Rocket Lineup

Lukas Vejdemo – Jake Evans – Charles Hudon

Yannick Veilleux – Phil Varone – Riley Barber

Alexandre Alain – Laurent Dauphin – Joe Cox

Nikita Jevpalovs – Kevin Lynch – Ralph Cuddemi

Gustav Olofsson – Xavier Ouellet

Otto Leskinen – Evan McEneny

Karl Alzner – Christian Folin

Keith Kinkaid – Cayden Primeau

Antoine Waked, Maxim Lamarche, Michael McNiven, Josh Brook, Michael Pezzetta, Garrett Mitchell

Phil Varone (wrist), Noah Juulsen (upper body), Alex Belzile (pectoral surgery), Andrew Sturtz, Hayden Verbeek

Game Report

Game Report written by Amy Johnson

The Rocket have now mounted a five-game winning streak, capped off with two back-to-back wins, both at home and on the road, against their North Division rivals, the Syracuse Crunch. The Crunch have been trying to overtake Laval in the standings, and the Rocket’s ability to win both of their last two matchups helped to create some distance in the points race.

For the Phantoms, they’ve struggled to climb out of the basement position in the Atlantic Division where they’re currently tied with the Bridgeport Sound Tigers for last place. Lehigh Valley has gone 2-8 in their last 10 games, including a rough game in Utica on Friday night which put them back in the loss column.

With both teams in the midst of respective three-in-three weekends, they met in Allentown for Laval’s only visit to the Lehigh Valley this season. Keith Kinkaid, in continuing the alternating netminder pattern Joel Bouchard has established since the start of the season, started in goal for the Rocket. At the other end of the ice, Alex Lyon was between the pipes after having been pulled within the opening five minutes of Friday’s game in Utica.

This game was a bit…uninspiring, to say the least. The play was slow, methodical, and mostly uneventful. The opening 20 minutes went by without much fanfare, with both goaltenders standing their ground.

Laval was practically getting twice as many shots on net as Lehigh Valley, but couldn’t seem to figure out a way to beat Lyon. Then, late in the second period, on just their 10th shot of the game, the Phantoms opened the scoring with a goal by Kyle Criscuolo.

Shortly into the third period, Lehigh Valley doubled their score with a big point shot by Tyler Wotherspoon. Laval had five opportunities on the man advantage, but couldn’t convert any of those chances. Nor could they find the back of the net while playing even strength.

The Rocket win streak comes to an end, and now they have to dig deep to find continued energy to take on the Bridgeport Sound Tigers on Sunday in a matinee matchup. 

Listen to the audio player below for our full post-game interviews with Laval head coach Bouchard and a few players.

Plus / Minus

▲  Jake Evans

▼  Kevin Lynch, Ralph Cuddemi