Fresh off a hard-fought win over the Lehigh Valley Phantoms on Saturday night in Allentown, the Laval Rocket rolled in to the next stop on a Pennsylvania road trip in Hershey. The Bears, as always, were in the thick of things in a highly competitive Atlantic Division, and were led in scoring by Ilya Protas who had 19 points on the season.
For the Rocket, Pascal Vincent made zero changes to his lineup heading into the Sunday showdown, keeping his lines and defensive pairings the same as Saturday. The one change the Rocket coach made was the expected one, with Kaapo Kähkönen getting the start in net after Jacob Fowler got the shootout win the previous night.
It was a relatively tentative start for the Rocket as they found space easy to come by in the offensive zone but weren’t able to connect their passes in order to generate shots on Clay Stevenson in the Bears’ net. Unfortunately for the Rocket, the first shot that made its way to Kähkönen also found the back of the net. Louie Belpedio entered the zone, firing a long shot through a moving screen that Kähkönen never saw and it beat the Finnish netminder blocker-side to open the scoring.
The chances were not many for either side as the first period ticked on. The Bears struggled to find an easy entrance to the Rocket zone, while the Rocket struggled to find their finishing touch. Laval’s best chance came as Owen Beck picked off a pass up the boards, starting an odd-man rush where Beck put a shot off of Stevenson’s pads. Joshua Roy just flicked the follow-up chance wide of the open net, leaving the Rocket still hunting for an opening goal.
Laval kept the pressure on as the minutes ticked off in the first period and, thanks to a knifing run by Tobie Bisson, also went to the game’s first power play as he drew a hooking call. After a strong power play showing on Saturday, the Rocket man advantage came out of the gate extremely disjointed, with passes missing teammates by several feet as Laval managed just one shot on net before Protas exited the box.
Following their unsuccessful power play, it was the Rocket in full control of the game as they began to put more pucks on Stevenson as the first period neared an end. Unfortunately for the Rocket, Stevenson wasn’t providing any second chances so Laval headed into the first intermission still in search of their first goal of the night.
Out of the gate in the second period it was all Rocket as they continued to pound shots on Stevenson, with Belzile coming within inches of opening the scoring. Just as the Rocket were starting to find their legs, Beck was whistled for holding behind the Rocket net and put the Rocket on their first penalty kill of the night. Despite some struggles on Saturday, the Rocket penalty-killers were locked in for the length of Beck’s minor penalty, allowing just a few long-range attempts on net only.
Then, after a period-and-a-half of throwing everything on net, the Rocket finally broke the goose egg on the scoreboard. Coming off an offensive-zone draw, it was Belzile coming away with the puck, he loaded up a heavy wrist shot and banged it off the crossbar and in to get Laval on the board.
Less than 40 seconds later, the Rocket suddenly found themselves in the lead thanks to a bit of a broken play inside the offensive zone. Sammy Blais played a puck back to David Reinbacher at the point, with Reinbacher firing a heavy shot toward the net. The initial shot was blocked, but Marc Del Gaizo cutting through the zone batted the blocked shot by Stevenson to put the Rocket up 2-1.
Following their pair of goals, the Rocket continued to harass the Bears at every turn as they looked to add to their narrow lead. Laval soon found themselves back on the power play after Blais lined up Belpedio with a big hit, leading David Gucciardi to throw punches at the Rocket forward. Despite the advantage, it again turned into a major struggle as they failed to generate much real pressure, and then conceded a short-handed goal to Grant Cruikshank to end their power play with the game tied.
Despite surrendering their lead, the Rocket kept their foot on the gas as the second period came to a close, and finally got some extra contributions from their fourth line. Tyler Thorpe worked a puck through the slot in the offensive zone, then reversed a pass back for Luke Tuch. The Rocket winger collected the feed and quickly ripped a shot by Stevenson to restore the one-goal lead.
Laval came out of the intermission prepared to grind out the final period of regulation, as they continued to smother the Hershey attempts through the neutral zone. Through the opening minutes it was working as intended for the Rocket, but Sam Bitten’s speed broke down the Rocket defence and created a tying goal. As Bitten drove into the zone, the defence began to chase him and opened up the net-front area for Cruikshank to deposit a rebound by Kähkönen to tie the game.
With just just over 13 minutes left in regulation, Josiah Didier drew a slashing call while under pressure in the defensive zone, giving a faltering Rocket power play a huge opportunity to take the lead back in the third period. Unfortunately for the Rocket their misfires continued as they struggled to create second chances or clean looks, leaving them at zero-for-four on the man advantage.
While the special teams struggled, the Rocket at even strength continued to be a menace. The line of Lucas Condotta, Xavier Simoneau and Blais continued to be hard to contain as they rotated the puck with ease through the offensive zone. Simoneau eventually lost his coverage, cutting through the middle of the defence before firing his second goal of the year by Stevenson.
Laval clamped down defensively on the Bears as the final minutes slowly bled off the clock, with the Rocket managing to trap the puck deep in the offensive zone to keep the Bears’ netminder from heading to the bench. With just under a minute left, the Bears finally managed to get Stevenson to the bench to make one last push.
The Rocket withstood the final flurry from Hershey, allowing nothing through on net and sealing a weekend sweep over the state of Pennsylvania.
Final Score: Laval 4, Hershey 3
The Rocket’s win now moves them back into first place in the North Division over Syracuse, and sets up another critical week for Laval. Up first on their schedule is a Tuesday night showdown with the Providence Bruins at Place Bell.
