The Manitoba Moose (1-1-0-0) failed to complete the two-game sweep to open their season on Sunday afternoon, falling 5-2 to the Laval Rocket (1-1-0-0). Manitoba posted a 4-1 victory over the Rocket on Friday.
The Rocket got off to a fast start on Sunday. With the Moose on the power play, Alex Belzile blocked a point shot and fed Laurent Dauphin for a breakaway. Dauphin finished off his own rebound into the path of Domenic DiVincentiis and put his first of the year in the back of the cage. Former Moose netminder Kaapo Kähkönen was perfect in one period in the Laval goal, stopping 13 shots as Manitoba outscored the Rocket 13-4.
Laval added another quick goal to start the second, this time within two minutes. Joshua Roy put a one-timer from the hashmarks past DiVincentiis, with Dauphin getting his second of three points in the game with the primary assist. As the period came to a close, Sean Farrell found a loose puck around the front of the net and scored into a gaping cage to give the Rocket a 3-0 lead heading into halftime.
Midway through the final stanza, Laval increased the lead with another short-handed goal, this time courtesy of Owen Beck. However, the moose did not go down without a fight. David Gustafsson scored a pair of goals in his season debut to cut the lead to two. The first score came from a friendly jump when Gustafsson’s pass to the net deflected off a defender’s skate and into the net. Chase Yoder picked up his first career AHL point and assisted on the count. The second came from a smooth backhand feed from Jaret Anderson-Dolan as Gustafsson ripped the lineup past Kähkönen with DiVincentiis on the bench for an extra attacker. The 4-2 score was as close as the Moose could fight back. Shortly afterwards, Roy put the game on edge for Laval by scoring into the empty net. Kähkönen was named the second star of the match for his 26-save effort, while DiVincentiis stopped 18 of the 22 shots sent his way.
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