The Manitoba Moose (1-1-0-0) couldn’t pull off the two-game sweep to open their season on Sunday afternoon, falling to the Laval Rocket (1-1-0-0) 5-2. Manitoba was coming off a 4-1 win over the Rocket on Friday.
The Rocket got off to a quick 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 off the pad of Domenic DiVincentiis, putting his first of the year into the back of the cage. Former Moose netminder Kaapo Kähkönen was perfect in the Laval goal through one period, stopping 13 shots as Manitoba outshot the Rocket 13-4.
Laval added another quick goal to start the second, this time inside of two minutes. Joshua Roy put a one-timer from the hashmarks past DiVincentiis, with Dauphin picking up his second of three points in the game on the primary assist. As the period neared its end, Sean Farrell located a loose puck around the front of the net and scored into a yawning cage to give the Rocket a 3-0 lead heading into the break.
Midway through the final stanza, Laval grew its lead with another shorthanded goal, this time courtesy of Owen Beck. The Moose didn’t go down without a fight, however. David Gustafsson, in his season debut, potted a pair of goals to shave the lead down to two. The first tally came off a friendly bounce as Gustafsson’s pass to the net ricocheted into the net off a defender’s skate. Chase Yoder picked up his first career AHL point, assisting on the tally. The second came off a slick backhand feed from Jaret Anderson-Dolan as Gustafsson ripped the setup past Kähkönen with DiVincentiis on the bench for an extra attacker. The 4-2 score was as close as the Moose could battle back. Roy iced the game for Laval shortly thereafter, scoring into the empty net. Kähkönen was named the game’s second star for his 26-save effort, while DiVincentiis stopped 18 of the 22 shots sent his way.