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AHL Laval Rocket

Checkers Take Second of Back-To-Back 5-4 in Overtime

December 30, 2018 - American Hockey League (AHL)
Laval Rocket News Release


LAVAL - The Laval Rocket concluded their three games in three days on Saturday afternoon at Place Bell, where the 6,295 fans in attendance fell just short of seeing the Rocket sweep the first place overall Charlotte Checkers twice in two days. Jake Evans and Nikita Jevpalovs each picked up two points in their team's 5-4 overtime loss to the Checkers, and goaltender Étienne Marcoux turned away 28 of the 33 shots he faced.

In a similar fashion as the night before, Joël Bouchard's troops gave themselves a multiple-goal lead over the Checkers in the opening period. Jevpalovs beat Charlotte netminder Scott Darling with a perfect shot over his shoulder and just under the crossbar with six minutes left in the period, and Alexandre Alain scored his fifth of the season just eight seconds later while on a breakaway to make it 2-0 Laval after twenty minutes.

Charlotte tied the game before the halfway mark of the second period with an early powerplay goal from Maenalanen and another goal that deflected right in front of Marcoux, giving the netminder no chance to make the save. Shortly after Charlotte's two goals however, Xavier Ouellet's slap shot on a powerplay was turned away by Darling but Michael McCarron poked the rebound to Evans, who was open to sink his ninth of the season on the play. Laval's lead was erased by period's end with Morgan Geekie's ninth of the season as well, sending the teams into the final frame tied 3-3.

A slap shot from Dennis Robertson that beat Marcoux down low at 7:09 of the third was looking like it would hold to be the game-winner for the visitors, but Vejdemo struck with his sixth of the season with three minutes remaining to send the teams to overtime and to secure a point in the standings. The Rocket dominated the visitors 18 shots to two in the final 20 minutes. However, it was the Checkers who skated away with the extra point as Andrew Poturalski gave the Checkers a 5-4 victory 1:08 into the extra frame.

"We played pretty hard. The guys played [with] a lot of character, a lot of caring about each other all weekend," explained Bouchard after the game. "Sometimes we win and sometimes we lose but I'm sure proud of what we did in less than three days in three games."

Goalscorers:

LAV: Jevpalovs | Alain (Lamarche, Evans) |Evans (McCarron, Ouellet) | Vejdemo (Jevpalovs, Sklenicka)

CHA: Maenalanen (Geekie, Schilkey) | Brown (Schilkey, McKeown) | Geekie (Bean, Schilkey) | Robertson (Geekie, Brown) | Poturalski (McKeown, McKegg)

Goaltenders: LAV: Marcoux (28/33) | CHA: Darling (33/37)

Rocket Powerplay: 1/1| Rocket Penalty Kill: 0/1

Three Stars: 1. Morgan Geekie - CHA | 2. Nick Schilkey - CHA | 3. Nikita Jevpalovs - LAV

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