Rocket Lineup

Gabriel Bourque – Jean-Sebastien Dea – Jesse Ylonen

Rafael Harvey-Pinard – Laurent Dauphin – Alex Belzile

Danick Martel – Lukas Vejdemo – Kevin Roy

Brandon Baddock – Brendan Gignac – Alexandre Fortin

Corey Schueneman – Louie Belpedio

Tobie Paquette-Bisson – Carl Neill

Terrance Amorosa – Tory Dello

Cayden Primeau – Kevin Poulin

Cam Hillis, Michael McNiven, Charles-David Beaudoin, Xavier Ouellet

Joel Teasdale (surgery), Josh Brook (surgery), Jean-Christophe Beaudin (DTD), Gianni Fairbrother (DTD)

Game Report

Game Report written by Amy Johnson

While the Montreal Canadiens have seen upheaval at the top levels of the organization this week, the Laval Rocket had their own troubles to deal with on Wednesday night as they hosted the Texas Stars for the first time in franchise history.

Jeff Gorton, the Habs’ newly-appointed Executive Vice-President of Hockey Operations, was in attendance as well, having just arrived in Montreal earlier in the day.

The Rocket came into this matchup riding a three-game losing streak, hovering quite low in the division and conference standings. The Stars have struggled to climb the ranks in the west, as well, so both teams certainly had something to play for.

This game brought the return of former Montreal Canadiens prospect Jeremy Gregoire to Quebec. Gregoire, drafted by the Habs in 2013, played for the Rocket in the team’s inaugural season, as well as the two prior years when the AHL affiliate was located in St. John’s, NL.

First Period

The game got off to a rocky start when the Stars buried the very first shot on goal of the game. Alex Petrovic fired the puck on net, and the rebound off of Cayden Primeau was quickly deflected into the net behind him.

More than six minutes passed before Texas could register a second shot on goal, and it took almost the first half of the period before Laval got anything on the shot clock.

A Stars neutral zone turnover gave Louie Belpedio a chance at an equalizer and he fired a wrister past Adam Scheel from the high slot to even the score at 1-1.

Jean-Sebastien Dea was handed a prime opportunity to give Laval the lead when he was awarded a penalty shot late in the period, but he didn’t quite get all of the puck and came away empty-handed.

Second Period

Just over three minutes into the middle frame Anthony Louis took advantage of a defensive zone turnover by Laval and sniped a shot past Primeau to give Texas a 2-1 lead.

The Rocket found themselves falling back into bad habits and got into plenty of penalty trouble in this period, including three consecutive penalties in the last four minutes of the period. Alex Belzile‘s slashing penalty, with 2:27 left in the frame, allowed the Stars to finally convert on a man advantage and take a two-goal lead into the third period.

Third Period

The coach wasn’t pleased with Belzile’s late-period penalty, and pasted him to the bench for almost half of the final frame as a result.

But his teammates continued to work, and Rafael Harvey-Pinard pulled the Rocket to within a goal when he took a pass from the point by Corey Schueneman and backhanded the puck past Scheel.

Laval poured on the energy in this period, outshooting Texas 19-8 in the frame, and their hard work paid off when Laurent Dauphin scored his 11th goal of the season to tie the game and force overtime.

The extra period didn’t last long, however, when Ben Gleason made a stretch pass to spring Ty Dellandrea on a breakaway. Dellandrea went backhand-forehand and around Primeau to finish the game. 

What’s Next?

The Rocket are now on the wrong end of a four-game skid and face these same Texas Stars on Friday night. Tonight’s game was a rough one, with plenty of post-whistle scrums and rough stuff going on.

Primeau looked uncomfortable leaving the ice at the end of the game, after Dauphin crashed into the Laval netminder trying to defend against the game-winning goal.

Be sure to scroll down to hear post-game interviews with Kevin Roy, Belpedio, Harvey-Pinard, and Houle conducted by the AHL Report and other members of the media.

Plus / Minus

▲ Laurent Dauphin, Rafael Harvey-Pinard

▼ Alex Belzile, Jean-Sebastien Dea, Danick Martel