A successful homestand for the Laval Rocket last weekend left them sitting atop the AHL’s North Division, a familiar spot for the team. It also gave them a huge boost heading into a road trip with three straight games against North Division rivals. First up, their most hated rivals from just down the 401 Corridor, the Belleville Senators.
The team got Owen Beck back from the Canadiens after an emergency recall, but had to cope with the loss of Joshua Roy and Marc Del Gaizo who were called up for Montreal’s western road trip. The recall forced a big shuffle on defence as Nate Clurman took a spot next to Adam Engström on the top pair, while Josiah Didier and Ryan O’Rourke made up the second. Beck stepped into the second-line spot in his return while the rest of the forward group stayed the same. In net it was Jacob Fowler as expected as the Rocket looked to keep the Senators winless on the season.
It was not a quick start for Laval like they enjoyed against Abbotsford last weekend, as the Senators looked like a team playing for their first win of the season. The Rocket struggled to string together breakout passes, and the few passes they were able to make did not generate any sustained pressure in the offensive zone. Fowler, however, was sharp off the hop as Arthur Kaliyev was all over the offensive zone, forcing a number of saves in close through the opening five minutes.
The Rocket soon found their legs, allowing them more offensive time, but the shots were still few and far between. The Senators also found any sort of offensive push to be difficult as the defence clamped down as soon as any player crossed over the blue line. The Rocket’s continued pressure also drew the game’s first power play with just over five minutes remaining.
Laval perhaps should have declined their man advantage as their disjointed efforts failed to generate real pressure and then their sloppy handling of the puck in their own end resulted in a short-handed marker. A blind pass along the boards was knocked down into open ice for Xavier Bourgault, who beat Fowler clean to open the scoring for the Senators.
It wasn’t the most graceful ending to the period either as a blocked shot turned the other way, and the Rocket struggled to pick up the third man entering the slot down low. Thankfully a big block by O’Rourke and strong save from Fowler kept their deficit at just one goal heading into the intermission.
Laval got a bit of luck to start the second period as Hayden Hodgson swung through, with two hands on his stick in a strange attempt to clear the puck. His swing hit off a stick and caught Laurent Dauphin in the face, putting the Rocket back on the power play. It took all of 14 seconds for a tic-tac-toe passing play to hit Dauphin at the back post for a tap-in goal to tie the game.
Laurent Dauphin with a back door tap-in, Laval on the board in Belleville
— Scott Matla (@scottmatla.bsky.social) October 22, 2025 at 8:57 PM
[image or embed]
The goal seemed to bring some life back to the Rocket legs as they closed the gap on the shot counter rapidly after a tepid first period. Tyler Thorpe created the next best chance for his team as he drove in off the wing, wiring a shot off the mask of Leevi Meriläinen and having the rebound just miss the stick of Lucas Condotta. The Senators were also refusing to go away as Kaliyev and Bourgault continued to torment the Laval defence in their own end, but Fowler remained up to the task.
As the Rocket were beginning to dictate play, Wyatte Wylie got crossed up with a Senators player, and took a seat for tripping as Belleville went to its first power play of the night. Laval opened the penalty kill with Condotta being sprung on a short-handed breakaway, but he sailed his shot well over the net. Even with the miss, the Rocket penalty kill did well to fluster the Senators, denying them a second goal and allowed Wylie to exit the box.
The Senators refused to go away, and their top line took advantage of a lax backchecking effort by Thorpe to regain the lead. A 50/50 puck bounced to Belleville and they executed a three-on-two to perfection, giving Bourgault a simple tap-in as Jacob Dion tried to cover two spots at the same time.
That one-goal deficit quickly turned into two as a pass came uncontested across the crease to Hayden Hodgson who lifted the backhand by Jacob Fowler to make it a 3-1 game.
The Rocket then battled right back, with Adam Engström continuing to shoulder the weight of the defence on his back. Dauphin worked off the wall, finding Engström in the high slot. The Swede took the feed and blistered his first goal of the season by Meriläinen to get the Rocket back into the game.
Florian Xhekaj promptly sent the Rocket back to the penalty and it ended up being extremely costly as the Senators restored their two-goal lead. Wyatt Bongiovanni circled through the faceoff circle, without being pressured by either O’Rourke or Clurman. The Sens winger strode right in and rifled one to the far corner over the shoulder of Fowler and sent Laval into the intermission with an uphill battle in front of them.
Wylie was caught flat footed in the neutral zone just after the third got under way, allowing Garret Pilon to take off the other way. Wylie wasn’t able to slow down his breakaway attempt, and the Senators captain all but put the game away early as he tucked a fifth goal by Fowler less than two minutes in.
Hodgson, with a lead in hand, took an opportunity to cross-check a Rocket player from behind into the legs of a teammate, putting the Rocket power play back on the ice. Despite a quick start, the power play fizzled out quickly, leaving the Rocket with three goals to overcome and dwindling time to do so.
While the Rocket were throwing everything at the net, it was the Senators who again found the back of the net as Cameron Crotty threw a shot from the blue line, through traffic and past Fowler to turn the game into a blowout.
Belleville continued to swallow up any possible Rocket attack in the later stages of the game, as the Rocket could only settle for shots from the point, most of which got lost in traffic by the net-front. It wasn’t for a lack of effort, but the Rocket spent the final minutes rolling lines and defensive pairings while trying to minimize the damage. There was no late goal to take some of the sting out of the game as the Rocket handed the Sens their first win of the year.
Final Score: Belleville 6, Laval 2
The Rocket continue their trek, heading into Western New York for a Friday evening showdown with the Rochester Americans. The Rocket are likely to see Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen in net while the Sabres netminder is in town on a conditioning stint. Puck drop is set for 7:05 ET, it is unclear who will get the start in net for Pascal Vincent.
