Rocket Lineup

Charles Hudon – Jesperi Kotkaniemi – Riley Barber

Matthew Peca – Ryan Poehling – Kevin Lynch

Yannick Veilleux – Phil Varone – Alexandre Alain

Michael Pezzetta – Laurent Dauphin – Nikita Jevpalovs

Gustav Olofsson – Cale Fleury

Otto Leskinen – Evan McEneny

Karl Alzner – Josh Brook

Keith Kinkaid – Michael McNiven

Maxim Lamarche, Cayden Primeau, Antoine Waked

Noah Juulsen (upper body), Alex Belzile (pectoral surgery), Andrew Sturtz, Hayden Verbeek, Lukas Vejdemo, Joe Cox, Will Pelletier, Ralph Cuddemi

Game Report

Game Report written by Amy Johnson

A visit to Belleville on Saturday night ended in Laval grabbing just one point in an overtime loss before they boarded the bus and made the short trek to Toronto for a Sunday afternoon clash against a Marlies team trailing them by just two points in the standings.

Ryan Poehling returned to the lineup on Sunday, centering the second line between Matthew Peca and Kevin Lynch. The three-goaltender rotation was in effect on this day as Keith Kinkaid took up residence in the Rocket’s crease, with Michael McNiven dressing as the backup. Cayden Primeau was a healthy scratch.

Coming off of a 4-0 win against the Rochester Americans on Saturday, the Marlies were riding that momentum when they scored just 49 seconds into the game against Laval. Jesperi Kotkaniemi lost a faceoff, giving Toronto the puck and allowing Mason Marchment to get in close to Kinkaid, who made a good initial save but couldn’t stop Marchment from scooping up the rebound and lifting the puck over the line.

About five minutes later, Egor Korshkov was on the receiving end of a slick tape-to-tape pass up-ice from Joseph Duszak, allowing Korshkov to get a breakaway and deke around Kinkaid to make it 2-0 for the home team.

After another five minutes or so, Toronto took a three-goal lead when Kristians Rubins went bar down to score. Fortunately for Laval, Cale Fleury patiently held onto the puck about a minute later and found a sliver of daylight to put a wrister through traffic and score his first goal of the season.

The middle frame was the complete opposite of the first one, with both teams playing a much more defensive game. Laval had plenty of power play opportunities in the period, but could barely muster any shots on goal during the man advantage, much less score. Neither team lit the lamp, and shots were held to just 5-3 for Laval.

Things went from bad to worse for Laval in the third period, despite getting more shots on Kasimir Kaskisuo. Matt Read got loose while shorthanded, and took advantage of some open space between himself and Fleury to deke around the defenseman and backhand the puck past Kinkaid.

Kotkaniemi then took back-to-back penalties, leaving the Laval penalty killers on the ice for an extended period of time. A slight ray of hope emerged when Peca managed to fire an accurate wrister into the Toronto net, but moments later, with the Rocket’s goaltender pulled for an extra attacker, Pontus Aberg potted an empty-netter to put a stamp on this division rivalry game.

The Marlies now take over that coveted fourth-place spot in the standings, knocking Laval out of a playoff position for now. The Rocket next head to Utica, where they’ll look to try to gain some ground back in the North Division.

Plus / Minus

▲  Ryan Poehling

▼  Keith Kinkaid, Otto Leskinen, Gustav Olofsson, Cale Fleury