While I probably sound like a broken record, after ending their road trip with a loss to the Utica Comets on Wednesday night, the Laval Rocket returned home for a crucial two-game series with Belleville. The previous weekend saw the Rocket take two games from the Senators in their own building, allowing Laval to climb into a playoff spot.
After the lacklustre effort against Utica, the Rocket shuffled their lineup slightly, with Arnaud Durandeau coming out in favour of Filip Cederqvist on the third line. Lucas Condotta slid down to the fourth-line-centre role, while Jacob Perreault moved into his spot on the second-line wing. Mattias Norlinder drew in for Olivier Galipeau, while Jakub Dobeš again took the starting role.
As expected, the intensity and physicality was high right out of the gate as the rivals finished every check with gusto and piled up scoring chances quickly. Despite the early looks, it was the odd bounce that opened up the scoring. Moments after Mitchell Stephens fired a chance over the net, William Trudeau worked in along the half-wall, flicking a backhand pass toward Cederqvist. It never got to Cederqvist, as a Senators defender swatted the puck, directly into his net, for Trudeau’s seventh goal of the season.
While Dobeš was handling his workload with relative ease, Levi Merilainen was in incredible form, using quick pads and a quicker glove to deny the Rocket forwards multiple times, keeping it a one-goal game.
A Norlinder interference call began to tip the momentum back towards the Senators. While the Rocket were able to kill off the minor, the Senators never let up on the pressure, allowing Egor Sokolov to corral a bouncing puck and deposit it to tie the game.
A late power play after a knee-on-knee hit by Garrett Pilon allowed the Rocket to make up some of the lost momentum, but before as the period came to a close they were unable to grab the lead back. It was a total toss-up as the two sides headed into the first intermission tied 1-1.
Out of the gate in the second period, the Rocket were misfiring on all cylinders, with missed passes stopping offensive chances cold before the team was then called for too many men. Laval’s penalty-killers were again outstanding, denying the Senators time and space.
As the Senators were allowed more leeway to get away with various forms of obstruction, the Rocket found it harder to sustain their offence. However, quick counter-attacks and their speed broke the deadlock at the midway point of the period. Emil Heineman flicked a pass ahead for Brandon Gignac, who laid it off for Sean Farrell. The rookie forward sped off on an odd-man rush, feeding Gignac for his 19th goal of the year to restore the Rocket lead.
The Senators continued to hound the Rocket at every turn, even while the Rocket found themselves on another power play. That pressure from Belleville resulted in a short-handed breakaway for Bokondji Imama, and a tripping penalty on Perreault who tried his best to break up the play. As a result the Rocket found themselves starting a big third period with 44 seconds of time left to kill off and a tenuous one-goal lead.
It was all Dobeš to start the third period, robbing the Senators with a sprawling glove save in close to take away what looked like a sure goal. Then Norlinder was horse-collared by Wyatt Bongiovanni, which gave the Rocket a power-play opportunity. It again came up empty, but not for a lack of trying as Farrell rang a shot off the post, and the follow up was saved by the diving stick of Maxence Guenette.
Laval continued to make their march to the end of regulation a difficult one, as Logan Mailloux went off for tripping. The penalty-killers continued to be the best units the Rocket had on the night, fighting off a desperate Senators power play and doing well to keep the puck well away from the most dangerous opponents on the ice.
As the minutes ticked away, the Rocket began to put the clamps down on the Senators. While the scoring chances were minimal for Laval, they were blocking the Senators’ attempts at every turn, and just slowly grinding out the remaining minutes. Even with the extra attacker out on the ice, it was the Rocket who were taking control of the game long enough to secure another critical divisional win.
Final Score: Laval 2, Belleville 1
The win created a four-point buffer for the Rocket to Belleville in sixth place, with Laval holding on to the final North Division playoff spot. They can further their gap on the Senators in today’s rematch at Place Bell, and put the Rocket back within striking distance of a top-three finish as well.
