Less than 24 hours after the Rocket and Senators took part in a hard-fought battle, the two sides met again on Saturday afternoon. The Rocket snagged a crucial two points in a 2-1 game on Friday night, with Jakub Dobeš putting on a clinic with 35 saves on the night.
For Saturday’s rematch, there were just three small lineup changes for the Rocket with Arnaud Durandeau and Olivier Galipeau drawing in for Riley McKay and Mattias Norlinder, respectively. In net it was Kasimir Kaskisuo getting the start while Dobeš got a deserved day off as his backup.
In a carryover from the game on Friday night, it was the Senators generating chance after chance inside the Rocket zone, while Laval struggled to find a home for their passes when they controlled the puck. Eventually, the repeated efforts from the Senators paid off as a pass back to Maxence Guenette at the top of the circles resulted in Guenette whipping a shot by Kaskisuo to open the scoring.
To further the team’s early woes, Justin Barron followed the goal up by taking a tripping penalty deep in the offensive zone, putting the Rocket on the penalty kill. Laval’s suddenly red-hot penalty kill again handled the Senators’ advantage with ease, and that seemed to breathe some life back into the Rocket’s legs. The fourth line managed to get the Senators hemmed into their own end and drew a penalty of their own with just over five minutes left in the period.
The power play remained frustratingly stagnant and out of sync, leaving the Rocket still chasing a tying goal in a crucial situation. But they found one from an unexpected source to tie the game up after the failed power play. Tobie Paquette-Bisson put a harmless-looking shot toward the net, and Lucas Condotta managed to deflect it by Kevin Mandolese.
Things then began to devolve as the Senators were allowed to take whatever liberties they wanted, and it resulted in them taking the lead back. After William Trudeau stepped up to defend David Reinbacher from a two-handed slash that went uncalled, the Senators took the lead back. A long shot bounced in front of Kaskisuo, but he wasn’t able to smother it cleanly. Galipeau then collided with his netminder as he tried to clear the puck, allowing Cole Reinhardt to sweep it in and putting Belleville on top heading into the first intermission.
Coming out of the break, the Rocket found their deficit increased almost immediately. Jiri Smejkal snuck behind Reinbacher, giving him plenty of space to take a leading pass and finish his breakaway chance to make it a 3-1 game. That lead grew for the Senators before long, with Logan Mailloux getting himself out of position and Oskar Pettersson rifling his second goal of the year off his back foot to make it 4-1.
Laval, now facing a massive deficit, took its timeout to settle down, and turned the jets on in a big way, finally snapping out of its miserable funk offensively. Chance after chance was thrown at the net, with Mandolese being kept busy.
It was again Reinbacher who provided a big spark again. Galipeau sent a pass across a few feet ahead of Reinbacher’s wheelhouse, but the rookie defenceman lunged forward and smashed his shot off the post. Philippe Maillet swooped in and flicked the backhand shot over Mandolese to cut into the Senators’ lead.
Laval maintained the edge in play over the remainder of the period, putting a number of shots on goal, but Mandolese stood tall to hold his team’s lead steady at two goals.
The Rocket started the third period with a good shift featuring several chances as they looked to make it a one-goal game. Over the next several minutes, the Senators were able to settle down and limit the offence Laval could generate. As the period wore on, the teams just traded the odd shot, with Laval seemingly out of gas to truly launch its comeback.
With about three minutes to play, Houle pulled Kaskisuo for the extra attacker, needing his team to find two goals. The Rocket put several shots on target over the next minute or so, but it was an empty-netter for Jacob Larsson that put the game to bed and erased the gains Laval had made over Belleville the previous night.
Final Score: Belleville 5, Laval 2
Splitting the weekend series with the Sens kept Laval’s edge in the race for the final playoff spot in the North Division at two points, and also prevented Laval from jumping ahead of the Toronto Marlies. Laval now gets a few days off before a Friday game versus the division-leading Syracuse Crunch and then a meeting with the Springfield Thunderbirds on Saturday.
