(Belleville) The Laval Rocket began its preparatory schedule for the 2024-25 American League season by suffering a 3-2 defeat against the Belleville Senators on Friday evening at the CAA Arena.
Vincent Arseneau, in the first period, and Xavier Simoneau, in the second period, scored the goals for the Rocket, who got 21 shots towards goalkeeper Leevi Merilainen.
Zack Hayes, Florian Xhekaj and Sean Farrell added assists.
Tomas Hamara, Ryan Humphrey, and Wyatt Bongiovanni fooled Connor Hughes, who played the entire game in front of the Rocket net and faced 15 shots.
Bongiovanni added an assist while Jamieson Rees had two.
The game was played at the special teams level, with the Senators scoring two of their three goals on power plays.
For its part, the Rocket was unable to capitalize on its three power plays, including a penalty to the Senators with 38 seconds on the clock in the third period.
Additionally, Riley Kidney was awarded a penalty shot with just over four minutes left in the second period after Hamara hooked him from behind.
Kidney, however, lost control of the disc when arriving in front of Merilainen.
The Rocket had to play catch-up hockey throughout the evening after giving up goals early in each of the three periods.
Hamara opened the scoring at 3:53 during a minor penalty to Owen Beck called about a minute after the Rocket began to build a power play.
Less than three minutes later, the Rocket tied the game with their first shot of the game when Arseneau deflected a puck fired from the blue line by Hayes.
Limited to three shots during the first 20 minutes of the game, the Senators scored on their first attempt in the second period thanks to Humphrey, at 1:45.
Simoneau brought both clubs back to the starting square, following a throw-in deep in the opposing zone approximately 11 minutes later.
At the start of the third period, the Rocket found themselves down a man when Josh Jacobs was caught at fault after sending the puck into the stands.
Just three seconds later, Bongiovanni beat Hughes with a powerful one-timer from the blue line.
Minor penalties to Jakov Novak and Brandon Gignac in the first half of the third period slowed the Rocket’s efforts to tie the game for a third time.
PHOTO DOMINICK GRAVEL, LA PRESSE ARCHIVES
Brandon Gignac
For this first preparatory match, head coach Pascal Vincent called on several players who will have important roles with the team.
Gignac, Farrell and Simoneau were brought together as a trio, while Beck played between Jared Davison and Filip Mesar.
On the blue line, William Trudeau and Tyler Wotherspoon played together.
The Rocket will complete its very brief preparatory schedule on Saturday afternoon by facing the Toronto Marlies, also at the CAA Arena.
The Rocket will resume training Tuesday at Place Bell in anticipation of their inaugural game next Friday in Providence against the Bruins.