After starting the series on the road in Cleveland, the Laval Rocket returned to the raucous confined of Place Bell with a 2-0 series lead, and a chance to close it out with a win on Sunday. Most impressive was that the Rocket managed to get the lead without either of their top two goalies from the regular season and with a lineup that was shifting as people returned from injury.
While Jacob Fowler had safely guided the Rocket to their two wins on the road, the returning Cayden Primeau got the nod in net as he looked to close out the series. The lineup did see a slight change as well, with Brandon Gignac being withdrawn in favour of the newly arrived Oliver Kapanen. The rookie slotted into Gignac’s spot with Owen Beck and Joshua Roy on the third line. Beyond that, the Rocket lineup remained the same for head coach Pascal Vincent.
It was not the most graceful of starts for the the Rocket as their opponents came out swinging with their playoff lives on the line. If not for the calmness of Primeau in net, the Monsters might have run away with the game early on.
The Rocket found themselves frustrated by post-whistle shenanigans, and their first major retaliation was caught, putting Jared Davidson in the box and the Rocket on the penalty kill. Primeau’s calm glove helped the Rocket dispatch the penalty with ease, and then allowed Florian Xhekaj to vent his frustrations into the face of Joseph LaBate.
Laval’s top line then continued to shift the momentum as Alex Barré-Boulet stole the puck to kick off an odd-man rush, and while he flubbed his shot, the trailing man managed to draw a penalty for the Rocket’s first man advantage on the night. While the Rocket peppered Jet Greaves with repeated opportunities, the Cleveland netminder kept the game scoreless, but the momentum was clearly turning deeper in favour of the home side.
Kapanen was making the most of his debut, generating multiple clean looks on Greaves, but nothing that snuck behind the goalie. As the period wore down it became more of a trudging march through mud as Cleveland began to clog the game up with their possession. On one of the few occasions that the Monsters held the puck, Adam Engström gave Rocco Grimaldi a slight tug on the sleeve and was whistled for holding.
The Rocket’s penalty-killers dispatched the Cleveland advantage to close out the first period. While the game was scoreless it felt like the Rocket weren’t far off from breaking things open in the next period.
While the first period was end to end in terms of pace and action, the second period was the polar opposite as it took on a much more deliberate pace. While the Rocket had the puck more, their chances ended up blocked more often than not by the Monsters’ defence while Laval struggled to find the same pressure as before. For the Rocket, however, a series of five crosschecks by Luca Pinelli on Xavier Simoneau was noticed by the officials, and the Rocket headed back to the power play.
Laval’s man advantage was firing on all cylinders once again, but the incredible work of Greaves continued in net for Cleveland, including a desperation sliding save with his pads to take away a goal from Laurent Dauphin. As the advantage expired it was again Kapanen creating chances as he slipped in to grab a loose puck, but a quick save from Greaves denied the rookie forward. Laval’s power play again slightly tilted the ice, but with a series sweep on the line there were no goals to be seen.
The Rocket’s inability to get second and third chances by Greaves was becoming an issue as he continued to fluster any of the Rocket’s prime scoring chances. In fact, off one of Greaves’s big saves, the Monsters launched an instant counter-attack. Roman Ahcan pushed the play up ice, drawing Primeau hard to his post. Ahcan circled the net, creating a scramble in front of goal where the Rocket were unable to corral the loose puck. It eventually came to Dylan Gambrell in the slot and the Cleveland forward blistered his shot off the crossbar and in to open the scoring.
Gambrell’s goal snapped the Rocket back to attention and on the ensuing shift Sean Farrell drew a penalty. While the Rocket couldn’t find a goal with the extra skater, they were going to start the final period of regulation with a nearly full power play.
Laval had little issue generating looks on net, but Greaves gave them nothing in terms of second chances, and the Monsters’ defence was able to sweep all the loose pucks away to continue a frustrating afternoon for the Rocket. Laval was far from out of the game however, and they continued to push the Monsters back as they tried to break down the Cleveland defence.
The Rocket finally thought they had broken through the wall that was Jet Greaves as Joshua Roy turned and fired a shot on goal. With the puck still loose, Roy dove in and pushed it seemingly over the line. The referee was not in position to make a call along the goal line, and blew the play dead. After a brief review the play was ruled no goal and left the Rocket still searching for a game-tying tally.
That search grew to needing two goals shortly after Roy’s goal was disallowed as the Monsters took advantage of an aggressive Rocket offensive-zone shift and created an odd-man rush. While David Reinbacher closed down the gap on Luca Pinelli, there was no one to cover Gambrell, who easily tapped in the feed with Primeau caught in no man’s land.
Again, the Rocket took the goal against as a strong launching pad to try to cut into the deficit, including a knifing run by Logan Mailloux that drew a hooking penalty and put Laval on their biggest power play of the day. It turned out to be a disaster as Roy’s dump-in was sent instantly the other way for a short-handed breakaway and Ahcan made it a 3-0 game.
Laval finally managed to get on the board with just over six minutes left to play in regulation, and did it despite Greaves continuing to be a frustrating obstacle. Dauphin flicked a pass to the slot, allowing a shot to ping in on Greaves, while Dauphin tried to chase down a rebound. A Cleveland player’s clearing attempt hit off a fellow player and just barely trickled in behind Greaves to make it a 3-1 contest.
On the very next shift, the Rocket nearly cut into the lead once again as Lucas Condotta worked off the wall and threw a pass across the zone to William Trudeau. The Rocket defenceman got all of his shot, but a sprawling Greaves caught just enough of the puck with his glove to push it over the net and kept the Rocket searching for more answers.
It continued to be all about Greaves as the final minutes approached, with Cleveland’s goalie robbing Beck and Kapanen on back-to-back chances while he was backed up inside his own net.
Eventually the Rocket got a firm enough grasp on the game to pull Primeau for the extra attacker as they tried for a comeback win. Greaves made sure that wasn’t a possibility as he slammed the door shut and prevented the Rocket from completing the sweep.
Final Score: Cleveland 3, Laval 1
Laval leads the best-of-five series 2-1
The Rocket will have Monday to regroup before they welcome Cleveland back to Place Bell on Tuesday night with another chance at advancing on the line. Puck drop is set for 7 PM ET.
