ROCKET
Laval

0-4

MARLIES
Toronto

Lineup

Forward lines and defense pairings: 

[one_half]Rychel – Cracknell – Terry
Broll – McCarron – Gregoire
Boucher – Petti – Eisenschmid
Veilleux – Blain – Ebbing[/one_half]

[one_half_last]Parisi – Taormina
Gelinas – Bourque
Hamilton – Corrin[/one_half_last]

Goaltenders:
McNiven
Fucale

Scratches:

Etienne Boutet, Daniel Audette (lower body), Stefan Leblanc (day to day), Antoine Waked (upper body)

Injury List:

Jeremiah Addison (shoulder)

Game Report

With injuries continuing to plague the Rocket, the Laval team saw its roster further depleted after Monday’s game with Antoine Waked out of the lineup after getting hurt in the second period in Toronto earlier in the week.

Luckily, Yannick Veilleux is healthy again and returned to the lineup on this night as the Rocket faced off against the Marlies yet again, but this time at Ricoh Coliseum. The game couldn’t have started more poorly, with Toronto managing to create chaos around the crease and find the back of the net just 16 seconds after opening faceoff.

Another injury scare seemed to have been avoided for now after Tom Parisi went down and had to be helped off the ice with what looked like an ankle injury. But after walking it off on the bench for a bit, he returned to the game.

The rest of the opening frame was played pretty tightly, with shots fairly even despite the Rocket going on the penalty kill twice. The Marlies almost had a second goal as the final seconds ticked down, but somehow Laval managed to sweep it out of the crease just in time.

In the middle frame, penalties continued to pile up but the Laval penalty killers managed to keep the Marlies at bay. On more than one occasion the Toronto power play units peppered the Rocket crease with shots, but Michael McNiven stayed calm and denied them each time.

Then the tide began to shift a bit as the home team began taking penalties of their own. The Laval power play units looked strong on each shift and came close to putting the puck past Garret Sparks to even the score. Neither team found the back of the net in the period, though, and the score remained a close 1-0 for Toronto.

For the final 20 minutes, it was basically all Toronto. They scored three more goals, including two by Vincent LoVerde, to blank the visiting Rocket. McNiven couldn’t really be blamed for the goals, especially one deflected off of new teammate Rob Hamilton‘s leg.

It’s been a tough stretch lately for the Laval team, but they’ll have a day of practice and travel to regroup before back-to-back games in Utica and Syracuse this weekend.

▲     Matt Taormina, Tom Parisi

▼     Chris Terry, Adam Cracknell

1. Garret Sparks  TOR
2. Vincent LoVerde  TOR
3. Mason Marchment  TOR

Interviews conducted by Amy Johnson for AHL Report

Getting to the crease, @richclune makes no mistake.#MarliesLive pic.twitter.com/19sqRv3Kso

— Toronto Marlies (@TorontoMarlies) March 15, 2018

#ECHL Board of Governors approves changes for 2018-19 Season.

St. John's, Newfoundland to join League as expansion team

MORE -> https://t.co/XPBLUmQU1h

— ECHL (@ECHL) March 13, 2018

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