Rocket Lineup

Yannick Veilleux – Jordan Weal – Jesse Ylonen

Michael Frolik – Ryan Poehling – Rafael Harvey-Pinard

Arsen Khisamutdinov – Joseph Blandisi – Joel Teasdale

Michael Pezzetta – Jan Mysak – Jake Lucchini

Xavier Ouellet – Josh Brook

Otto Leskinen – Cale Fleury

Gustav Olofsson – Corey Schueneman

Cayden Primeau – Vasily Demchenko

Tobie Paquette-Bisson, Nathanael Halbert, Liam Hawel, Cameron Hillis, Hayden Verbeek, Sam Vigneault, Jacob Leguerrier, Gianni Fairbrother, Michael McNiven, Lukas Vejdemo, Kevin Lynch, Brandon Baddock, Laurent Dauphin

Alex Belzile (day-to-day), Kaiden Guhle (day-to-day)

Game Report

Game Report written by Amy Johnson

The Laval Rocket were back in action on Tuesday night, facing off against the Belleville Senators for the third time in a four-game home series.  Laval won both previous games against the Sens pretty handily, beating them 5-1 in both contests.

But Joel Bouchard‘s team looked quite a bit different tonight as he began his pre-announced rotation of veterans and rookies in and out of the lineup. Arsen Khisamutdinov and Jan Mysak drew in for their professional debut, and Ryan Poehling was back on the ice after missing one game due to a minor injury.

In addition, Michael Frolik made his debut with the Rocket, having been sent to the AHL on a conditioning stint from the Montreal taxi squad. He’s expected to play two games before returning to the taxi squad on Saturday.

First Period

The opening 20 minutes of play was stacked pretty completely in favor of the Laval Rocket. They contained Belleville and kept them pinned in their own zone for a good portion of the period. With these two rivals playing only each other so far this season, the tensions that started to build in the last game surfaced early in this one but didn’t boil over.

Jesse Ylönen had a couple of good scoring chances in the period, including a big one-timer from the blue line that deflected on its way in, but Filip Gustavsson was ready for it. Ylonen did come through a few minutes later, however, when he helped to create the play that allowed Jordan Weal to scoop up a big rebound and put it right into a gaping corner of the net to give the Rocket a 1-0 lead.

Second Period

The middle frame was not as kind to the Rocket in this game as it was on Saturday when Laval put up four goals in the second period. Instead, it was the Senators who seemed to find a new gear and managed to outshoot the Rocket 8-5.

Part of that momentum swing was due to Belleville getting two power plays in the period, but Cayden Primeau managed to stop any shots that got through while his team was shorthanded.

Rafael Harvey-Pinard had a clean breakaway opportunity but Alex Formenton was hot on his heels. Harvey-Pinard tried a nice forehand-backhand move to get around Gustavsson, but the Belleville netminder stayed with the young forward and took away any open net.

The Senators got on the board and evened the score when Ridley Greig set up Logan Shaw for his second goal of the season, a quick wrister that went top shelf on Primeau.

Third Period

Laval got a taste of their own medicine in the final 20 minutes when Belleville opened the scoring floodgates for the first time this season.

It began with a goal by Vitaly Abramov which found the back of the net after Mysak threw himself in front of the puck to block the shot, but Michael Pezzetta had lost his coverage on Abramov.

A few minutes later, Clark Bishop tried to get a shot off along the perimeter, but Corey Scheuneman made a sliding play to put his stick in the path of the puck. Bishop scooped the puck again and fired it past Primeau.

40 seconds after that, Alex Formenton completed a perfect give-and-go passing play to find the back of the net and give the Senators a 4-1 lead that the Rocket couldn’t come back from.

What’s Next?

Frolik will stick around for another game with the Rocket on Friday night, and Bouchard assures the media that his lineup will look different yet again in the next game. Mysak and Khisamutdinov performed well despite the loss, with Mysak looking particularly strong at the faceoff dot and Khisamutdinov showing his willingness to work hard and stay on the puck.

Be sure to scroll down and listen to full audio from post-game interviews with Weal, Mysak, Frolik, and Bouchard.

Plus / Minus

▲  Jan Mysak, Ryan Poehling, Arsen Khisamutdinov, Yannick Veilleux

▼  Michael Pezzetta, Joel Teasdale