Rocket Lineup

Gabriel Bourque – Jean-Sebastien Dea – Alexandre Fortin

Rafael Harvey-Pinard – Lukas Vejdemo – Alex Belzile

Danick Martel – Brandon Gignac – Kevin Roy

Brandon Baddock – Peter Abbandonato – Jean-Christophe Beaudin

Terrance Amorosa – Louie Belpedio

Mattias Norlinder – Tory Dello

Tobie Paquette-Bisson – Carl Neill

Cayden Primeau – Michael McNiven

Cam Hillis, Charles-David Beaudoin

Joel Teasdale (surgery), Josh Brook (surgery), Gianni Fairbrother (DTD), Xavier Ouellet (lower-body injury)

Game Report

Game Report written by Amy Johnson

The Rocket found themselves back on the road again Friday night, setting up a two-game trip to the States. First up was a matchup against the Rochester Americans, who won both previous games the teams played in Laval earlier this season.

Both teams also entered the game looking to extend winning streaks. The Amerks were hoping to add a fifth game to their streak, while the Rocket wanted to make it four in a row.

After a good win in Laval on Wednesday night against the Manitoba Moose, head coach Jean-Francois Houle opted to make no changes to his lineup. Cayden Primeau got his fifth consecutive start in net.

First Period

The Rocket opened the game spending a lot of time in their own zone, with almost six minutes passing before Laval registered their first shot on goal. But once they finally did get some pucks on the Amerks’ net, they started to pile on the pressure.

With Rochester shorthanded, the Rocket weren’t able to come up with a power play goal. The man advantage looked pretty sloppy for the visiting team, as they were guilty of a couple of egregious turnovers.

But just after the power play expired, Lukas Vejdemo lit the lamp when he cleaned up his own rebound in tight to the net. The celebration for Laval couldn’t last too long, however, as the Americans came back less than three minutes later and buried a rebound of their own into a gaping net.

Sean Malone then gave Rochester their first lead of the night when he fired the puck from a sharp angle and deflected the puck off of Jean-Sebastien Dea‘s skate and into the Laval net.

Second Period

Vejdemo scored his second goal of the night just over a minute into the middle frame when he drove the net, took a good pass from Alex Belzile, and shot the puck right through Rochester’s Mat Robson.

The Americans then regained the lead late in the period on a goal that Primeau would probably like to have back. Rochester captain Michael Mersch fired a soft shot from the boards that floated toward the Laval netminder and caught him out of position. The puck went up and over Primeau’s blocker side shoulder and into the net.

Third Period

After a few minutes of back and forth play to begin the period, the ice started to tilt in favor of Rochester. Josh Teves skated the puck through the neutral zone and between defenders into Laval’s zone. In the slot, he quickly shuffled the puck off to his right where Mitch Eliot took it and quickly snapped it past Primeau to give Rochester a two-goal lead.

With about seven minutes left in the game, Tobie Paquette-Bisson inched the Rocket closer to tying the game when he ripped a shot from the blue line that found the back of the net. Defender Mattias Norlinder got the play started with a slick back pass to Bisson at the point.

An empty-netter by Ryan MacInnis with exactly one minute left on the clock would end any hopes of Laval mounting a comeback in this one.

On a high note, Vejdemo’s goals this evening catapulted him into sole possession of most goals scored by a Laval Rocket player over the course of their tenure with the team. That honor was previously held by Chris Terry.

What’s Next?

Plus / Minus

▲ Lukas Vejdemo, Danick Martel

▼ Louie Belpedio, Cayden Primeau