Rocket Lineup

Matthew Peca – Phil Varone – Dale Weise

Alexandre Alain – Lukas Vejdemo – Nikita Jevpalovs

Antoine Waked – Kevin Lynch – Joe Cox

Michael Pezzetta – Hayden Verbeek – Morgan Adams-Moisan

Xavier Ouellet – Josh Brook

Otto Leskinen – Maxim Lamarche

Ryan Culkin – David Sklenicka

Connor LaCouvee – Michael McNiven

Karl Alzner, Marc-Olivier Crevier-Morin, Gabriel Sylvestre, Michael McNicholas, Cody Milan, Alex Belzile, Riley Barber, William Pelletier, Jonathan Racine, Cayden Primeau

Injuries

Game Report

Game Report written by Chris G

The Rocket hosted the Senators on Sunday at Place Bell for Laval’s final game of the pre-season. On Saturday, the first game of the weekend’s series, Belleville beat Laval by a score of 5-2.

Matthew Peca, Philip Varone, Dale Weise, and Xavier Ouellet all made their debuts after clearing waivers on Friday. Alex Belzile, Jake Evans and Riley Barber were the notable scratches who had played on Saturday. Connor LaCouvee and Michael McNiven shared the duties in goal. 

The first period was a flashback from Saturday’s game. The Rocket outshot the Senators 15 to 5, but the scoreboard at the end of the period showed Belleville in the lead. 

The Senators’ goal came at the 5:07 mark following a LaCouvee turnover while trying to play the puck from the back of the net. LaCouvee’s pass went to directly to the stick of Jonathan Davidsson and he passed the puck to Josh Norris, who was easily able to score into the vacated net. 

The Rocket’s most dangerous scoring chances in the period came from Alexandre Alain and Varone as they both took shots from the slot which were stopped by Filip Gustavsson. 

There was no scoring in the second period, with a total of 11 shots taken by both teams. The Rocket had a couple of unsuccessful scoring chances in the period: Nikita Jevpalovs, on a penalty kill, put the puck in between Gustavsson’s pads but the puck trickled to right of the post, and during a power play Varone passed the puck through the crease to Kevin Lynch, but he missed the tip-in to tie the game. 

Both teams made a goalie change mid-way through the period. McNiven replaced LaCouvee, after the latter had allowed one goal on nine shots. 

Belleville generated most of their offence in the third period, and they weren’t able to put any of their 12 shots behind McNiven. The Laval goaltender made several key saves in the period including on a three-on-one after Ouellet wasn’t able to play a bouncing puck in the offensive zone. 

In overtime, Jonathan Aspirot spotted Joseph LaBate, who had snuck behind Laval’s defence, and scored the game winner. 

There were a total of 14 minor penalties called in the game and neither of the teams capitalized on their opportunities. Laval came close twice with the extra attacker in the third period, as Varone fanned his shot in front of an empty net, and Josh Brook hit the post after taking the puck from his own end and carrying it across the ice. Over their two preseason games, the Rocket’s power play went 1-for-15.

The Rocket open the regular season on Friday night at 7:30pm ET against the Cleveland Monsters. Listen to the player below for full audio of our post-game interviews.

Plus / Minus

▲  Nikita Jevpalovs, Michael McNiven, Joe Cox

▼  Dale Weise, Josh Brook, Lukas Vejdemo