After a strong showing in Game 1 of the North Division Semifinals, the Laval Rocket have dropped back-to-back games while being outscored 12-4, and find themselves on the brink of elimination to the Toronto Marlies. For a team that bulldozed their way to the conference finals last year and collected consecutive North Division titles, this is not a spot they expected to find themselves in.
On Sunday it was disaster right out of the gate as Lucas Condotta was handed a double-minor for high-sticking just five seconds into the game. Just six seconds after that it was Toronto going up 1-0 on yet another power-play goal. While it was the only one the Marlies scored (after scoring four on Friday), it deflated the Rocket before the game even really began.
Laval has always been a team that played with an edge, and after a bruising series with the Charlotte Checkers last year they kept that edge as they approached their series with the Marlies. The past few years with the Marlies has been a heated battle as Cedric Paré drew the ire of the team last year after injuring Patrik Laine in the NHL post-season, and this year with Michael Pezzetta throwing a gruesome headshot on Marc Del Gaizo that kicked off a line brawl.
The issue for the Rocket is that they haven’t let these misdeeds go, and the Marlies know it as they’ve continually drawn the Rocket into situations where they simply walk away and draw a call out of it. Therein lies the problem. It’s one thing to take penalties and your penalty-killers put in a strong shift to bail you out and you come charging out of the box looking to make an impact. It’s another when your you keep putting the team down a defender and allowing a goal.
That might be just part of a bigger issue for the Rocket, and one that also plagued them down the stretch of the regular season. Kaapo Kähkönen has been far from on his game in the playoffs. With a 1-2-0 record, 4.30 goals-against average and .844 save percentage, the veteran netminder has not been up the his own standard when it has mattered. Facing down a mountain of power plays has not helped, but even at even strength he hasn’t been inspiring over the last two losses. If giving up a goal 11 seconds into the game didn’t deflate the team, the second goal from a low-danger shot by Easton Cowan certainly did as the Marlies quickly ran the score up to 4-0 after it.
Perhaps worst of all for the Rocket is that their scoring seems to have gone dry when they’ve needed it to offset the goaltending. Alex Belzile has one goal, Sammy Blais has an empty-netter, and they haven’t received anything from Jared Davidson, William Trudeau, or Marc Del Gaizo. Pascal Vincent shuffled his lines a bit just before the series started, and it might be time to restore the old ones with a do-or-die game lingering.
When things have gotten tough, the Rocket haven’t shown the fight they had in the previous year. This is a team capable of multi-goal comebacks, of dominating in shots, and exerting their physical influence as well. They’re experiencing a perfect storm of the worst kind of mistakes, at a crucial time of year.
However, it takes one good game to suddenly put Toronto on their back foot and send the game back to a raucous Place Bell. After two bad games, this is a Rocket side that should be hungry, and should be absolutely foaming at the mouth to beat their rival. When they’ve focused and played their game, the Rocket are capable of going toe-to-toe with Toronto.
It’s just up to the players to remember how good this team actually is, and realize they’re not beaten until the final horn goes off.
