The Manitoba Moose (16-10-2-1) traveled east to clash with the Laval Rocket (13-15-3-1) on Wednesday evening at Place Bell. It was the first of two weekday contests between the two sides. Manitoba was coming off a 5-2 loss against Abbotsford on Saturday.
Laval struck first, 17 seconds into the game. Jesse Ylonen took advantage of a Moose breakdown and found Mitchell Stephens, who tapped it back door past Oskari Salminen. Laval added to its lead three minutes later as Rafael Harvey-Pinard used a slick passing play and beat Salminen off a backdoor feed. Manitoba fired back 41 seconds later with a tally from Joseph Nardi. Brayden Burke, who was making his Moose debut, sent the puck to Nardi who rifled it past Kevin Poulin. It was the forward’s first AHL goal in his league debut. The Rocket restored the two-goal lead with a tally from Nate Schnarr, who beat Salminen with a shot along the ice off the rush. Salminen ended the frame with eight saves as the Moose trailed 3-1 at the first intermission.
The Rocket struck first in the second stanza with another goal from Harvey-Pinard. The forward spun and fired the puck off both posts past Salminen. The Moose struck back with a power play goal from Evan Polei. Dean Stewart boomed the puck from the point and Polei deftly tipped it past Poulin to cut into the Rocket lead. The horn sounded to draw the period to a close with the Moose trailing 4-2 and the Rocket having a 29-12 shot edge.
Laval added some insurance three minutes into the third as Harvey-Pinard completed the hat-trick with a power play goal. Laval pushed further ahead with a second man-advantage marker, this time off the stick of Jesse Ylonen. Manitoba pressed and was rewarded with a power play goal off the stick of Wyatt Bongiovanni to cut the Laval lead down to 6-3. Salminen was tagged with the loss and ended with 32 stops, while Poulin captured the win on the strength of 21 saves of his own.