(Belleville) The Laval Rocket returned empty-handed from their trip to Belleville this weekend, losing by a score of 4-3 to the Toronto Marlies in their second and final game of the preparatory schedule on Saturday afternoon.
Published yesterday at 5:45 p.m.
Failing to have been able to avoid the sweep during this mini-tournament, after their 3-2 defeat against the Belleville Senators on Friday evening, the Rocket players showed their teeth in the second half of the third period.
Facing a 1-4 deficit, the Rocket came back into the match thanks to goals from Owen Beck and Israel Mianscum, scored in a 76-second interval against goalkeeper Vyacheslav Peksa.
Beck also proved to be the Rocket’s most productive attacker, adding an assist on Xavier Simoneau’s goal, his second in as many games, scored late in the second period.
This second twenty has also sunk the Laval team. After working well in the first period, Pascal Vincent’s men saw Braeden Kressler take charge for the Marlies, who took a 3-0 lead in an interval of less than seven minutes.
Kressler first beat goaltender Hunter Jones at 4:48 of the middle period before assisting on Ty Voit’s goal exactly three minutes later.
Kressler added a second assist, this time on Rhett Parsons’ goal at 11:24, which ended the day for Jones, who gave up all three goals on 16 shots.
Kressler hurt the Rocket again, this time midway through the third period. He assisted on Brandon Lisowsky’s goal against goaltender Luke Cavallin, who faced eight shots in front of the Rocket net.
For his part, the Rocket directed 25 pucks towards Peksa.
As was to be expected, head coach Pascal Vincent presented a slightly different lineup than Friday night against the Senators.
On offense, Brandon Gignac and Jakov Novak gave way to Mianscum and Logan Nijhoff.
On the blue line, Éric Gélinas and Simon Motew were sent into the fray and Vincent gave leave to William Trudeau and Zackary Hayes.
At the end of the afternoon, the Canadian announced the recalls of Gignac and Trudeau in anticipation of the evening match against the Senators in Ottawa.
The Canadian also recalled forward Lucas Condotta, who did not participate in either of the Rocket’s two preparatory games over the weekend.
The Rocket will resume training Tuesday at Place Bell in preparation for their first game of the season Friday night, on the road, against the Providence Bruins.
