Matt Taormina (upper body), Daniel Audette (lower body)

Injury List:

Jeremiah Addison (shoulder)

Game Report

The Rocket returned home to Laval to kick off a three-game home stand with a matchup against the visiting Providence Bruins on Wednesday night. David Broll returned to the lineup on this night after being sidelined for a few games with a minor injury.

For the opening five minutes or so, the teams played pretty even end-to-end hockey, with shots on goal coming at a premium. But then Colby Cave got a bit of a breakaway and careened towards the net, getting the puck through Michael McNiven in the process to put Providence up 1-0 early.

After that, the penalty boxes were quite busy. The Bruins found themselves shorthanded, but Kerby Rychel quickly was called for a hooking penalty to negate the power play opportunity. Broll found himself sitting for a hooking minor a little while later as well, but things really heated up late in the period after Chris Terry laid a big hit on Anton Blidh behind the goal.

The Bruins took exception to the hit and, playing in his first AHL game this season, 6-foot-8 defenseman Taylor Doherty dropped the gloves with the towering Michael McCarron.

Penalties continued to mount in the second period, and the Rocket paid the price for them. Providence managed to score two goals on the man advantage in the period, along with an even-strength goal. McNiven was pulled from the game after the third goal against, with Zach Fucale entering the game in relief.

However, on their only power play opportunity of the period, Laval responded with a goal of their own when Terry fired the puck from the high slot to get the home team on the board.

While the third period was much more disciplined, the Rocket found themselves in a hole they just couldn’t climb out of. The bench didn’t seem to have much energy, and the frustration was showing on their faces at times. Blidh scored his second of the game, before Rychel scored two in a row to bring his team within two goals.

But it was too little, too late and an empty netter by Austin Czarnik put a stamp on yet another home ice loss for the Rocket.

Laval continues to struggle at home, but they’ll have two more chances this week to fix that as they play a back-to-back at Place Bell on Friday and Saturday against the Belleville Senators.

▲     Kerby Rychel, Chris Terry

▼     Simon Bourque

1. Anton Blidh  PRO
2. Austin Czarnik  PRO
3. Kerby Rychel  LAV

Interviews conducted by Amy Johnson for AHL Report

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