The Laval Rocket left the friendly confines of Place Bell to head on the road in the midst of what was their biggest challenge of the season so far, without Joshua Roy, Alex Belzile, and Laurent Dauphin, who were suspended for Thursday’s game and the rematch on Saturday as well. That meant the top line featured Florian Xhekaj as the centre, flanked by Sammy Blais and Sean Farrell.
On defence it was David Reinbacher and Tobie Bisson on the first pairing, with William Trudeau and Josiah Dider forming a reliable second pair behind them. The biggest change in the lineup was in net, however, as Samuel Montembeault was the Rocket starter as part of his conditioning stint.
It was a quiet start for both sides as the Rocket found many of their passes just missing the sticks of their teammates, while the Monsters weren’t able to test Montembeault with much in the opening minutes.
The Rocket were able to draw the game’s first power play as James Malatesta was called for hooking inside the Rocket zone. Laval’s man advantage looked fairly strong considering the players missing from the units. While Ivan Fedotov didn’t look overly settled, the Rocket could not sneak a puck past him on the advantage, with Farrell’s chance fluttering just wide of the net as the power play came to an end. Laval did take advantage of the shift in momentum with Riley Kidney sending Joe Dunlap in on a partial breakaway. Dunlap, an Ohio State graduate, buried his chance on the backhand to open the scoring.
The Rocket had taken the lead, but the Monsters stayed right on their heels as the home side looked to find a tying goal. As Cleveland tried to pull Montembeault all over his crease, the Rocket netminder swallowed up shots or parried them into low-danger areas to diffuse the pressure with ease.
While Cleveland was growing into the game, another offensive-zone penalty brought their pressure to a halt as Roman Ahcan headed to the penalty box. Laval’s puck movement again looked crisp with the advantage, but Fedotov was not handing out any second-chance opportunities as Laval’s power play failed to score a second time.
Failing to convert would soon come back to bite the Rocket as Cleveland finally broke down their defence to tie the game. Justin Pearson fended off Xhekaj behind the net, allowing him to shovel it around the net to Jack Williams. The Monsters forward found a cutting Hudson Fasching going to the net, and Montembeault wasn’t able swim back across to save Fasching’s attempt as he tied the game.
Fedotov had been solid for the Monsters, but he nearly handed the Rocket an empty-net goal in the dying seconds of the period. A dumped-in puck forced him out of his crease to play it, but he directed it right to a Rocket stick. Laval managed to miss both Monsters players diving to cover the open net, but the shot went just wide as the horn sounded, sending the two sides into the intermission tied up.
The second period did not feature much in terms of offensive chances through the opening minutes, with Montembeault making a big glove save after a David Reinbacher turnover. At the other end, Fedotov gave the Rocket a few rebounds, but Farrell and Blais could not jam the loose puck beyond the Cleveland goalie.
With Xhekaj and Pearson sitting for roughing each other up, the Monsters took advantage of the extra ice to gain the lead. Owen Sillinger took a leading feed, creating an odd-man rush with Nate Clurman trying to cut down as much of the passing lane as he could. Sillinger looked off Luca Pinelli and ripped a shot off the far post beyond Montembeault to put Cleveland on top 2-1.
Laval’s fourth line of ECHL call-ups was pushing for chances on every shift, and their efforts drew another Rocket power play. Before they could even really set up on their man advantage, Filip Mešár caught Ahcan up high with his stick, sending it to four-on-four again.
Neither team created much with the extra space, but Cleveland nearly doubled its lead on the short power play that ended the sequence. Luca Del Bel Belluz put a shot on net that Montembeault kicked out his pad on and the rebound went back to a dangerous area. Laval was lucky to clear it, keeping their deficit at just one goal late in the second period.
It looked like the Rocket had found their tying goal as Farrell snuck a shot by Fedotov from the high slot. The goal was wiped out due to a penalty being called at the same time as Farrell’s chance, with Blais being sent to the box for cross-checking. The Rocket found themselves on a critical penalty kill, trying to keep the game within a goal as the end of the second period approached.
Laval’s penalty-killers, and Montembeault in particular, came up big as they killed off Blais’s minor penalty, and then promptly drew a call of their own to end the period on the power play. In the brief moment the Rocket had, they didn’t create many chances, but with 1:33 of power play time left to start the third period.
Laval again continued to struggle on the man advantage, barely managing to threaten Fedotov to begin the third. However, they continued to get some strong contributions from a cobbled-together bottom six with Tyler Thorpe showing off some dazzling skills. On a dumped-in puck it was Thorpe fighting through a check to lift a shot over Fedotov to tie things up.
Unfortunately for the Rocket, they spoiled the excellent goal by Thorpe almost immediately. Ahcan slid in behind the defence, with Pinelli feeding him a pass that allowed him to glide by a floundering Montembeault and make it a 3-2 game.
Things did not get much better for Laval from there as Ryan O’Rourke was called for slashing, putting Laval’s penalty-killers in a high-leverage spot. From the top of the zone, Will Butcher walked in and let a shot go that was heading far right of the goal. It caught just a piece of Bisson to deflect in to wide-open net, as Montembeault had slid to the wrong side of the crease on Butcher’s shot.
Pascal Vincent eventually pulled his goalie looking to spark an improbable comeback with four minutes left to play. The Monsters swarmed the Rocket for every loose puck, and eventually it was Pearson giving the puck to Williams to seal the game with an empty-netter.
Final Score: Cleveland 5, Laval 2
The Rocket will have their chance to draw even on Saturday evening when the two sides square off again at 4 PM ET. It is expected that Montembeault will get the nod again as he completes his conditioning stint before rejoining the Canadiens in Pittsburgh.
