Rocket Lineup

Rem Pitlick – Brandon Gignac – Jesse Ylonen

Anthony Richard – Xavier Simoneau – Rafael Harvey-Pinard

Gabriel Bourque – Mitchell Stephens – Alex Belzile

Lucas Condotta – Jan Mysak – Nate Schnarr

Corey Schueneman – Justin Barron

Nicolas Beaudin – Tory Dello

Mattias Norlinder – Otto Leskinen

Kevin Poulin – Cayden Primeau

Madison Bowey, Danick Martel, Joel Teasdale, Peter Abbandonato, Alex Green

Gianni Fairbrother (knee), William Trudeau (lower-body, out indefinitely)

Game Report

Game Report written by Amy Johnson

In the midst of their only three-in-three weekend on the 2022-23 schedule, the Laval Rocket found themselves with one win and one loss. The latter came on Saturday night in hard-fought game against the Lehigh Valley Phantoms, with the Rocket coming out on the wrong side of a 3-2 score.

In their Sunday evening game against the Hershey Bears tonight, the home team was also in the midst of a three-in-three and had won each of their first two games on Friday and Saturday.

The lineup for the Laval Rocket changed quite a bit for this game, with Danick Martel and Madison Bowey watching from the press box. Nate Schnarr returned from injury, while Nicolas Beaudin, Jan Mysak, and Mitchell Stephens drew back in. For the second time this weekend, Kevin Poulin got the start in goal.

First Period

All was relatively quiet in the opening five or six minutes of play in this game, even with Laval getting an early power play opportunity. Shortly after the Bears killed the penalty, Hershey lit the lamp when Hendrix Lapierre got out of traffic in the corner and took advantage of Alex Belzile going down to the ice. Lapierre quickly got to the front of the net and wristed a shot right through Poulin.

Penalty killers for Hershey were put to the test again, but the Rocket were unsuccessful again on the man-advantage. It’s been a common occurrence this season for Laval to give up the first goal, chase the puck to try to get back in the game, take too many penalties in the process, and not take advantage of their opportunities and power plays when presented with them.

When Schnarr found himself in the box for Laval’s first penalty kill, it seemed like the Rocket might come out of it unscathed, but with just four seconds left on the power play, Bobby Nardella put the puck on net and it bounced off a Laval player and into the net.

At the other end of the ice, former Canadiens goaltending prospect Zach Fucale did his part to keep his former team from getting on the scoreboard, despite some good looks by members of the Rocket.

Second Period

Two more Hershey penalties in the middle frame provided Laval more chances to close the gap, but Fucale maintained a strong presence in the crease and the Rocket couldn’t find a way through.

The Bears were the ones to control the puck more in this period, and although the total shot count for the stanza wasn’t very high, it was Hershey who had the upper hand 40 minutes.

That fact was capped off with a late-period goal by Sam Anas who took the puck off a give-and-go from Gabriel Carlsson and, instead of shooting it right away, skated through the crease, got Poulin going the wrong way, and backhanded the puck into the net for a 3-0 lead.

Third Period

About four minutes into the final period, Anthony Richard got Laval on the board with a quick shot that got past Fucale before the goaltender was fully squared off to the shot.

Then, Rem Pitlick took a four-minute high-sticking penalty that the Rocket were likely relieved to see negated by a hooking call to Nardella. During the four-on-four play, it seemed like perhaps the Rocket had scored again, but the refs allowed play to continue as it looked like the puck had hit the crossbar. When the next stoppage occurred, two minutes later, Laval asked for a review and the call was confirmed as no goal.

In another odd moment, the Bears found themselves on a three-on-zero breakaway, but maybe had a little too much time to think about their good fortune because none of the three could get a shot off on Poulin.

Head coach Jean-Francois Houle pulled his goaltender with just over three minutes to play in the game, but his team couldn’t take advantage of the extra skater as Hershey quickly scored an empty-net goal.

What’s Next?

Plus / Minus

▲ Jesse Ylonen, Anthony Richard

▼ Alex Belzile, Corey Schueneman, Rem Pitlick