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Rocket vs. Senators recap & highlights: Lack of urgency sends the Rocket to a second straight loss

Laval responded to a loss with a great first period, but failed to follow it up.

Credit: Arena du Rocket, Inc.

The Laval Rocket entered Friday night in an odd spot. They arrived to the arena having lost their last game on Wednesday night. The Rocket kept their point streak intact despite the 2-1 overtime loss to the Rochester Americans, and threatening that was another stern test in the Belleville Senators.

It was already going to be a tall order as the Senators are always a frustrating opponent for Laval. It was an even bigger task as Alex Barré-Boulet was set to miss out due to a re-aggravated upper-body injury, leaving Laval without one of its star players. Laurent Dauphin was good to go after missing Wednesday night with an illness, and would centre the third line. Connor Hughes got the nod in goal, with Jakub Dobeš serving as his backup for the night.

After a sluggish effort against Rochester, the Rocket didn’t exactly get off to a roaring start against Belleville. After numerous icings left them deep in their own zone, Logan Mailloux was then whistled for tripping to put the Sens on an early power play. After allowing an early power-play goal on Wednesday, the Rocket locked in early on Friday night, making life easy on Hughes to keep it a scoreless game.

On the next shift, it was the elusiveness of Adam Engström that forced Belleville into a penalty of their own, giving Laval a chance to open the scoring. The Rocket man advantage picked apart the Senators’ penalty kill and in just over a minute they found a big enough gap to open the scoring. Mailloux fed a pass up to Jared Davidson, with Davidson putting in on the stick of Brandon Gignac in the slot. Gignac had a lifetime to spin then fire his second goal of the year by Malcolm Subban and put the Rocket up 1-0.

A tripping penalty on Wyatt Bongiovanni sent Gignac into the goal post and the Rocket back to the power play. This time it was the Rocket’s second unit that did the damage and doubled the Laval advantage. Owen Beck poked a puck back to Engström at the point, with the young Swede walking to the centre of the zone and rifling his second goal of the year through a Florian Xhekaj screen.

The Rocket continued to roll over the Senators from there, dominating the puck and giving Subban no time to rest between the pipes. As the pressure mounted, Filip Roos interfered with Riley Kidney, putting the Rocket back on the power play. The only thing that stopped the Rocket from entering the first intermission with a three-goal lead was the inside of the goalpost which denied Joshua Roy as the period was coming to a close.

Laval was content to absorb the early attacks from the Senators as the second period began, with Belleville piling up seven shots to the Rocket’s none in the opening minutes. Nothing of real danger was sent toward Hughes as the Rocket kept the Senators to the outskirts of the offensive zone or from bad angles.

Things then got feisty as they often do in these matchups, with Engström taking a hit from behind and causing a major scrum to break out. When everything was settled and the penalties sorted, the Rocket found themselves killing a penalty as the Senators escaped any damage for the initial hit on Engström.

Laval easily fended off the man advantage, but the momentum was rolling heavily in the other direction. The Rocket were still struggling to generate meaningful offensive-zone time, and the Sens took advantage on their counter-attack. Oskar Pettersson fed Jamieson Rees cutting through the slot, and Rees fired one over Hughes’s shoulder to cut into the Rocket lead.

The woes continued as the Rocket still were without a shot as the period passed its halfway point, and to compound matters, William Trudeau was sent to the box on a holding call. The penalty kill was nearly flawless, allowing next to no shots on net while Trudeau prepared to exit the box. Trudeau had taken barely a step out of the box when a point shot was tipped home by Philippe Daoust in front of goal to tie the game at two goals apiece.

Belleville’s second goal seemed to snap the Rocket out of their funk, and the team resumed their lengthy stays in the offensive zone, but they were unable to break the deadlock as the period approached its conclusion. While it looked like Laval was going to start the third period on the right foot, a Jacob Perreault high stick in the final seconds ensured they began it on the penalty kill instead.

Laval’s PK was once again dialed in, allowing no shots on net and allowing Perreault to escape the box unscathed. However, the Rocket failed to get a change as the Senators kept the puck deep in the offensive zone, and eventually Wyatt Wylie snuck a third goal by Hughes to put the Rocket in the hole. They continued to dig themselves a deeper gap as well, with Trudeau taking a cross-checking penalty to try to slow down Xavier Bourgault.

Despite the struggles at even strength, the Rocket penalty-killers continued to be flawless as they kept their goal deficit at just one goal while they began a hunt for a third goal of their own. The Senators were beginning to retreat into a defensive shell, and a knifing run from Owen Beck drew a tripping penalty to put the Rocket back on the man advantage.

After a hot start, the Rocket power play looked toothless as they put just a few chances on Subban and watched their window for a tying goal shrink further and further in the third period. Even with the net empty, the Rocket offence never came to fruition as the Senators tacked on an empty-netter to seal their victory.

Final Score: Belleville 4, Laval 2

The Rocket won’t have long to lick their wounds as they’ll head to Belleville for a rematch with the Senators in Belleville. Puck drop is set for 7:00 PM.

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