AHL Game Recap: Laval Rocket at Manitoba Moose (12/10/2025)

The Laval Rocket downed the Manitoba Moose 5-2 Sunday afternoon at Canada Life Centre to even the season series.

The Moose had plenty of power play chances, but Laval tilted the special teams battle in their favour with a shorthanded goal 4:33 into the game. A bad pinch and shot attempt led to Laval’s Laurent Dauphin jumping up with the puck and scoring shorthanded to silence the Moose.

Plenty of opportunities to tie the game presented themselves for the Moose, but former Moose goaltender Kaapo Kahkonen shut the door in the opening 20 minutes.

Laval kept pushing, and they wouldn’t go away quietly. Joshua Roy got his first of the game just 1:51 into the second period as he scored a power-play marker. Roy entered the zone and passed the puck to Dauphin before he set up in front of DiVincentiis. Dauphin found Roy sitting between two defenders not covered, and the duo would get the insurance marker early on.

Just when things looked like they’d wrap up as a 2-0 game heading into the third period, Laval struck again. Sean Farrell’s goal was the third shot on DiVincentiis as the Moose netminder got turned around and couldn’t shut down Farrell’s high shot to make it 3-0 with 19 seconds left to play in the second period.

Opening the third period with some extra pushback, the Moose kept the puck out of their zone for the first few minutes. A Rocket penalty would change things as the Moose continued to push in the offensive zone, but one bad break and Wyatte Wylie’s shot from the point was tipped in by Owen Beck through traffic for another shorthanded goal. Beck’s shorthanded marker was the second of the game and a 4-0 lead for Laval.

Just a minute and a half later, David Gustafsson scored his first goal of the 2025-26 AHL season after a weird bounce broke up Kahkonen’s shutout bid. Chase Yoder also picked up his first professional career point with a primary assist on Gustafsson’s goal.

About six minutes later, the Moose ended up on the power play again. In an aggressive move, the Moose pulled DiVincentiis to make it six on four. While it looked like it may not work, Gustafsson picked up his second goal of the game after Jaret Anderson-Dolan found him right in front of the net to make it a 4-2 game with just under five minutes left to play.

With the Canada Life Centre crowd rallying behind them, the Moose turned up the dial yet again and had a few strong scoring chances. However, with time winding down, Joshua Roy scored his second of the game on the empty net to make it a 5-2 final score.

Former Moose goaltender Kaapo Kahkonen was named the second star of the game, stopping 25 of 27 shots he faced.

The Moose are back in action as they face the Grand Rapids Griffins on Friday, October 17th, for game one of a three-game regular season series.