ROCKET
Laval

1-7

MARLIES
Toronto

Lineup

Forward lines and defense pairings: 

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

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

Goaltenders:
McNiven
Lindgren

Scratches:

Yannick Veilleux (lower body), Matt Taormina (lower body)

Injury List:

Jeremiah Addison (shoulder)

Game Report

It had been a week since the Laval Rocket last played a game. After a much-needed All-Star Break to recharge and rest their bodies, the team headed back out on the road. Their first stop? Toronto for a divisional matchup against the Marlies.

With Nikita Scherbak recalled to Montreal on Friday, and Yannick Veilleux and Matt Taormina out with lower-body injuries, Sylvain Lefebvre found himself needing to ice every healthy player on his roster.

The opening period did not turn out the way a well-rested team would have expected. While the Rocket were disciplined, only going on the penalty kill once, they were badly outshot by the Marlies 14-7 in the period and found themselves chasing the puck and the play more often than not. Defensively, the team looked sluggish and lazy at times, seemingly a step or two too slow in retrieving loose pucks.

After the home team put up four unanswered even-strength goals on the board, Michael McCarron gave his bench an injection of energy as he dropped the gloves for a spirited tilt with Andrew Nielson.

For the second period, things settled down a bit for the Rocket. They outshot the Marlies 16-11 and maintained better puck possession. The power play units had quality chances on net, but the pucks just weren’t getting past Calvin Pickard.

The penalty kill, while only tested once in the frame, couldn’t contain the Marlies power play unit and allowed another goal against to make it 5-0 for Toronto.

Things went from bad to worse to dismal in the final frame as the Marlies tallied two more goals. Despite that, Lefebvre allowed Lindgren to finish out the game in net, and Markus Eisenschmid broke Pickard’s shutout late in the period with a quick wrister in close to make it 7-1.

The team now has a couple of days of practice before they head to Binghamton to begin a three-games-in-four-days series in New York, where they’ll face the Senators, Comets, and Crunch.

▲     Jordan Boucher, Jeremy Gregoire, Chris Terry

▼     Stefan Leblanc, David Broll, Antoine Waked

1. Andreas Johnsson  TOR
2. Jeremy Bracco  TOR
3. Andrew Nielson  TOR

Interviews conducted by Amy Johnson for AHL Report

AHL ALL-STAR CLASSIC | Taormina, Terry Help North Division Win Championship [AUDIO] https://t.co/CbdMWArqS2 pic.twitter.com/K6jpmaApl3

— AHL Report (@TheAHLReport) January 30, 2018

AHL ALL-STAR CLASSIC | Chris Terry and Matt Taormina Show Off Their Skills [AUDIO/VIDEO] https://t.co/ElYDHvvpkk pic.twitter.com/jM5nd1hsPR

— AHL Report (@TheAHLReport) January 29, 2018

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