On the heels of a disappointing loss on home ice on Wednesday night, the Laval Rocket hit the road to try to bounce back in their quest for a North Division title. In front of them on Friday evening were the Bridgeport Islanders, a squad soon moving to familiar ground in Hamilton, Ontario.
Pascal Vincent shuffled his forward lines after the team managed just a single goal against the North’s worst club, with Will Dineen slotting in for Vincent Arseneau on the fourth line. On the third line in place of Tyler Thorpe was the Dillan Bentley, newly signed from UMass-Lowell. Sammy Blais moved up to the first line while Joshua Roy slid down to the second. Luke Mittelstadt slotted in next Adam Engström as the defensive pairs continued to shift.
After a low-energy affair on Wednesday, Friday’s game launched out of the gate at warp speed with two goals in the first 90 seconds of play. First was Adam Beckman taking a pass from Liam Foudy in the offensive zone, and with little pressure around him he snapped his 26th goal of the year by Kaapo Kähkönen to open the scoring.
The Rocket, undeterred by this, instantly responded with Mittelstadt finding his first professional goal to knot up the game. Sean Farrell worked the puck along the boards, and off a deflection it found Alex Belzile in the slot. Belzile’s shot was saved, and Mittelstadt, having jumped up in the play, hammered it by Henri Tikkanen to tie the game.
While the Rocket and Islanders don’t play all that often, tempers were running high as the push to the post-season continued for both sides. First was Jared Davidson and Daylan Kuefler tossing off the gloves at centre ice after a faceoff, with Davidson taking the slight edge.
As the Rocket began to ramp up the physicality, the Islanders tried to match them after every whistle. While the Islanders tried to go after Bentley in his first professional game, it was Lucas Condotta stepping in. He grabbed Travis Mitchell, and in a spirited fight it was the Rocket captain landing the stronger punches and the takedown.
Just as the Rocket were beginning to ramp up the pressure to end the period with strong pushes inside the offensive zone, they were not rewarded with a goal but instead the game’s first penalty. Blais accidentally on purpose skated through the top of the crease and caught Tikkanen in the leg, resulting in a goaltender interference penalty.
Laval did well to kill off the first 46 seconds of Blais’s penalty, but had the remaining 1:14 to fend off in the second period. However, they were happy to take a tie game into the intermission after their early goal against.
A great penalty-killing shift by Condotta and Owen Beck to start the second period kept the Islanders from registering even a shot on goal as the play moved back to even strength. Laval continued to be the stronger team when they had the puck, but again broke up their own momentum with a third fight as Dineen dropped the gloves. While his travelling fanclub loved the scrap, it took some of the wind out of the Rocket’s sails and left them scrambling a bit to get their offence back in gear.
As has often been the case this year, it was the Rocket top line bailing the team out of a slump when they needed it. A neutral-zone turnover quickly turned the other way as Blais picked off an errant pass. He cut deep into the offensive zone and put a pass right on the stick of Alex Belzile at the back post to put the Rocket on top 2-1.
Belzile’s goal brought the swagger back to the Rocket attack, as they began to pile up chances in bunches as the second period ticked away. Condotta and Bentley both created looks on the same shift, with Condotta pushing a chance just wide and Bentley’s shot from range being tipped just wide of goal as well.
Even a Florian Xhekaj penalty could not slow down the Rocket attack as they continued to pressure the Islanders even while short-handed. Chances by Luke Tuch and Condotta kept Bridgeport on their heels, not allowing their man advantage any chance to set up as they easily killed off Xhekaj’s penalty.
The late push by the Rocket did not yield another goal, but heading into the second intermission the Rocket held a 21-12 shot advantage and a deserved 2-1 lead.
With just a one-goal lead the Rocket were going to need a strong start and some insurance to avoid a repeat of their loss on Wednesday. As the third period got under way, it was all Laval as they maintained long offensive shifts and began to increase the shot differential even further. However, Tikkanen remained a stubborn obstacle as he battled for every save, keeping the lead at a single goal as the first six minutes blew by in Bridgeport.
After a brief push back by the Islanders, a daring rush by Beck was able to draw a hooking call, and put the Rocket power play on the ice with a chance to score a much-needed insurance tally. With a chance to increase their lead and make the final half of the third period easier, the Rocket power play sputtered to a halt. Passes from every player were lacking any sort of emphasis and were easily cleared out of the zone, leaving the Rocket still sitting on a one-goal lead.
The lack of details became incredibly important as the final minutes approached, the Rocket could not cleanly clear the zone and the Islanders inched closer and closer to finding a tying goal. A lazy backhand clear was picked off by Marshall Warren at the blue line, Warren let a harmless shot go from distance and it bounced off William Trudeau’s leg and past Kähkönen to tie the game.
Despite a brief push after Warren’s goal, the final two minutes were all Bridgeport as they continued to force icings by the Rocket. Some timely saves by Kähkönen rescued at least a point for the Rocket as a second straight overtime game awaited them.
Attention to the details continued to lack for the Rocket in overtime as well, with Beck throwing away a possession in the offensive zone with an errant pass, and a missed pass for an odd-man rush turned into a desperation save by Kähkönen. The Rocket were blessed by the iron as well as an odd-man chance by Liam Foudy found the crossbar moments later. In the dying seconds, the Rocket had their best chance of overtime, a rebound shot by Beck that fell right to Blais with the net wide open. Unfortunately for Blais, the puck took a slight deflection and his shot fell harmlessly away.
The shootout remained a foe for the Rocket as both Blais and Belzile made one move too many and failed to score. In perhaps a cruel twist of irony, the game came down to Islanders forward Victor Eklund, acquired with a pick included in the Noah Dobson trade. Eklund broke in on his attempt and roofed his chance by Kähkönen to seal a second straight Rocket loss.
Final Score: Bridgeport 3, Laval 2 (SO)
The Rocket hopped on the bus after the game for a road trip to Pennsylvania. Laval will square off with the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins for the second time in recent weeks. with puck drop set for 6:05 PM ET.
