(Laval) The Laval Rocket bounced back nicely after a tough trip out west. Upon their return to Place Bell, Jean-François Houle’s troops secured a convincing 6-2 victory over the Rochester Americans.
Posted yesterday at 10:23 p.m.
Rafaël Harvey-Pinard had four points (one goal and three assists), Joël Teasdale scored two goals and Jean-Sébastien Dea provided a goal and two assists in the Rocket victory (32-23-3-2) which ended a short series of two losses. Cédric Paquette and Jean-Christophe Beaudin, in an empty net, also hit the target.
In goal, Cayden Primeau stopped 29 shots.
On the side of the Americans (32-26-5-3) Sean Malone and Michael Mersch found the back of the net. The goalkeeper suffered the defeat despite his 30 saves.
After losing their first three meetings against the Americans this season, the Rocket have won the three most recent meetings.
Sean Malone opened the scoring for the Americans midway through the first period with a somewhat odd goal.
On the sequence, Primeau was hit in the head by Malone who rushed to the net and the latter even tore off the goalkeeper’s mitt with his stick while the puck slipped into the back of the net.
The visitors dominated the first period with 15 shots against seven, but the Rocket found a way to tie the game. Paquette completed a superb three-way rally initiated by Harvey-Pinard and Jean-Sébastien Dea on the power play at 18:48.
Paquette has six goals and seven points in seven games since being traded to the Rocket by the Montreal Canadiens.
Returning from the locker room, the Rocket continued their momentum by taking the lead for the first time of the game at 4: 38 thanks to the goal of Teasdale. His pass from behind the net deflected off a defender and the puck ended up in the net.
As they did in the second, the Rocket players came out strong in the third period. Taking advantage of a penalty from the Americans at the end of the period, Harvey-Pinard gave the hosts a two-goal lead in the 26thand second with a wrist shot from the enclave.
Teasdale added on with his second at 9:11 to make it 4-1 before seeing the Americans close the gap through Mersch. The Rocket, however, regained their three-goal lead 39 seconds later when Dea put on his 20and of the season on the power play.
Beaudin completed the scoring in an empty net late in the game.