Rocket Lineup

Laurent Dauphin – Jake Evans – Charles Hudon

Matthew Peca – Phil Varone – Riley Barber

Alexandre Alain – Lukas Vejdemo – Nikita Jevpalovs

Michael Pezzetta – Kevin Lynch – Joe Cox

Gustav Olofsson – Xavier Ouellet

Karl Alzner – Josh Brook

Otto Leskinen – Christian Folin

Keith Kinkaid – Cayden Primeau

Maxim Lamarche, Will Pelletier, Ralph Cuddemi, Yannick Veilleux, Antoine Waked, Dale Weise

Noah Juulsen (upper body), Alex Belzile (pectoral surgery), Andrew Sturtz, Hayden Verbeek

Game Report

Game Report written by Amy Johnson

Having taken sole possession of fourth place in the North Division, a playoff position for now, the Laval Rocket kicked off their weekend road trip with a visit to the Rochester Americans who sit just two points ahead of the Rocket in third place. Both teams were coming off of Wednesday night wins, but the Amerks were also stocked with some reinforcements sent down from the Buffalo Sabres during the NHL All-Star break.

After a tentative opening 10 minutes of play where each team only registered one shot on goal, Rochester took over this game for just about the rest of the night. They maintained puck possession, offensive pressure, and most importantly, the better scoring chances.

Andrew Oglevie got the scoring started with a deflection in the slot past Keith Kinkaid. That goal was soon followed by one from Sean Malone. To be fair, however, it wasn’t Malone who scored the goal, he was just the last Rochester player to touch the puck. Kinkaid attempted to clear the puck up the ice around Josh Brook, but Brook got a stick on it to bat it down and succeeded in having the puck go right down and through the crease into the Laval net.

In the second period, Kinkaid was having difficulty controlling his rebounds and on one such occasion, the Amerks put the puck in the back of his net as a result. The Rocket then lost the services of Karl Alzner for 12 minutes and Charles Hudon for the night on a game misconduct for interference as the result of a questionable open-ice hit that led to a pretty extended scrum.

On a brighter note, the Rocket got on the board with a goal by Gustav Olofsson, the first of the season for the defenseman. But the good news wouldn’t last long, as the Americans continued to rack up goals in the third period. A power play goal by Kevin Lynch wasn’t enough to stifle Rochester, who added another deflected puck goal and an empty net goal to their tally to finish the game 5-2.

Toronto and Syracuse now sit just two points behind Laval in the standings, with Cleveland and Binghamton hot on their heels. The Rocket head to southern New York on Saturday night to take on the Devils.

Plus / Minus

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▼  Keith Kinkaid, Josh Brook, Joe Cox