Rocket Lineup

Rafael Harvey-Pinard – Ryan Poehling – Alex Belzile

Laurent Dauphin – Jean-Sebastien Dea – Jesse Ylonen

Michael Pezzetta – Lukas Vejdemo – Gabriel Bourque

Kevin Roy – Brendan Gignac – Alexandre Fortin

Gianni Fairbrother – Xavier Ouellet

Corey Schueneman – Louie Belpedio

Tobie Paquette-Bisson – Terrance Amorosa

Michael McNiven – Cayden Primeau

Brandon Baddock, Danick Martel, Carl Neill

Joel Teasdale (surgery), Josh Brook (surgery), Tory Dello (DTD), Jean-Christophe Beaudin (DTD)

Game Report

Game Report written by Chris G

Laval and Rochester wrapped up their weekend series on Saturday afternoon at Place Bell. On Friday, the Americans were on the winning side of the 4-3 contest. 

With the short turnaround between matches, Jean-Francois Houle brought in fresh legs. Kevin Roy returned into the lineup after being scratched the last two matches, and Brandon Gignac also drew in after missing Friday’s game. Alexandre Fortin and Terrance Amorosa made their first appearances of the season. 

Danick Martel, Brandon Baddock, and Carl Neill were rested on Saturday afternoon. Jean-Christophe Beaudin was injured on Friday, and wasn’t available for the game. 

Michael McNiven got the start in goal. In his last start, McNiven shut down the Providence Bruins by stopping 29 pucks.

First Period

Rochester obtained the first dangerous scoring opportunity midway through the period on an odd-man rush. Jack Quinn made a pass to Sean Malone, but McNiven slid over to make a pad save.

Later in the period, Josh Teves delivered a solid hit in the neutral zone on Laurent Dauphin. Louie Belpedio didn’t like the hit and dropped the gloves with Teves. Belpedio received an instigating penalty and a 10-minute misconduct on the sequence. 

On the ensuing power play, Quinn had plenty of time on the side of the net to set up a shot which beat McNiven up high on the blocker side.

Second Period

The Rocket controlled the play in the second period. Rochester took its first shot on goal after 7:15 of action.

Ryan Poehling put his team on the board at 8:34 mark. Poehling received a cross-ice pass from Xavier Ouellet and deked Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen to tie the score. The captain’s assist extended his point streak to three games. 

Less than two minutes later, Luukkonen made a key save on Lukas Vejdemo in the crease. Tobie Paquette-Bisson pinched to attack and set up Vejdemo for the opportunity. 

Jesse Ylonen gave Laval their first lead of the afternoon by beating Luukkonen with a wrist shot through traffic. It was Ylonen’s first goal of the year, and Jean-Sebastien Dea’s assist extended his point streak to three games. 

The Americans tied the game at two, as Michael Mersch scored his third goal of the weekend, beating McNiven between the pads on the second shot of the period.

Third Period

Michael Pezzetta restored Laval’s lead during the second minute with a great individual record. But then Rochester took control of the match by scoring three unanswered goals.

At the 5:34 mark, Linus Weissbach scored with a wrist shot from the faceoff circle. At 6:42, McNiven lost sight of the puck, which allowed Matej Pekar to score on a wraparound.

Houle called a time out to calm his troops, but the Americans increased their lead to two goals when Jimmy Schuldt capitalized on McNiven being out of position to score from the blue line.

The Rocket took a chance and pulled the goalie during their opponent’s penalty, and it paid off. Ylonen picked up a rebound to score his second of the afternoon. Alex Belzile then found Dea on the doorstep for the tying goal 50 seconds later.  Amorosa collected his second assist of the game on that sequence. 

That forced an overtime period, and gave Laval at least one point on the day. However, Rochester’s Oskari Laaksonen sealed the victory 3:47 into the overtime when he was left alone following a Rocket defensive breakdown.

What’s Next?

The Rocket will head on the road next weekend to face the Syracuse Crunch on Saturday and the Utica Comets on Sunday. 

Be sure to scroll down to hear post-game interviews with Ylonen, Dea, and Houle by the AHL Report team and other members of the media.

Plus / Minus

▲ Jesse Ylonen, Xavier Ouellet, Ryan Poehling

▼ Rafael Harvey-Pinard, Michael McNiven, Gabriel Bourque