ROCKET
Laval

5-4

COMETS
Utica

Lineup

Forward lines and defense pairings: 

[one_half]Carr – Holland – Terry
Deslauriers – McCarron – Baun
Boucher – Audette – Gregoire
Veilleux – Petti – Waked[/one_half]

[one_half_last]Taormina – Jerabek
Parisi – Leblanc
Gelinas – Lernout[/one_half_last]

Goaltenders:
McNiven
Fucale

Scratches:

Simon Bourque, David Broll, Thomas Ebbing

Injury List:

Noah Juulsen (foot), Jeremiah Addison (shoulder), Markus Eisenschmid (lower body)

Game Report

With the Rocket back home in Laval for two quick games before heading out on the road again, they were looking to continue their strong play from Sunday in a divisional matchup against the Utica Comets at Place Bell on Wednesday night.

Although Zach Fucale had been sent back down to Laval the next before the game, Michael McNiven got the call in net on this night against Utica. From the start, he seemed to be locked in yet again and was quick to make many solid, calm saves – especially on the penalty kill.

Daniel Carr opened the scoring early with a tic-tac-toe power play goal off a smooth feed from Mike McCarron at the blue line, to Peter Holland in the slot, to Carr down low. Thatcher Demko didn’t stand a chance in the crease.

The teams then exchanged a few penalties as tensions started to ramp up. Chris Terry had some irritating stick work for Michael Carcone on the outside of the faceoff circle, which resulted in Carcone getting his stick up in Terry’s face and the gloves coming off. Soon after that, Yan-Pavel Laplante took exception with Stefan Leblanc after the whistle and tried to get a fight of his own started, but the refs were not having it.

On the ensuing four-on-three power play, Holland came up big with a one-timer past Demko to put the Rocket up 2-0 at the end of the period.

In the middle frame, the physicality ramped up quite a bit with Yannick Veilleux taking a boarding penalty, then dropping the gloves with Laplante the moment he steps out of the penalty box. Carr would then give his team a 3-0 advantage over Utica with a clean wrister from the faceoff circle. However, Utica started to press back a bit and Michael Chaput stepped into a puck in the slot to put the Comets on the board.

Antoine Waked got the third period started with his first professional goal, assisted by Jakub Jerabek and Matt Taormina to make it 4-1 for the home team.

But then the Comets really started to try to mount a comeback as the seconds ticked down, scoring two goals in 10 seconds with less than a minute left in regulation time. Fortunately the clock ran out in time for the Rocket to capture the win in this exciting game.

The Rocket have just one day to get ready for the Lehigh Valley Phantoms who come to Laval on Friday night for an exciting matchup.

▲     Michael McNiven, Daniel Carr, Matt Taormina, Michael McCarron, Peter Holland

▼

1. Daniel Carr  LAV
2. Matt Taormina  LAV
3. Michael McNiven  LAV

Interviews conducted by Amy Johnson for AHL Report

Laval Rocket Post-game Interviews with Jerabek, McNiven, Terry [VIDEO] https://t.co/wxz1vgHAre pic.twitter.com/WwJG6CjJLy

— AHL Report (@TheAHLReport) November 14, 2017

Laval Rocket Post-game Interviews with Parisi, Baun, Gregoire, Lefebvre [VIDEO] https://t.co/NpS0nT0cPh pic.twitter.com/FJ6mFWKIpR

— AHL Report (@TheAHLReport) November 14, 2017

Another great episode of From the Press Box. Full marks to @FlyersRule on another fantastic rant. 👏👏 Also, Buddy the Puffin is the best mascot. 😋 @AllHabs @RocketSports https://t.co/uRQbbQupV9

— Joseph Whalen (@JoeWhalen19) November 15, 2017

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