(Utica) Goaltender Kevin Poulin blocked 41 shots, including more than half in the second period alone, and defenseman Corey Schueneman scored the game-winning goal late in overtime to give the Laval Rocket a 3-2 win over the Comets of Utica, Wednesday night, in Utica.
Schueneman hit the target with a shot from the left flank on a 3-on-1 breakaway with 36 seconds remaining in added time.
After intercepting a pass deep in his area, Schueneman headed into opposing territory with Rafaël Harvey-Pinard and Anthony Richard. He opted to shoot and lodged the puck on the short side, over the shoulder of goaltender Isaac Poulter.
During power plays, Harvey-Pinard, in the first period, and Richard, in the second period, had scored for the Rocket, who got 24 shots on the opposing net. Harvey-Pinard and Richard added one assist each.
But had it not been for Poulin, the Rocket (7-11-3) would probably have left the Adirondack Bank Center without a single point. The veteran goaltender was particularly sparkling in the second period, blocking all 22 shots he faced, including several very dangerous ones. Jack Dugan and Reilly Walsh were the only ones to deceive his vigilance.
The Rocket was playing the third of a five-game road streak. He will complete it by playing two games in as many nights against the Abbotsford Canucks, Saturday and Sunday.
one in one
The Comets took the lead on their first shot of the game when Dugan, posted to the right of the Rocket’s net, deflected a pass from Nikita Okhotiuk over Poulin’s head and behind the red line at 2:39 of the first twenty.
From then on, the Rocket dominated the rest of the first half of the period and tied the game with Harvey-Pinard’s seventh goal of the season at 9:07 on the visitors’ eighth shot.
It was also the Rocket’s last in the first period. Jean-François Houle’s men were outplayed for the rest of the period but Poulin made several quality saves to keep the score level.
The trend continued for the first two-thirds of the middle period. In fact, it escalated to the point where the Comets got the first 17 shots of the period. Poulin stopped them all, some of them spectacularly.
It wasn’t until 13:41 into the second period that the Rocket got their ninth shot of the game, and it ended up in the net when Richard lodged the puck behind Poulter on another advantage digital.
This goal seemed to straighten the Rocket players, who ended the period well and started the third period well.
The Comets had to wait almost nine minutes before getting a shot on Poulin, but they tied the score on Walsh’s goal, following a turnover from the Rocket deep in its territory.