It had been slightly more than two weeks since the Laval Rocket had last taken the ice for a game of hockey to close out the regular season with a win over the Belleville Senators on the road. After clinching the North Division, top seed in the conference, and the regular-season trophy as the AHL’s top team, they got a break in the action. That time was used determined their opponent for their first playoff matchup, with Cleveland upsetting Toronto 2-0 in a best-of-three series.
The time off gave the Rocket a much-needed health boost as both Brandon Gignac and Rafaël Harvey-Pinard rejoined the lineup. Harvey-Pinard took his old spot on the second line alongside Lucas Condotta and Xavier Simoneau while Gignac centred the third line with Joshua Roy and Owen Beck. The defence was back to full strength with David Reinbacher and Adam Engström forming the top pair. However, with Cayden Primeau serving as an emergency backup for the Montreal Canadiens, the starting duties fell to Jacob Fowler, who was making just his fourth career start.
It was the Rocket top line that jumped out to a quick start, generating a long stay inside the offensive zone and testing Jet Greaves with multiple chances in close. Despite their strong start, a kerfuffle kicked off by a William Trudeau hit led to Reinbacher getting his stick up and taking a seat for cross-checking. The Monsters’ power play threatened to tilt the ice almost instantly as their power play peppered Fowler between the pipes.
Rocco Grimaldi put a hard shot on net that Fowler kicked out his pad to stop, right into the path of Trey Fix-Wolansky. The Cleveland forward had a full net to look at, but a desperation stick check by Tyler Wotherspoon deflected the shot wide and led to a Monsters penalty to put the Rocket on their first power play.
While the Rocket’s top unit put plenty of rubber on net, Greaves denied them the game’s first goal and the play returned to even strength without a goal on the board.
The period settled down slightly from the hectic opening minutes, with both sides only managing to get a few shots from range on net, and both goalies swallowing up anything that did get on goal. Just as it looked like the Monsters were going to break in on an odd-man break, Luca Pinelli slashed at Xavier Simoneau and put a dangerous-looking Laval power play back on the ice.
Once again, the chances were flowing with ease as the top unit put together a strong showing, but Greaves continued to be a stubborn opponent as he yielded no second chances. While the Rocket were guiding the game in their favour, they couldn’t help but end the period with a bit of indiscipline. Alex Barré-Boulet was dinged for roughing as the period came to a close, forcing the Rocket penalty kill into action after the intermission.
Laval’s penalty-killers were locked in right from the opening puck drop, with Greaves being forced into a diving save to rob Simoneau along the goal line. From there it was all Fowler as he battled through screens and quick passes to deny any of the Monsters’ shooters on the advantage. Then it was the speed of Gignac that drew another penalty for Laval as Roman Ahcan tackled him on a breakout.
At the risk of sounding like a broken record it was once again Greaves frustrating the Rocket shooters at every turn, and again killing off a strong Rocket power play. Shortly after Ahcan was freed from the box, an odd-man rush for the Monsters turned into another penalty kill as Jared Davidson took a slashing penalty behind the play to try to slow Cleveland down.
Cleveland’s man advantage came out flying after its first attempt was snuffed out by the Rocket. The speed of the Monsters was on full display as they knifed through the penalty-killers quickly, forcing Fowler to make a number of quick pad saves in close. While Cleveland was all over the Rocket, the penalty-killers made it through the rough patch with the game still scoreless.
The lack of discipline from the Rocket finally caught up with them with just over half the period gone as Reinbacher took a seat for hooking. Cleveland smelled blood in the water from their earlier power play and finally found a way to best the Rocket’s rookie netminder. Joseph LaBate set himself in front of the net and a shot from Luca del bel Belluz pinged off his stick and in to finally break the deadlock in favour of the home side.
With the Monsters on the board first, the Rocket kicked their game into another gear and began pressing Cleveland shift after shift looking for a tying goal. As it had all year, the Rocket top line was the one to finally find the back of the net off a strong offensive-zone shift. The draw was won back to Engström, who slid up into the zone before leaving the puck off for Laurent Dauphin. His initial shot was saved, but Sean Farrell swooped in to pot the rebound and get the Rocket on the board.
On one of the next shifts, a slashing call sent the Rocket back to the power play with just a minute left to play in the second period. It was the top unit of the power play that finally clicked this time and Laval snatched the lead back. Logan Mailloux pivoted on the point, feeding a pass off to Barré-Boulet who in turn put a slap-pass right into the slot. Farrell was all alone with his stick on the ice and redirected the pass by Greaves and the Rocket entered the second intermission with all the momentum.
Right out of the gate in the third period, the Rocket top line came out flying and forced the Monsters defence into several turnovers inside their defensive zone. Barré-Boulet came closest to furthering the lead as he looked to wrap the puck around into the net, but a lunging pad by Greaves denied him at the last moment.
While the Rocket were pushing, it was an out-of-place mistake by Greaves that added to the Rocket lead. As a puck came behind his net, he played it, but his pass landed right in the lap of Gignac. The veteran forward quickly fired a pass to the net, where Beck quickly redirected it with his skate and made it a 3-1 contest.
With a two-goal lead in their pocket, the Rocket defence switched into lockdown mode and smothered every potential Cleveland counter as the minutes bled away on the clock. Even when the Monsters broke into the zone, Fowler was there to fend off anything put on net.
With just under five minutes left, the Monsters opted to pull Greaves to try to press the issue as the Rocket tightened up their defensive shell. For nearly two minutes straight the Rocket handled the extra attacker with ease, but a Farrell penalty suddenly gave Cleveland a six-on-four advantage. The extra attackers proved to be too much as Fix-Wolansky teed up Denton Mateychuk for a one-timer that the Monsters defender put just under the crossbar to cut the lead to one.
Cleveland again pulled Greaves for the final minute of regulation, but despite their continued pressure there was not another goal to be found. The Monsters pushed the puck in deep, but a bobbled puck forced Grimaldi to chase it back to the point, where all he could do was throw one last shot at the pads of Fowler as the horn sounded on a series-opening win for Laval.
Final Score: Laval 3, Cleveland 2
Laval leads the best-of-five series 1-0
Thursday is a day off for the Rocket, and Game 2 of this series will take place in Cleveland with puck drop scheduled for 7 PM ET. It’s unclear who the Canadiens will be returning to the Rocket with both Cayden Primeau and Jakub Dobeš eligible for the AHL playoffs.
