Riding a seven-game point streak, the Laval Rocket returned home to Place Bell to take on the last team to defeat them in regulation, the Belleville Senators. Due to the ongoing injury issues, the Rocket lineup remained mostly the same, save for an ill Mattias Norlinder being replaced by Nicolas Beaudin.
Everything pointed to the game being a feisty affair after the Senators took liberties with the Rocket last game, including Boko Imama taunting one of the Rocket’s coaches at the end of the game. Philippe Maillet mentioned that the game hasn’t escaped their memory, and promised that the team was out to even the score.
After an uncharacteristically quiet opening 10 minutes, it seemed like neither side was ready to take the chance at cracking the game open. Laval’s strong cycle game wasn’t generating a ton of shots, but forced the Senators into taking the first penalty of the night. It wasn’t until the second wave hit the ice that the advantage finally began to generate chances, with Arber Xhekaj firing a pair of shots just wide of the net.
Laval’s command of the puck finally found a weak spot in the Senators’ defence, thanks in part to an outstanding effort from Tobie Paquette-Bisson. The veteran defenceman was at his own blue line under pressure when he flicked a backhand feed forward to Lucas Condotta in the neutral zone. Condotta broke into the Senators zone with Filip Cederqvist alongside him, but Condotta opted to shoot and wired his shot past Levi Merilainen to open up the scoring.
The Rocket kept the pressure on to end the period, but weren’t able to add to their lead.
Period two kicked off with the Rocket continuing to hound the Senators on and off the puck at every turn. Even when Belleville gained the zone their scoring chances were limited or snuffed out by well-timed stick-checks from the defence. Laval’s bottom-six forwards did an incredible job at extending plays in the offensive zone, forcing Merilainen into making several quick saves to deny the Rocket a second goal.
Despite owning the flow of play, an errant stick from Philippe Maillet led to the Rocket heading to the penalty kill and gave Belleville a chance to tie the game up. The Rocket penalty-killers did a fantastic job at denying any chances on net before the speed of Brandon Gignac drew a holding call and sent the game to four-on-four.
Laval’s defence got an immediate rude awakening soon after that as Tyler Kleven danced around Nicolas Beaudin and Olivier Galipeau before snapping a shot by Jakub Dobeš to tie the game up. That goal snapped the Rocket right back into reality and their began to pour in the following minutes.
With Maillet exiting the box after serving his penalty, the Rocket power play went to work, and they did so with ruthless efficiency. Emil Heineman put a pass into the slot for Brandon Gignac, with Gignac then opting to pass it between his legs to Maillet, who snapped home his ninth goal of the year.
Just a minute later, the offence was right back at it with Logan Mailloux putting a shot toward goal and Riley McKay poking it for a slight deflection. Jan Mysak jumped on the loose puck, swatting the puck by Merilainen to make it a 3-1 game with around 12 minutes left to play in the period.
Then, things unravelled in rapid fashion thanks to a highly questionable penalty against Heineman. As the puck was being rimmed around the boards in the Rocket defensive zone, Heineman got to the boards to collect the puck and braced for a hit from Jiři Smejkal. Heineman stood his ground as Smejkal ran into him, knocking the Senator to the ice in obvious pain, and Heineman was handed a five-minute major for interference.
The Senators scored once early into the five minute kill, but through pure stubborn will and spite, the Rocket penalty-killers fended off the rest of Heineman’s penalty and returned the play to even strength.
Then all hell broke loose as the officials lost whatever semblance of control they had over the game. Condotta buried Cole Reinhardt along the boards, resulting in the two forwards throwing their gloves off and somehow being given only roughing penalties. Cederqvist got in on the fun by taking a swipe at a loose puck as the whistle blew on a save, resulting in him being cross-checked repeatedly, and Cederqvist being given a roughing penalty for defending himself.
In that same scrum, a suddenly very healthy Smejkal tried to antagonize Mailloux, resulting in a pair of matching roughing penalties. Then it was Josh Currie blindsiding Xavier Simoneau without the puck, drawing a two-minute interference penalty and then a pair of fighting majors as Simoneau went after Currie.
At the end of all the chaos, the Rocket would end the period on the power play, with an opportunity to extend their lead to start the third period.
Laval’s power play didn’t convert, but again their bottom six came through in a big way to widen the gap on the Senators. Gabriel Bourque broke out with support from Mysak through the neutral zone, with the captain feeding Mysak streaking into the offensive zone. Mysak put the shot on net, off of Merilainen’s blocker and the puck took a fortunate bounce into the net to make it a two-goal lead for Laval.
Then, things went off the rails again.
Condotta levelled Zack Ostapchuk with a massive hit, drawing the ire of Dillon Heatherington in an intense, drawn out wrestling match at centre ice.
Then, after Brennan Saulnier was called for interference in the Rocket end, Arber Xhekaj had just a few choice words before throwing his gloves off with Saulnier. Xhekaj handled the AHL veteran with relative ease, much to the delight of the crowd at Place Bell.
Even with the lead, the Rocket were making things precarious as the game entered its final 10 minutes of regulation. Jared Davidson was called for slashing, a penalty that was killed off thanks to a heroic pair of blocks from Galipeau in front of Dobeš. Even with those blocks, Galipeau was called for a hook prior to the blocks, giving Laval another penalty to kill off before Angus Crookshank was called for unsportsmanlike conduct making it a brief four-on-four.
Laval did well to see out the rest of the game, not giving the Senators any opportunity to take top players off the ice, and a late empty-net goal by Gignac on a selfless pass from Mysak secured the win for Laval as they moved just two points out of third place in the North Division.
Final Score: Laval 5, Belleville 2
After the chaos on Friday night, these two teams will square off again on Saturday night, this time in Belleville with Kasimir Kaskisuo expected to get the nod in net. Grab some popcorn because it’s sure to be another wild one.
