Coming off a 7-1 thrashing of the Toronto Marlies, the Laval Rocket were back in action and looking to close the gap on the two teams in front of them in the chase for a playoff berth. The Rocket were still without Joshua Roy and Brandon Gignac who were on recall with the Montreal Canadiens and also team captain Gabriel Bourque who was sidelined for a few weeks with an injury.
The lines got a slight shuffle, with Alex-Olivier Voyer slotting in on the fourth line after being called up from the ECHL. Meanwhile Tobie Paquette-Bisson was demoted to the third pair, while Olivier Galipeau moved onto the second pair with Logan Mailloux. Jakub Dobeš got the nod in net, with Kasimir Kaskisuo serving as his backup on the night.
Things got off to a bad start for the Rocket against the Hartford Wolf Pack, falling behind just 52 seconds into the game. Matthew Robertson held the puck near the point, and put a shot toward Dobeš that turned into a rebound. Justin Barron lost track of Anton Blidh behind him, allowing the Hartford forward to sweep in the loose puck inside the first minute of play.
Laval’s struggles continued as Hartford began to generate odd-man rushes with relative ease as the Rocket could not keep their defensive shape in order. Eventually that repeated pressure drew the game’s first penalty with Mattias Norlinder going off for slashing. Dobeš and the Rocket penalty-killers didn’t give much space to the Wolf Pack power play, keeping their deficit at just one goal as the offence tried to find its legs. The chances slowly started to flow, but Louis Domingue and the Hartford defence prevented follow-up chances.
After a brief fight between Connor Mackey and Riley McKay, the Rocket soon found themselves back on the penalty kill with Lucas Condotta taking a trip to the penalty box. The penalty-killers again rose to the task with the Wolf Pack failing to generating much in the way of dangerous attacks, and then launching their own counter-attack which led to Laval drawing their first power play of the night.
While the offence had slowly been growing into the game, the Rocket’s first man advantage kicked it fully into gear. Laval moved the puck around the offensive zone with authority, keeping the Wolf Pack on their heels and creating pockets of space for the Rocket’s weapons to work in. Philippe Maillet found one of those pockets just outside the faceoff circle, and he fed a pass to Mitchell Stephens at the goal line, with Stephens then snapping a shot through Domingue to tie the game up.
While the Rocket were trailing on the shot counter, they looked primed to take over in the second period as the momentum seemed to be tilting in their favour.
While the Rocket fell behind on shots in the opening minutes of the period, they were again doing all they could to keep those chances to the outside and make life easier on Dobeš. The brief spurts of pressure Laval did generate eventually led to their second power play of the game, but this time the Wolf Pack kept the Rocket off the scoreboard.
While the game remained tied, the Rocket’s care with the puck put them in tough spots. Barron’s errant clearing pass up the middle of the ice forced Xavier Simoneau into taking a hooking penalty to stop a potential scoring chance. On the following penalty kill, another lazy clearing attempt turned into an open one-timer look for the Wolf Pack, but an incredible pad save by Dobeš maintained the 1-1 scoreline.
Against the run of play, the Rocket somehow found themselves in the lead. A loose puck in the Rocket zone was claimed by Stephens, who turned and fired a near-perfect stretch pass to Jared Davidson. The rookie forward had a step on the nearest defender to him, and he used that space to step up and wire one by Domingue to make it a 2-1 game for Laval.
The lead soon became two as the Rocket struck again against a stunned Hartford side. Riley Kidney circled the top of the offensive zone and picked out a wide-open Tobie Paquette-Bisson at the point. The veteran defenceman had all day to pick his spot, and snapped his sixth goal of the year by Domingue to give the Rocket a bit of insurance heading into the third period.
Hartford came out of the gate firing quickly, trying to stem the tide that was firmly turning against them. That early pressure drew a penalty, with Olivier Galipeau heading to the box and giving Hartford a crucial early power play. Again the Rocket penalty-killers were dialed in, giving the Wolf Pack nothing to work with as Laval held onto their two-goal lead.
Just as the Rocket were starting to generate more chances following their penalty kill, Jan Mysak was called for boarding, and also added a roughing minor in the ensuing tussle which put Laval back on the penalty kill once again. An active Rocket penalty kill turned their disadvantage into a power play of their own thanks to the speed of Nathan Légaré on a short-handed chance.
The Rocket power play repaid the favour given to them by the penalty-killers as they pushed the lead to three goals, thanks to a pair of rookies. Kidney cut deep into the offensive zone, and fired a pass across the zone to Davidson. Davidson ripped in his second goal of the night to make it a 4-1 game.
As the Wolf Pack’s late-game attacks became more and more desperate, the Rocket found themselves trying to weather a heavy storm. While Dobeš remained locked in and did a commendable job at keeping Hartford from adding to their goal total, a tic-tac-toe passing play to Brett Berard cut the Rocket lead down to two goals.
Hartford eventually got Domingue to the bench for the extra attacker, but the Rocket stymied them once again before they could set up a real attack in the final minutes. Davidson eventually completed his hat trick as he fired a long-range shot into the empty net to seal the win for Laval.
Final Score: Laval 5, Hartford 2
The Rocket now continue their three-games-in-three-nights road trip as they head to Wilkes-Barre/Scranton for a 6:05pm showdown with the Penguins.
