On the heels of a crucial sweep of the Rochester Americans last week, the Laval Rocket had to keep their momentum going and avoid falling into a feeling of safety, even against the worst team in the AHL. The Bridgeport Islanders had collected just 31 points on the season, 13 less than the closest team, but the Rocket still had to take every opponent seriously as they pushed toward home-ice advantage in the playoffs.
The team was without David Reinbacher who was held out as a precaution, but the Rocket were not without key reinforcements. Owen Beck rejoined the club after his latest NHL stint while both Noel Hoefenmayer and Filip Mesar were back after spending some time on the injured list. Mesar slotted in with Beck on the third line with Jared Davidson on the opposite wing. Hoefenmayer and Zack Hayes formed the third pair, and Connor Hughes got the start on the night.
It was clear from the outset that the Islanders had plenty of frustrations they wished to take out on the Rocket, with them starting a shoving match after every whistle regardless of what zone they were in. Laval’s lack of discipline continued to show as Riley Kidney found himself in the penalty box for absentmindedly catching a Bridgeport player with a careless stick lift, putting the Rocket on the game’s first penalty kill.
A strong effort by the penalty-killers, including some timely odd-man rushes by William Trudeau and Florian Xhekaj, kept the Islanders from registering even a shot on net while keeping the game scoreless in the opening five minutes. With play back at even strength, the Rocket took control of the puck and refused to hand it back to the Islanders, with Laval’s fourth line generating multiple chances in one shift, but Vincent Arseneau just missing out on a Florian Xhekaj saucer pass.
While Laval was dominating the opening minutes, a Lucas Condotta penalty looked like it was going to slow them down again. However, a timely TV timeout gave the officials the chance to review his high-sticking penalty and the replays showed his stick had actually missed the opponent, giving the Rocket an offensive-zone start instead.
It continued to be Laval controlling play shift after shift, but just lacking the little bit of finesse needed to open up the scoring. However, the first major error the Rocket made in their own end of the ice ended up in the back of their own net thanks to a sloppy clearing attempt. Sean Farrell attempted to play the puck forward on a feed from Tyler Wotherspoon. Farrell’s clear didn’t make it far, allowing Brian Pinho to create a quick odd-man rush where Alex Jeffries finished the pass off for an Islanders lead.
To compound issues, on the ensuing face-off Mesar caught a Bridgeport player with his stick, putting Laval back on the penalty kill with around five minutes left in the period. As the penalty kill got to work at again stifling the Islanders power play, the Rocket announced that Rafaël Harvey-Pinard would not return to the game after suffering another injury. Things were not done being bad quite yet for the Rocket there either as Beck took a hard shot into the stanchion after the penalty expired.
Both Logan Mailloux and Xhekaj tried to extract their pound of flesh for the hit, but Mailloux was dinged with an extra roughing penalty, putting Laval on another penalty kill to end the period. Once again Laval’s penalty kill put in a strong effort, allowing the Rocket to enter the first intermission trailing by just a single goal.
Laval started the second period by killing off the remainder of their first-period penalties, and then promptly took another minor with Xhekaj heading back to the penalty box he had just escaped. The Rocket’s penalty-killers again gave up no shots to the Islanders’ power play, and spent most of the kill in the offensive zone, yet still were unable to find a first goal for themselves.
Finally, after multiple kills it was time for the Rocket’s first power play of the game with Jack Randl heading off for hooking. It took the Rocket power play just over a minute to level the game as their top power-play unit tormented the Islanders’ penalty-killers relentlessly. Eventually Beck fed Farrell in the slot, with Farrell grabbing his own rebound and sending a follow-up pass across the slot. Alex Barré-Boulet was wide-open and buried Farrell’s pass to tie the game up at one goal apiece.
Laval continued to pressure the Islanders, looking to burst the dam and put away their opponents quickly. With that pressure came another power play as Cole Bardreau was called for tripping up Mesar. This time however, the Rocket man advantage lacked the fluidity of the first attempt, and with that the Islanders were able to keep the game tied up and back at even strength.
With the penalty kill in their pocket, the Islanders began to mount their first real counter offensive of the game, pushing the Rocket back into the defensive zone without much pushback. Connor Hughes had to be sharp as the Isles swarmed around his net, with their chances being just wide as the period wore on. Eventually the frustrations of Laurent Dauphin boiled over and he slashed a stick in half, earning him two minutes in the box.
The Islanders continued to be the dominant side and with the Rocket down their top penalty-killer, Bridgeport was able to take the lead back. Chris Terry sent Pinho through both Rocket defenders. and Pinho roofed a backhand shot by Hughes.
Laval had 20 minutes in regulation left to salvage a mostly dismal effort against the AHL’s worst team, but with some fresh injuries and a lack of effort it looked like a huge task.
Things instead continued to get worse for Laval as Trudeau took a shot off the side of the head on one of the first shifts of the period. On the following shift, a slip in the defensive zone, coupled with a missed read by Riley Kidney, opened up a huge gap in front of Hughes. Cam Thiesing took a centring feed and beat Hughes clean to make it a 3-1 game at Place Bell.
Trailing by two goals, the response from the Rocket was lacklustre to put it lightly. The team was missing passes and were taking poor care of the puck as they tried to overcome their mistakes. They were lucky to be thrown a lifeline when Wotherspoon cut through the offensive zone and drew a late power play, giving the man advantage a huge opportunity to make things competitive again.
After struggling on earlier power plays, the Rocket’s top unit was all business once again and cut their deficit down to one goal in just 40 seconds. Beck grabbed his own rebound chance and allowed Farrell to get a clean look across the slot to Alex Barré-Boulet. The veteran winger made no mistake once again as he buried Farrell’s pass and made it a one-goal contest.
With over three minutes left to play and with an offensive-zone faceoff, Pascal Vincent made the bizarre choice to pull Hughes for an extra attacker. It instantly backfired as Chris Terry threw in an empty-net goal to all but put the game away.
To put an emphatic stamp on the inexcusable effort on the night, a missed assignment allowed Terry to bury another goal just a minute later to make it a 5-2 game and send the Rocket to their most embarrassing loss of the season to date.
Final Score: Bridgeport 5, Laval 2
Laval will head out on the road to end this week as they roll into Utica on Friday night for the start of a two-game series with the Comets. David Reinbacher is travelling with the team and will likely be back in action as well.
League standings
