ROCKET
Laval

5-2

COMETS
Utica

Lineup

Forward lines and defense pairings: 

[one_half]Terry – Cracknell – Boucher
Audette – McCarron – Boucher
Gregoire – Eisenschmid – Waked
Broll – Ebbing – Baun[/one_half]

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

Goaltenders:
McNiven
Fucale

Scratches:

Yannick Veilleux (lower body), Matt Taormina (upper body), Niki Petti (lower body), Willie Corrin, Luc-Olivier Blain

Injury List:

Jeremiah Addison (shoulder)

Game Report

After having another week pass by between games, the Rocket hit the road on Friday night to return to Utica, NY where they would take on one of their tough division rivals, the Comets.

The first period didn’t look promising, as Laval’s performance looked shaky at best. The Comets were outshooting the visitors, and the Rocket were giving into the home team’s efforts to get physical which put them in the penalty box too many times.

Thankfully, the penalty killing units and netminder Michael McNiven combined to keep the Comets’ pucks out of the back of Laval’s net.

Chris Terry‘s return to the lineup, after being sidelined with injury, became quite apparent in the second period when he deflected the puck off of one of Utica’s defenseman to get the Rocket on the board first.

Soon after, Jordan Boucher potted his first goal of the night with a shot from the circle that made it’s way through traffic, with Michael McCarron helping to provide the screen. Terry then struck gold again after taking a perfect feed from Brett Lernout and dancing in towards the net to put the puck past Thatcher Demko.

With a comfortable three-goal lead, the Rocket found themselves back on their heels a bit in the final frame, with the Comets controlling the puck for most of the period.

Utica would manage to score two goals in the period, but after the second one Boucher took just 11 seconds to find mesh and restore a two-goal lead for Laval.  Daniel Audette put a stamp on the victory with an empty-netter to give the Rocket a 5-2 victory over the Comets.

The Rocket now travel overnight back to Canada where they’ll visit Belleville for another rivalry matchup against the Senators on Saturday night.

▲     Chris Terry, Jordan Boucher, Nikita Scherbak, Brett Lernout

▼     Simon Bourque, Matt Petgrave

1. Jordan Boucher  LAV
2. Chris Terry  LAV
3. Michael McNiven  LAV

Post-game interview with Chris Terry

Post-game interview with Tom Parisi

Interviews conducted by Amy Johnson for AHL Report

Scherbak has created several scoring chances tonight including ringing a shot off the crossbar. Rocket lead Comets 3-0 after two periods. @RocketSports pic.twitter.com/q1YxHW7lSo

— AHL Report (@TheAHLReport) February 24, 2018

Jordan Boucher scored his 7th goal of the season. Rocket lead Comets 3-0 after 40 minutes. @RocketSports pic.twitter.com/T35p4co32k

— AHL Report (@TheAHLReport) February 24, 2018

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