Rocket Lineup

Lukas Vejdemo – Jake Evans – Charles Hudon

Matthew Peca – Phil Varone – Riley Barber

Alexandre Alain – Laurent Dauphin – Nikita Jevpalovs

Michael Pezzetta – Kevin Lynch

Gustav Olofsson – Xavier Ouellet

Otto Leskinen – Evan McEneny

Karl Alzner – Christian Folin

Josh Brook

Keith Kinkaid – Cayden Primeau

Maxim Lamarche, Will Pelletier, Ralph Cuddemi, Yannick Veilleux, Antoine Waked

Noah Juulsen (upper body), Alex Belzile (pectoral surgery), Andrew Sturtz, Hayden Verbeek, Joe Cox

Game Report

Game Report written by Amy Johnson

Flying high off a shutout win against the Moose in Winnipeg on Saturday afternoon, the Rocket took to the ice against Manitoba again on Sunday afternoon looking to complete the weekend sweep in spectacular fashion. Joel Bouchard made no changes to his lineup except to place Keith Kinkaid in goal. That meant Josh Brook would once again be the seventh defenseman and play left wing on the fourth line for the second consecutive game.

But the Moose made sure that they wouldn’t be blanked on home ice for a second day in a row, scoring in the opening two minutes of the game on a wrister by Andrei Chibisov that went right down the slot through traffic and past Kinkaid.

The remainder of the first period was mostly uneventful, with both teams earning one penalty each, and both teams killing off those penalties. The Rocket started to heat up the shot clock toward the end of the period, but Mikhail Berdin was in net for Manitoba and proved to be a defining factor throughout the game.

Similar to the opening frame, the Moose struck again in the opening two minutes of the second period when C.J. Suess got free in the circle, dug the puck out of his skates, and backhanded into the Laval net from the slot.

Soon after that, JC Lipon potted a shorthanded goal when he intercepted the puck in the defensive zone while the Rocket were on a power play, skated it up ice, and scored on the breakaway.

The Rocket had difficulty staying out of the penalty box as the game started to get away from them, and while down a man due to a Riley Barber hooking penalty, Michael Spacek scored on a tic-tac-toe play. It looked as if Bouchard might pull Kinkaid out of the crease and replace him with Cayden Primeau, but no goaltender change was ultimately made.

As Laval found a spark again toward the end of the period, Brook found himself all alone to the right of the crease. Phil Varone passed the puck perfectly to him through the slot and Brook pulled the trigger into an open net to give the Rocket their first goal of the game.

But Manitoba wasn’t done lighting the lamp yet. Less than three minutes into the final period, Cole Maier took advantage when Kinkaid didn’t get all of the puck in his glove and Maier scooped up the loose puck in the crease and sent it into the back of the Laval net. The Rocket then took a series of penalties, which lessened their chances to try to get something going.

Laval now heads back to Quebec to regroup and prepare themselves for the Syracuse Crunch to come to town on Wednesday night, as they continue to battle for positioning in the tight playoff race in the North Division.

Plus / Minus

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▼  Keith Kinkaid, Xavier Ouellet, Lukas Vejdemo