Rocket Lineup

Rafael Harvey-Pinard – Jean-Sebastien Dea – Jesse Ylonen

Danick Martel – Brandon Gignac – Alex Belzile

Gabriel Bourque – Nate Schnarr – Joel Teasdale

Lucas Condotta – Brandon Gignac – Devante Smith-Pelly

Xavier Ouellet – Sami Niku

Tobie Paquette-Bisson – Louie Belpedio

Corey Schueneman – Tory Dello

Cayden Primeau – Kevin Poulin

Emil Heineman, Olivier Galipeau, Peter Abbandonato, Terrance Amorosa, Nicolas Mattinen, Gabriel Mollot-Hill, Owen Savory

Gianni Fairbrother (undisclosed), Cameron Hillis, Lukas Vejdemo (lower body), Kevin Roy (upper body), Cedric Paquette

Game Report

Game Report written by Amy Johnson

The Laval Rocket had a long bus ride from Quebec to Syracuse on Friday night, after missing an opportunity to clinch a playoff spot on home ice in a 5-1 loss to the Toronto Marlies. They could clinch in tonight’s game if they could win against the Crunch, and if the Rochester Americans lost their game regulation.

Jean-Francois Houle found himself down a couple of key roster players to injury after Friday’s game: both Kevin Roy and Cedric Paquette were out of the lineup on Saturday night. Cayden Primeau got the start in net.

First Period

The Rocket got things started the right way when they opened the scoring just a few minutes into the game. Joel Teasdale drove the puck to the crease, with Alex Belzile as the trailer.

Shortly after the Crunch killed off the first penalty of the night, they managed to even the score when the puck bounced out in front off the end boards. Nick Perbix was there to grab it and stickhandle his way around Primeau and into the net.

Schnarr later tangled with Charles Hudon, which drew the former Montreal prospect’s ire, and both went to the box for roughing, but neither team could score on the four-on-four minutes.

Syracuse outshot Laval 12-6 in the opening frame, and Primeau had to come up with some acrobatic saves a few times to keep the score close.

Second Period

The gymnastics in the crease continued into the middle frame, as did the high emotions and chippiness. Louie Belpedio took the Rocket’s first penalty of the night, and it didn’t take long for a tic-tac-toe play developed in front of the Laval net and Gabriel Dumont blasted the puck home.

While the Rocket were able to kill off their next penalty, Riley Nash found a loose puck in front of the Laval net just after the power play expired and put the Crunch up by two goals. Despite being down 3-1, however, Primeau had made some big saves so far in this game.

Syracuse completely dominated this period, but one bright spot was Laval’s ability to kill off a lengthy five-on-three Crunch power play.

Third Period

Laval started the third period with a bit more jump and pressure on the forecheck, looking as though they might be primed to try to make a comeback. They even got an extended five-on-three power play of their own after Daniel Wolcott dropped the gloves with Gabriel Bourque and received an extra instigating penalty for his troubles. That was followed by a Syracuse delay-of-game penalty, but the Rocket were unable to capitalize on the extended two-man advantage.

Things completely came unraveled when Tory Dello took his second penalty of the night, and this one was a four-minute infraction for high-sticking. It only took Nash a matter of seconds to tee up a shot all alone in front of Primeau to give his team a 4-1 lead. Dumont finished the night off with an empty-netter.

What’s Next?

For a second consecutive night, the Rocket failed to clinch a playoff spot when it was within reach. It’s the third game this week they’ve lost, scoring only one goal in each, giving up 15 goals against, and going 0-for-9 in the past 24 hours on the power play. There are a lot of things that need to be fixed before the final three games of the regular season if Laval hopes to be playing hockey in May.

The team now heads back to Quebec, where they’ll host the Toronto Marlies in back-to-back games Wednesday and Thursday night, before returning one more time to Syracuse on Saturday.

Plus / Minus

▲ Joel Teasdale, Nate Schnarr

▼ Tory Dello, Lucas Condotta, Devante Smith-Pelly