ROCKET
Laval

6-5

CRUNCH
Syracuse

Lineup

Forward lines and defense pairings: 

[one_half]Carr – Froese – Baun
Audette – Holland – Boucher
Deslauriers – Petti – Gregoire
Broll – Ebbing – Veilleux[/one_half]

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

Goaltenders:
Fucale
St-Laurent

Scratches:

Simon Bourque, Antoine Waked

Injury List:

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

Game Report

Charlie Lindgren was one of many in the Laval locker room not happy with the performance and outcome of the Rocket’s 3-0 loss to Toronto earlier in the week.  But on Friday night when the Syracuse Crunch took the ice at Place Bell it was Zach Fucale in net for the home team. Lindgren was recalled by the Montreal Canadiens just hours before puck drop when news came out that Carey Price had suffered a minor injury.

As the Rocket got to work in the first period, it was clear that the Crunch came to play hard. They would score the first goal of the game on the power play, but Byron Froese netted an equalizer on the man advantage just a short time later. Earlier in the day, Froese was announced as the player’s choice for captain of the team, along with Chris Terry and Matt Taormina serving as alternates.

Coach Sylvain Lefebvre mentioned after Wednesday’s game that discipline was proving to be a costly bad habit this season and that the number of penalties needed to decreased drastically. But Laval still consistently found themselves shorthanded, and again they paid the price for it to begin the second period.

Then things seemed to shift in their favor. Eric Gelinas buried a slap shot from the point past Michael Leighton, then Taormina fired home a one-timer from the high slot on a power play to even the score at 3-3. Less than 20 seconds later, Jakub Jerabek scored his first goal of the season to give the Rocket their first lead of the game.

Fucale and the penalty killers came up strong in a nearly two minute five-on-three situation and kept the Crunch out of the net.  Toward the end of the period, tensions boiled over and Niki Petti and Kyle Baun both found themselves in the midst of a scrap.

The third period brought more back and forth scoring, but the Crunch seemed to control the puck much more than the Rocket could. Dominic Masin evened the score at 4-4 early, then Daniel Audette got the go-ahead goal on a subsequent power play. Just a few seconds later, though, Mathieu Joseph would score his second of the night to tie the game again. That’s where the score would stay to finish regulation, forcing three-on-three overtime.

With the Crunch needing to kill off the remainder of a penalty to begin the extra minutes, most of the overtime period was spent at four-on-four hockey. Finally the teams went to three-on-three with 59 seconds remaining when the first whistle blew. The Rocket came hard in the Crunch’s zone, but Leighton fought them off and it forced a shootout, where Laval came out victorious in the fourth round off a goal by Froese.

These two teams will have plenty to think about tonight as they prepare to face off once again on Saturday afternoon.

▲     Kyle Baun, Matt Taormina, Byron Froese, Daniel Audette

▼     Eric Gelinas

1. Byron Froese  LAV
2. Zach Fucale  LAV
3. Mathieu Joseph  SYR

Interviews conducted by Amy Johnson for AHL Report

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