Laval, Quebec) – The Rochester Americans (7-3-0-0) quest for a sixth straight victory came to a halt when they dropped a 5-2 decision to the Laval Rocket (6-4-0-0) in Saturday’s rematch between the North Division rivals Saturday afternoon at Place Bell.
Despite the loss, the Amerks have won six of their last eight games, including a pair of wins over the Rocket. The two teams split the weekend series north of the border after Friday’s 2-1 result against Rochester.
Strikers Noah Östlund and Viktor Neuchev scored their second and third goals of the season respectively for the Amerks, who allowed five goals for the first time in 17 games. Zac Jones added to his league-leading assist total (12) and helped set up both Rochester goals, while Vsevolod Komarov and Jake Leschyshyn each recorded one.
Goaltender Alexandar Georgiev (0-2-0) made his second appearance of the season for Rochester and stopped 29 of the 33 shots he faced.
Laval’s Laurent Dauphin (4+0) became the first Rochester opponent to score four goals against the Amerks since Utica’s AJ Greer did so on Feb. 18, 2022. The four-goal outing was a career-high for Dauphin, who now has two career hat tricks against Rochester and four overall. Joshua Roy (0+2) added a pair of assists, while netminder Jacob Fowler improved to 4-2-0 with a season-best 36 saves.
FIRST PERIOD
On the opening shift of the matinee and the puck just outside the Amerks zone, Laval’s William Trudeau grabbed it and skated along the left wing. As the defender reached the top of the near face-off point, he centered a pass for Dauphin to fire a shot over Georgiev and give the Rocket a quick 1-0 lead just 59 seconds into the match.
As the frame progressed, Rochester had a great opportunity to tie the game as Östlund had a breakaway opportunity, but his backhand attempt sailed over the net.
Shortly after a media timeout, Komarov controlled the puck behind his own net before deciding to start the play. The rugged blueliner pushed it to his right for Jones, who caught the pass on his backhand. The latter slid a pass through the neutral zone for Neuchev, who, after crossing the blue line, fired a long-range shot that surprised Fowler and decided the score with just under seven minutes to play.
The two clubs, who combined 23 shots and scored eight penalty minutes in the opening phase, went into halftime with the score tied at 1-1.
SECOND PERIOD
On Laval’s second power play opportunity of the day, the home team took advantage of the extra skater and cycled the puck around the outside of the Amerks defensemen. It was only when Sean Farrell fed Alex Belzile from the point that the veteran striker gave Dauphin a nifty no-look, backdoor feed to steer past Georgiev’s left arm at 4:01.
The Amerks drew the next three penalties of the match, but were unable to convert on any of the man-up opportunities before being called for their own foul with under four minutes remaining.
On the powerplay it was almost a carbon copy of the one that started the period as Dauphin finished his hat-trick from the right spot with Roy and Adam Engström both registering helpers.
THIRD PERIOD
The penalties began to pile up in the final frame with both teams trading power-play goals, starting with Jared Davidson who fired a one-timer at 10:20 before Östlund brought Rochester within a pair, as he did the same five minutes later.
Rochester found itself trailing 4-2 in the final two minutes of regular time before Dauphin sealed the score when Georgiev was withdrawn for an extra attacker.
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