ROCKET
Laval

2-4

CRUNCH
Syracuse

Lineup

Forward lines and defense pairings: 

[one_half]Audette – Evans – Weise
Belzile – Chaput – Grenier
Jevpalovs – Vejdemo – Alain
Pezzetta – Verbeek – Kile[/one_half]

[one_half_last]Ouellet – Fleury
Alzner – Lernout
Sklenicka – Lamarche[/one_half_last]

Goaltenders:
Lindgren
McNiven

Scratches:

Adam Plant, Ryan Culkin, Phelix Martineau, Morgan Adams-Moisan

Injury List:

Gustav Olofsson (shoulder), Noah Juulsen (eye), Michael McCarron (shoulder), Antoine Waked (upper body injury), Hunter Shinkaruk (upper body injury)

Game Report

After two wins in Binghamton and taking the Belleville Senators to overtime, the Laval Rocket had strung together some games that had positive momentum behind them. The Quebec team looked to continue improving on their road record Wednesday night when they arrived in Syracuse for a divisional matchup against the Crunch.

Dale Weise made his Laval debut on this night, taking a place on the top line with Daniel Audette and Jake Evans, and displacing Alex Belzile to the second line.

The opening 20 minutes of play was fast-paced, strong hockey at both ends of the ice. Each time went hard on the forecheck and shut down shooting lanes in front of Charlie Lindgren and Eddie Pasquale.

Then, late in the period, Syracuse put up two quick goals in the span of just under two minutes. Former St. John’s IceCaps captain Gabriel Dumont potted the first goal as he banged in the puck past Lindgren, who had to make several quick saves with many Crunch players clogging up the crease. Cameron Gaunce followed that up with a cross-ice feed to Cory Conacher who sent a one-timer into the net blocker side.

But Laval responded quickly when, just 22 seconds later, Maxim Lamarche scored his second goal of the season with a backhander in the slot to make it 2-1 for Syracuse heading into the first intermission.

The second period got even more interesting when Alexander Volkov outskated Lamarche on a breakaway and beat Lindgren to restore his team’s two-goal lead. But once again, the Rocket answered – this time with a power play goal from Weise.

A few minutes later, gloves were dropped on the ice as Audette (yes, Audette) and Conacher went for a very short round of fisticuffs. Officials broke up the mismatched fight pretty quickly, however, and Laval benefited from an extra two-minute minor to Syracuse.

With the score 3-2 heading into the final frame, the Rocket had the potential to take Syracuse to task, but fell short. The man advantage couldn’t muster another goal for the visiting team, and Alex Barre-Boulet took the opportunity during a Syracuse power play to score on another one-timer off a cross-ice feed to make it 4-2 for the Crunch.

Head coach Joel Bouchard talked to our Rocket Sports Media team after the game, and said he was disappointed with his team’s performance on this night. Listen to the full interview with Bouchard, as well as interviews with Weise and Evans, in the audio player below.

The Rocket made a quick trip back to Laval overnight and will now get ready to face the Manitoba Moose for two games at Place Bell this weekend where they’ll look to get some points back on the board.

Plus/Minus

▲     Charlie Lindgren, Jake Evans

▼     Alex Kile, Maxim Lamarche, Xavier Ouellet

Stars of the Game

1. Alex Barre-Boulet  SYR
2. Cameron Gaunce  SYR
3. Dale Weise  LAV

Post-game interview with Dale Weise:

Post-game interview with Jake Evans:

Interviews conducted by Amy J for AHL Report

RECAP | Rocket – Senators: Laval Drops Divisional Game in OT https://t.co/BzA566wRsZ pic.twitter.com/JvnrQkfMI7

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