Game 39: 6-5 SOW over Manitoba Moose
Laval were in need of a response after a frustrating game at Bell MTS Place. Bouchard made very minor changes to the lineup slotting Alex Kile in for Martineau and having last year’s goaltending tandem come together again with Michael McNiven backing up Lindgren.
Daniel Audette – Jake Evans – Byron Froese
Nikita Jevpalovs – Lukas Vejdemo – Alexandre Grenier
Alex Belzile – Alex Kile – Alexandre Alain
Michael Pezzetta – Jake Verbeek – Antoine Waked
Daniel Sklenicka – Brett Lernout
Xavier Ouellet – Cale Fleury
David Schlemko – Maxim Lamarche
Charlie Lindgren
Michael McNiven
The Rocket gave up the first goal of the night 1:42 into the night. The players on the ice found themselves watching the puck allowing Logan Shaw to gain most of the attention. Brent Pedersen skated across to the slot and received the pass from behind the net beating Lindgren up high to make it 1-0.
It seemed like history would repeat itself until the team struck on the powerplay. Oligny went to the box for interference resulting in Belzile tying the game with a funny goal for his eighth of the season. Ouellet’s wrist shot from the point hit Belzile and then bounced off Stoykewych’s face and in. Given how well Comrie played on Thursday, it would’ve taken a funny one to get through and well, there you go.
The ping pong ball went the other way scoring on the man advantage after Verbeek took a two-minute slashing call. A minute and a half later, JC Lipon sat for roughing which got Audette on the board. Belzile found Evans on the right wall sending the perfect cross-ice pass to Audette for the easy tap in at the 19:46 mark of the first period.