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Club de Hockey Canadien
For arguably the first time all season, the Laval Rocket are mired in a bit of a slump, having dropped three out of their previous four games entering Friday night. They’ve played extremely well during that stretch, an impressive feat given the amount of players that were missing from their lineup since the beginning of the month. Last night, he team welcomed Xavier Ouellet, Alex Belzile, Cayden Primeau, and Jesse Ylönen back to the lineup against the Toronto Marlies.
This allowed Joël Bouchard a chance to ice a full lineup, with the exception of Josh Brook remaining on the wing due to his strong play there the last few games. Primeau got the nod as the starter after a tough showing in his last two NHL starts with the Canadiens.
Club de Hockey Canadien
With a division title all wrapped up after a dominant showing on Wednesday evening, the Laval Rocket’s goal for the few remaining games this season was to give their young prospects a chance to get their feet wet in expanded roles. On Friday that was especially true as Ryan Poehling had been shut down for the year with a wrist injury, while Alex Belzile remained on the Montreal Canadiens’ taxi squad. With Yannick Veilleux also suspended, the Rocket were down to just 11 forwards for the showdown with Belleville.
Joël Bouchard was going to lean heavily on his few remaining veterans in Laurent Dauphin, Lukas Vejdemo, and Jordan Weal to help keep the young lineup rolling shift to shift. On defence it was Terrance Amorosa drawing in as the seventh defender, while Michael McNiven got the start.
Shanna Martin
To say the Laval Rocket are playing at another level right now would be an understatement. The team won their fifth straight game 4-1 against the Belleville Senators in Ottawa on Saturday afternoon.
The three-game sweep that started Wednesday night moved the Rocket to the top of the American Hockey League standings. They are now 22-5-2 on the season, and are 16-1-1 in their last 18 games dating back to March 14.
Laval had four different goal scorers in the victory, and Ryan Poehling had three assists. They scored two goals on the power play, and Vasily Demchenko made 20 saves to win his second game of the season. With his 2-0-1 record, Demchenko is the only Rocket goaltender to not lose in regulation this season.