ROCKET
Laval

2-3

AMERICANS
Rochester

Lineup

Forward lines and defense pairings: 

[one_half]Agostino – Froese – Belzile
Chaput – McCarron – Grenier
Audette – Vejdemo – Alain
Shinkaruk – Evans – Jevpalovs[/one_half]

[one_half_last]Kulak – Lernout
Sklenicka – Sproul
Lamarche – Fleury[/one_half_last]

Goaltenders:
Lindgren
McNiven

Scratches:

Jeremiah Addison, Hayden Verbeek, Adam Plant, Michal Moravcik

Injury List:

Gustav Olofsson (undisclosed)

Game Report

With a few days off for travel and practice between Tuesday night’s tilt against the Marlies and Saturday’s matchup in Rochester, the Laval Rocket should have been plenty rested to take on the team with the top three scorers in the AHL, including former IceCaps defenseman Zach Redmond.

Charlie Lindgren, for his part, did his part to open the game as he and Scott Wedgewood both stopped every shot that came their way. The Rocket opened up with a flurry of shots against Wedgewood, but couldn’t get the puck to go, or finish off any rebounds.

Former Rocket forward Yannick Veilleux was on hand to deliver his signature punishing hits for the Amerks, and both teams exchanged a couple of penalties. But after 20 minutes of play, the score remained tied at zero.

Veilleux made his presence known again toward the end of the second period when he laid a big hit after the play along the boards which caused quite a commotion. He and Kenny Agostino got tangled up, but Dalton Smith dropped the gloves with Maxim Lamarche and absolutely pummeled him. Lamarche seemed to have trouble getting his footing and took the brunt of the blows.

The two teams continued to exchange penalties throughout the period, and finally the Laval power play came through when Brett Kulak fired a shot past Wedgewood from the top of the slot to give the Rocket a 1-0 lead heading into the second intermission.

In the third period, the penalty parade devolved even further.  Both teams would combine for a total of 20 infractions by the end of the game, with Laval going two-for-twelve on the power play, and Rochester coming up short with a zero-for-six on the man advantage.

But the revenge scoring came quick and ferociously for the Amerks as Redmond evened the score off a beautiful feed from Tayler Fedun from the slot to dish it past Lindgren glove side. Before the Rocket could settle things down and try to regain their lead, C.J. Smith came in fast down low behind the Laval net while shorthanded, managed to pick up the puck as Lindgren played it, and tapped it into an empty net to give the Americans a 2-1 lead.

After the beating Lamarche took earlier in the game, a terrible turnover in his own end just added insult to injury as Rochester got a shot off which rebounded right to Veilleux’s stick for the game-winning goal. Agostino did manage to add another power play goal to the team’s tally on the night with a nice wrister from the circle, but it wasn’t enough to overcome the home team.

That’s four consecutive losses for the Rocket. Lots of things to work on for this team, including the power play, taking too many penalties, and letting their foot off the gas consistently in the third period. They now head back to Laval where they’ll welcome their Ontario neighbors, the Belleville Senators, on Wednesday night.

▲     Alex Belzile, Jake Evans

▼     Maxim Lamarche, Daniel Audette, Michael Chaput

1. Yannick Veilleux  RCH
2. Zach Redmond  RCH
3. Kenny Agostino  LAV

Interviews conducted by Amy Johnson for AHL Report

The @RocketLaval have signed defenseman Ryan Sproul (@Sproully93) to a PTO contract.

The 6'4"/205lb right-shooting blueliner spent most of last year playing for the @WolfPackAHL (10G/15A).

In 44 career NHL games (DET/NYR), he has 2G/10A.@TheAHLReport @RocketSports #GoRocket

— Amy (@FlyersRule) October 25, 2018

From The Press Box | Rocket Report, Phantoms Review, Utica Sets Record [S2/E6] https://t.co/wQaAXrRkG2 pic.twitter.com/BVjjvIuiTO

— AHL Report (@TheAHLReport) October 23, 2018

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