The Rocket, following what was arguably their worst loss of the season so far on Wednesday night against Rochester, were back in action against the Hartford Wolf Pack on Saturday. It had been a particularly frustrating stretch for the team in the last month, with them having lost seven of their last 10 games and needing to get back on track urgently.
The defence continued to be shuffled around as Pascal Vincent sought a way to tidy up the issues on the back end. William Trudeau was paired up with Josh Jacobs, Tyler Wotherspoon sided with Adam Engström, while on the third pairing it was Logan Mailloux and Zack Hayes. Gustav Lindström and Noel Hoefenmayer were healthy scratches while Jakub Dobeš also missed out due to injury. Connor Hughes was again turned to as the starter while Luke Cavallin served as his backup once more.
Needing a strong start after their last loss, the Rocket came out of the gate strong against the Wolf Pack as they generated several scoring chances in the opening minutes. Their continued pressure and composure in the offensive zone led to them also drawing a penalty to head to the game’s first power play inside of five minutes. While the Rocket’s patience helped them draw the power play, their continued patience on the man advantage made life easy on Dylan Garand and the Wolf Pack penalty-killers.
The game then went an oddly testy route with Lucas Condotta throwing off his gloves with Jaroslav Chmelar after a clean hit at centre ice. While it seemed like Hartford would surely get their first shot on goal, they instead took another penalty as Matt Rempe drew blood while high-sticking Hayes after a hit. The power play ineptitude continued to be a running trend as the Wolf Pack ended up being the only team to create a real shot on goal during the four-minute Rocket power play.
To make matters worse, as the play returned to even strength, the Wolf Pack finally generated a serious offensive push. As the puck bounced around the front of goal, Connor Hughes wasn’t able to smother it and Adam Sýkora pushed it home to give Hartford a lead.
Despite Laval dominating most of the first period, they once again found themselves heading into an intermission break trailing on the scoreboard.
After dominating the opening frame, the Rocket stumbled out into the second period with Laurent Dauphin taking a holding penalty just 46 seconds after the opening faceoff. Hughes came up big to help the Rocket penalty-killers fend off the minor penalty and keep the deficit at just one goal. As Dauphin exited the box, the counter-attack nearly tied the game as a cross-ice feed found Sean Farrell, who rifled it off the underside of the crossbar, but the puck bounced away harmlessly.
Another golden opportunity for the Rocket on the power play went by the wayside, and almost immediately after the play went back to five-on-five, Xavier Simoneau found himself in the box. Unlike the Rocket, the Wolf Pack needed just 10 seconds to score as Jake Leschyshyn tipped a Matthew Robertson shot past Hughes to make it a 2-0 game.
Hughes wouldn’t remain in the game much longer as Alex Belzile piled on a third goal just two minutes later. The former Rocket captain intercepted an errant keep-in, breaking in on an odd-man rush and wiring a shot cleanly by Hughes to send the Rocket netminder to an early shower. Cavallin entered the game with the Rocket desperately needing to find a way to right the sinking ship.
The Rocket didn’t make things easy on Cavallin as Jared Davidson took a holding the stick penalty and forced Laval back to the penalty kill. Cavallin looked outstanding, however, using some quick pads to deny Leschyshyn another deflected goal. It was going to be a major uphill battle for the Rocket heading into the third period as they trailed by three goals.
The Rocket found one goal in an unexpected form thanks to Hayes, who had taken to double-shifting as Josh Jacobs had exited the game with a hand injury. Rafaël Harvey-Pinard spun through a check, leaving the puck for Hayes who walked in and fired it through a screen to get Laval on the board.
The Rocket couldn’t convert on another power play, going to zero-for-six on the night, but they were clearly tilting control of the game back in their favour. Then, it was another goal from an unexpected source as Farrell snapped a 31-game goalless drought to make it a one-goal contest. Farrell kept a play from William Trudeau alive, and flung a long-range, rising shot on net that fooled Dylan Garand to make it a 3-2 game.
The Rocket pushed, looking for a third, game-tying goal, but Garand continued to be a wall in net. Eventually Cavallin was called to the bench for the extra attacker as Laval tried to complete the third-period comeback.
A dubious holding call on Davidson, who was being taken down by Sýkora, made it a four on four situation, then five-on-four for the Rocket with just over a minute remaining. The Rocket came within a toe of tying things up as Owen Beck deflected a Logan Mailloux shot on goal. Ben Harpur grabbed the rebound and threw it the length of the ice into the net to put the game away.
Final Score: Hartford 4, Laval 2
There are fresh injury concerns now for the Rocket who lost Jacobs due to a hand injury, while Farrell took a shot up high as well. The team will travel to Bridgeport for a meeting with the Islanders today with a 3:00 PM puck drop scheduled.
