Friday night was a bump in the road for the Laval Rocket as they managed to knock only point off their magic number as they dropped a heated affair to the Cleveland Monsters in overtime. While the Rocket and their fans felt hard done by thanks to some poor officiating, they only had to wait until Saturday afternoon for the rematch. With a win, and some help from Toronto, the Rocket could see their magic number reduced to as little as seven points.
The Rocket defensive lineup got a shuffling as Gustav Lindström returned after a long injury layoff, he took a spot on the top pair with Tyler Wotherspoon. Zack Hayes slotted in for David Reinbacher alongside Adam Engström and Noel Hoefenmayer got the evening off. Logan Mailloux reunited with William Trudeau on the third pairing, while Connor Hughes got the expected start for Laval.
Laval needed a quick start to the game after failing to cash in on their early opportunities on Friday night, and their first shift didn’t seem encouraging. But with the top line on the ice, the Rocket struck as quick as a flash of lightning. Sean Farrell collected a chipped in pass, flicking it to Alex Barré-Boulet who had Laurent Dauphin cutting to the back post. Barré-Boulet put the pass right on a tee for Dauphin to poke by the pad of Pavel Cajan to give the Rocket a lead on their first shot of the game.
As the first period continued to tick onward, the Rocket were giving the Monsters nothing in terms of space and time. Cleveland, after setting a physical tone on Friday, was unwilling to match it on Saturday and it allowed the Rocket to double their advantage quickly.
Vincent Arseneau came barrelling into the offensive zone, driving back Madison Bowey and allowing him to keep the puck alive in a cycle. The puck made it to Xavier Simoneau who lifted a perfectly weighted saucer pass to Wotherspoon near the point. Wotherspoon waited, then fired a shot off a Cleveland skate at the back post to make it a 2-0 Rocket lead.
Even a Xavier Simoneau penalty could not slow down the Rocket onslaught as Laurent Dauphin and Florian Xhekaj beat Cleveland to loose pucks in their own zone, and just missed out on furthering the lead by inches on their chances. Simoneau was able to exit the box with the Monsters having managed just one shot on net.
As he is wont to do, Simoneau on his next shift decided to get under the skin of James Malatesta as both players were going off for a change. Malatesta lashed out and the Rocket then headed to their first power play of the night. While it looked miles better than their Friday’s efforts, the Rocket man advantage wasn’t able to to further their lead as the final minutes of the first period approached.
While the Rocket ended the first period easily in control, they did lose Jared Davidson to what looked like a potentially serious lower-body injury as he was tangled up in a scrum for the puck. While he freed the puck up for his teammate, he either caught a skate or fell awkwardly and that forced him to limp off to the locker room. The team as a whole was happy to end the first period with a lopsided shot advantage and a two-goal advantage.
The second period began with Davidson back on the ice, seemingly avoiding a potentially bad injury, and the Rocket also heading to the power play as Bowey threw a high elbow at Simoneau. The Rocket power play made sure to punish Bowey’s transgression, with the returning Davidson providing an emphatic statement. Filip Mesar reversed the puck through the zone to Adam Engström at the point, with Engström fooling everyone with a fake shot in order to tee up the blistering one-timer from Davidson.
Nineteen seconds later the Rocket piled another goal on the Monsters, venting any frustrations they still had after Friday’s game. A quick countering breakout by Lindström allowed Dauphin to blow by the Monsters defence and squeak one through Cajan to make it a 4-0 game.
Even back-to-back penalties by the Rocket couldn’t slow down their continual march of goals as they killed off two Monsters power plays without really breaking a sweat either time. As the second penalty expired, the all-kid line went right back to work and a great feed from Mesar to Davidson allowed the latter to bury his second goal of the day.
As the second frame came to a close, it was a commanding lead for the Rocket as their five goals matched the total shots generated by their opponent through 40 minutes.
Cleveland chose to not help their case as the third period began as Malatesta continued to let Simoneau drive him nuts and forcing him into taking poorly timed penalties. Laval, while still icing their regular lines and special team units, were happy to use the man advantage to wind some time off the clock and escape without further bloodshed.
Even without their foot on the gas, the Rocket were able to limit any sort of attack by the Monsters and efficiently counter-attack when the opportunity arose. Mesar’s strong game continued in that regard as he drew another penalty with a knifing run through the offensive zone. Pascal Vincent, not trying to be unsportsmanlike, sent out his fourth line to start the following power play.
The puck left the zone off a clean win by Xhekaj and made its way to the stick of Engström deep in the neutral zone. Engström sped off, weaving through the Monsters defence, dangling through an opponent’s legs and then buried a highlight-reel goal for some extra salt in the wound for Cleveland.
Sespite the Rocket’s willingness to let the game end without incident, Cleveland decided they had to air out some grievances. Bowey and Cole Clayton decided to antagonize Arseneau after avoiding him for the previous 59 minutes, earning everyone involved an early shower, and for Arseneau a small victory lap.
Final Score: Laval 6, Cleveland 0
Laval’s win brought their magic number down into the single digits, and it dropped down to the ideal outcome of seven as Toronto beat Belleville soon aftrward. It could drop down even further as Cleveland and Belleville are set to square off on Sunday.
The Rocket are now off until next Friday when they’ll welcome the Toronto Marlies to Place Bell.
League standings
