Rocket Lineup

Nikita Jevpalovs – Ryan Poehling – Alex Belzile

Charles Hudon – Michael McCarron – Dale Weise

Matthew Peca – Jake Evans – Antoine Waked

Alexandre Alain – Lukas Vejdemo – Joe Cox

Gustav Olofsson – Xavier Ouellet

Otto Leskinen – Noah Juulsen

David Sklenicka – Josh Brook

Cayden Primeau – Charlie Lindgren

Maxim Lamarche, Kevin Lynch, Michael Pezzetta, David Sklenicka

William Pelletier (undisclosed), Riley Barber (upper body), Phil Varone (undisclosed)

Game Report

Game Report written by Chris G

On Friday, the Rocket hosted the Wolf Pack for the second time of the week. Laval beat Hartford 4-1 on Wednesday, the Wolfpack’s first regulation loss of the season. 

Earlier in the day, Joel Bouchard announced that Phil Varone will miss several weeks of action due to injury. Varone left in the final moments of Wednesday night’s game. Antoine Waked was recalled from the Adirondack Thunder in the ECHL and made his AHL season debut. In six games with the Thunder this season, Waked has scored one goal and added two assists. 

Cayden Primeau got the start in goal. In his last start, Primeau made 36 saves in his team’s 3-2 shootout win against Providence. 

Waked made his presence felt immediately by scoring the game’s first goal at the 12:27 mark of the first period. Waked redirected Matthew Peca’s shot between Adam Huska’s pads. The assist was Peca’s first of the season.  

The first period was physical as solid hits were delivered by the players on both sides. Waked delivered several hard hits throughout the period, and in the tail end of the first frame, Alex Belzile and Jody Keane dropped the gloves, however the linesmen stopped them from throwing any punches. 

The Rocket were close to scoring a couple more goals in the period. Karl Alzner wasn’t able to capitalize after being setup for a shot in the crease by Peca, and Belzile’s shot from in front of the net was stopped by Huska.  

The Wolf Pack tied the game 49 seconds into the second frame as Keane’s point shot went through traffic and behind Primeau. 

Peca had two scoring chances in the period, but he wasn’t able to capitalize. Following a face-off win by Jake Evans, Huska made a glove save on Peca’s wrist shot. Later in the period, Huska stopped Peca on a shorthanded breakaway.  

Charles Hudon and Ryan Poehling each had their own scoring chances in the period. Hudon snuck up behind the defence, however his shot was directly on the goalie. Minutes later during a power play, Poehling took a shot directly on the cross bar. 

Mason Geertsen was delivering hard hits throughout the game, with Evans being the victim of a hit against the boards, which led to Waked dropping the gloves against the 6-foot-4 inches defenceman. 

There was no goals scored in the third period, however Laval did have several dangerous chances to put in the go-ahead goal. The red light went on for Xavier Ouellet’s point shot that was tipped in front of the net by Evans, but unfortunately for the Rocket it went straight onto the goal post. 

With 1:26 remaining in the third, Darren Raddysh slid in the blue paint to swipe away the puck that was tricking past his goalie, after Michael McCarron picked up a loose puck from a rebound. 

Dale Weise placed his team in a vulnerable situation by taking a tripping penalty with eight seconds remaining that carried over to the start of overtime. Laval’s shorthanded unit remained perfect, killing all five of Hartford’s power plays. 

The extra period didn’t decide the outcome of the game, therefore it was determined in shootout. Belzile was the only scorer, and Primeau stopped all three opponents to help Laval extend their win streak to three games. 

The Rocket conclude their three game home stand on Saturday afternoon as the Marlies visit Place Bell. Listen to full audio of player and coach post-game interviews in the audio player below.

Plus / Minus

▲  Antoine Waked, Matthew Peca, Lukas Vejedmo

▼  Alex Belzile, Dale Weise