Fresh off of the AHL All-Star Game and riding a five-game winning streak, the Laval Rocket returned back to the ice with a six-point lead atop the AHL’s North Division. A win over their opponents, the Hershey Bears, would set Laval up with a potential eight-point gap heading in to the weekend. However, the Bears remained one of the AHL’s premier clubs and were not a team to be taken lightly.
The Rocket received a major boost to their lineup as Tobie Bisson returned from injury and slotted in on the second pair with Marc Del Gaizo, leaving AHL All-Star Adam Engström on the first pair with David Reinbacher. Jared Davidson also returned to the lineup sporting a face shield after taking the worse end of a fight against Toronto. Despite sitting out the festivities in Rockford, Jacob Fowler was good to go and got the nod in net with Kaapo Kähkönen backing him up.
It didn’t take long for the Rocket to pick up where they had left off before the break, jumping out to a very early lead. A play off the draw inside the offensive zone allowed Florian Xhekaj to rotate and shift the puck back to the point. Del Gaizo took the pass in his skates before settling it and snapping a shot by Clay Stevenson for his fifth goal of the season. While it looked like the shot might have been deflected, the AHL kept the goal credited to Del Gaizo.
The Rocket continued to pour on the pressure with the top line generating a few chances, while Sammy Blais was playing like a Bear-seeking missile on every shift, finishing every check he could. This of course brought the temperature of the game up, resulting in David Gucciardi and Tyler Thorpe dropping the gloves, with Thorpe landing multiple uppercuts to end their tussle.
Laval kept the pressure even as the first period wound down, with Blais missing a shot just wide at the back post off a great feed by Lucas Condotta. At the other end of the ice, Fowler wasn’t overly busy as he made just six saves in the first period, with nothing really forcing him to exert real effort through 20 minutes.
The start to the second period wasn’t as smooth for the Rocket as David Reinbacher got his stick across the back of Brett Leason and found himself in the box for cross-checking. After being quiet for most of the first period it was Fowler making a difference on the penalty kill as he fought off three strong looks by the Bears to keep the Rocket lead intact.
With Reinbacher out of the box the offence went right back to work with Sean Farrell just missing on the short side, and then Thorpe clanging a shot off the post as well. Laval’s pressure yielded a power play for them, and a chance to increase their lead after a shaky start to the period.
The man advantage was out of sync for the Rocket, giving them plenty of open passing lanes but no one really in a spot to shoot at the end of any passes. As the play returned to even strength it was the Rocket caught flatfooted this time. A four-on-two rush resulted in Andrew Cristall getting a clean look on net, but the leg pads of Fowler denied him to keep the Rocket lead intact.
Following Fowler’s big save it was the Rocket going back to work offensively, and for their efforts a pair of penalties by Dalton Smith gave Laval four minutes of power play time. After missing three prime chances on the opening shift, Farrell finally found his mark in the slot. Alex Belzile, sitting on the wall, fed Farrell charging in to the slot, with Farrell sneaking his shot under the arm of Stevenson to make it 2-0.
There was still another full two minutes for the Rocket to work with, but 35 seconds into the second penalty Jared Davidson was busted for hooking inside his own half of the ice. With the extra ice, the Rocket stretched out the Bears’ defence on a rush by Laurent Dauphin, who was hauled down cutting to the net without a call. While nothing came of the brief Hershey power play, Leason took an extra chop at Fowler and then found himself in the penalty box with the Rocket back on the advantage.
Leason’s penalty was punished almost instantly as the Rocket power play struck with near lethal precision. Blais cycled the puck back to the point for Engström, who held it for just a moment before putting a pass right on the tape for Belzile. The Rocket’s leading scorer took the pass and in one fluid motion lifted a backhand shot past Stevenson to make it 3-0.
Nate Clurman took a leading pass from Blais on one of the next shifts. Clurman rounded his defender and snuck a shot under the crossbar for his first goal of the season to make it 4-0.
On the very next shift the Bears took yet another penalty as the game was slowly turning into a rout. While Hershey was fending off the first power play, Leason again took a slashing call and extended the Rocket advantage another two minutes. The Rocket, perhaps trying to just run out the clock ahead of their game on Saturday, had a few looks, but were unable to advance their lead on the power play once again.
The lax attitude to end the period ended up costing Fowler a potential shutout as a blocked shot wasn’t cleared away by Thorpe or Del Gaizo. It allowed Graeme Clarke to grab the loose puck and fire it by Fowler to cut the lead down to 4-1 heading into the second intermission.
Laval learned its lesson from the previous period as it ran the score up to 5-1 just over two minutes in. Owen Beck swiped the puck off Matthew Strome in the neutral zone, breaking in on an odd-man rush and burying his chance by Stevenson.
Then, things got very stupid as Justin Nachbaur lost total control of his emotions in a scrum. First the Bears forward sucker-punched William Trudeau, and as the officials stepped in to pull him away he also challenged Fowler, before shoving an official into the net and earning himself a game misconduct.
Things only spiralled from there as Dalton Smith took a head-hunting run at Dauphin, forcing the AHL’s leading scorer to duck out of the way and catch a knee in the chest anyway. At the other end of the ice a heavy hit by Beck then drew a crowd after the whistle, including Smith trying to fight Joshua Roy as Roy tried to skate toward the scrum. It all resulted in Beck getting dinged for roughing, and Hershey headed to the power play.
Laval’s penalty-killers were raring to go and they fought off the Hershey power play with little issue as they tried to get out this game without any major injuries or suspensions. Back at even strength it was the Rocket third line getting in on the fun as Condotta stole a puck and fed it across the crease to Blais, who buried it easily.
The Bears continued to try and extract their pound of flesh in whichever way they could. After skating through Fowler, Alexander Suzdalev was pulled away by Engström, earning the Rocket defenceman a roughing penalty. Once again, Laval’s special teams were lights out as they continued to push the Bears’ power play, generating short-handed rushes and springing Engström from the box unscathed.
The Rocket were doing their best to just run out the clock, but with 17 seconds left the officials let no less than a half-dozen cross-checks go uncalled on Davidson, which kicked off an end-of-game kerfuffle. That resulted in Davidson and Blais getting sent to the locker room early, with Blais giving the Bears’ bench an earful as he left the ice.
Final Score: Laval 6, Hershey 1
The Rocket get just a bit of rest after a heated and physical game before they play again on Saturday afternoon. Waiting for them on Valentine’s Day just happens to be the Toronto Marlies, a team against which there’s been plenty of bad blood already this year. Puck drop is set for 3 PM ET, and will also be streamed by the AHL for free on multiple social media sites.
