Laval, Quebec – After a scoreless overtime, the Rockford IceHogs stunned the Laval Rocket in an 11-round, 2-1 shootout win at Place Bell on Saturday night. Morgan Adams-Moisan netted the shootout winner, and Arvid Soderblom dazzled with a season-high 44 saves.
Rockford played their league-leading 20th overtime period, and the match had to be decided with a shootout. After Rocket forward Brandon Gignac and Hogs forward Michal Teply failed to strike in the first round, forward Anthony Richard tallied for Laval, and forward Cameron Hillis netted a shot for Rockford to keep the score even in the second round. In the 11th round of the shootout, Adams-Moisan tallied the game-winning shootout goal against his former team to push the Hogs past the Rocket. Stifling Laval, Soderblom denied 10 of 11 Rocket shots in the shootout.
The IceHogs scored first when forward Pavel Gogolev tallied his first goal in a Rockford sweater halfway through the first period. After forward Kale Howarth dropped off a pass for defenseman Andy Welinski at the left point, Gogolev was waiting on the edge of the crease to deflect in Welinski’s wrister and take a 1-0 lead at 9:03.
Throughout the scoreless second period, Soderblom continued to be tested by Laval. Fending off a flurry of shots, Soderblom denied Rocket forward Joel Teasdale in the crease and defenseman William Trudeau’s attempt from the high slot at 8:13.
Laval pulled netminder Cayden Primeau in favor of the extra skater on the Rocket’s sixth power-play opportunity with 3:56 left to play in the final frame. After Rockford’s special teams killed off the penalty, Laval forward Mitchell Stephens flicked a rebounded shot from Teasdale past Soderblom at 19:15, tying the game 1-1 and sending the contest to overtime.
Soderblom shined in the net and registered a season-high 44 saves on 45 Rocket shots to earn his seventh win of the season. Primeau turned away 28 of 29 Rockford shots, getting tagged with the loss.
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