After another “close, but no cigar” loss on Friday night to the Abbotsford Canucks, the Laval Rocket stepped back on the ice hoping to curb their losing streak against a team that has given them fits for the last few seasons. Thankfully for the Rocket, the injuries from the previous night were not serious enough to keep anyone out of the lineup on Saturday.
Also given the lack of spare bodies, the lineup remained the same with a few players just shuffling lines, notably Nathan Légaré moving up to the second line. On defence, Brady Keeper and Nicolas Beaudin formed the third pairing after both exited the game on Friday. Jakub Dobeš got the start after Strauss Mann did everything he could to keep Laval in the game the previous night.
Things got off to a quick start for Saturday’s game, with the Rocket having to kill off a four-minute power play just 14 seconds into the game, with Olivier Galipeau taking a seat for high sticking. Despite the double-minor it was the Rocket who got on the board first thanks to the speed of Brandon Gignac. The speedy centre broke free with the puck and fed a pass across to Légaré, who buried the short-handed tally.
The lead lasted just 16 seconds as Arshdeep Bains broke into the offensive zone off of the faceoff. Bains found Chase Wouters streaking in behind him leaving the puck for him, and Wouters rifled it by Dobeš to make it rain teddy bears as the game was tied up.
Laval managed to kill the rest of Galipeau’s penalty, keeping it a tied game with a chance to try to take the lead back from the Canucks. Instead Laval gave up a pair of goals in seven seconds that left Dobeš scrambling in his own net. With the game getting out of hand less than four minutes in, J.-F. Houle pulled Dobeš from the game in favour of Mann.
As Laval tried to right the listing ship, they headed back to the penalty kill as Gignac was called for batting the puck with his hand in the faceoff. The Rocket barely managed to escape the penalty kill, as the Canucks rang at least one shot off the pipe behind Mann, but they did keep the deficit at just two goals.
The Rocket were slowly growing into the game after a rough start, eventually finding a second goal to stanch the bleeding. Brady Keeper kept a puck in along the blue line, hammering a shot on goal that bounced free in front of the net. Emil Heineman boxed out his opponent and jammed the loose puck home for his first goal of the season.
Then a drawn penalty by the Rocket led to them managing to claw all the way back into the game after a disastrous few minutes to start. William Trudeau fended off a Canucks penalty-killer, keeping the play alive at the point. Giganc grabbed the puck, dishing it off to Heineman deeper in the offensive zone. Heineman waited just a second before firing a puck through a defender’s legs to Xavier Simoneau at the back post for a tap-in goal to make it a 3-3 game.
After trailing early, the momentum was suddenly back in Laval’s favour as the two sides headed to the first intermission following a six goal period.
Period two started with a much more physical edge to it, with Lucas Condotta taking a big hit in the offensive zone, and then Riley McKay returning the favour as he levelled Cole McWard along the end boards. However, despite a high-scoring first period, the second lacked the same offensive output as shots were few and far between through the opening six minutes.
McKay eventually had to answer for his earlier hit, with Jermaine Loewen engaging him in a massive size mismatch, resulting in McKay being tossed to the ice with very few punches thrown. The fight seemed to breathe some life back into the Rocket’s legs as the offence began to generate a consistent push, but they couldn’t find a fourth goal as the period wore on.
The pressure and speed of the Rocket earned them another power-play opportunity with just over six minutes left to play in the second period. The Rocket were kept from taking the lead, and perhaps more seriously they lost Gignac who was slow to get off the ice after getting tangled up in front of the Canucks’ net, adding to Laval’s injury woes.
Even with the failed power play, the Rocket kept controlling the flow of play and not allowing Abbotsford any chances. Heading into the second intermission Laval had the edge in shots, and was looking primed to continue its impressive showing into the third period.
It instead was Abbotsford jumping out to a quick start as Vasily Podkolzin drew a hooking call just seconds into the period. The Rocket penalty-killers were on point, keeping the Canucks out of the dangerous areas and keeping the game level.
It was the Canucks who applied the pressure as the period wore on, and eventually that pressure caught the Rocket flatfooted. Tristen Nielsen blew by Philippe Maillet and had a one-on-one situation with William Trudeau in front of goal. Nielsen danced around Trudeau, shovelling home a backhand shot and putting the Canucks back in front with under seven minutes to play.
With time suddenly becoming the enemy, the Rocket pulled Mann in an attempt to score with the extra attacker on the ice. Despite the extra body, the Rocket played more defence than offence as the Canucks closed out their win emphatically and sent Laval to a seventh straight loss.
Final Score: Abbotsford 4, Laval 3
There isn’t much time for the Rocket to lick their wounds after another frustrating weekend as they welcome the Belleville Senators to Place Bell on Wednesday night.
