The final month of the Laval Rocket’s regular season began as the AHL team embarked on a lengthy six-game road trip to kick off their on-ramp to the playoffs. First up was a back-to-back series in Manitoba against a struggling Moose side that was all but eliminated from post-season contention. The teams had split the earlier series at Place Bell in February. Another win would draw the Rocket closer to a division title.
Both David Reinbacher and Adam Engström were absent from the lineup, Reinbacher did not make the trip at all while Engström was listed as day-to-day. That meant Noel Hoefenmayer and Zack Hayes drew back into the lineup on the second and third pair, respectively. After a lengthy absence due to an injury, Luke Tuch was back to re-form a physical fourth line with Vincent Arseneau and Florian Xhekaj. Cayden Primeau got the nod as the starter with Connor Hughes set for the start on Wednesday night.
It took all of 58 seconds for the Rocket to assert themselves as the top line made an instant impact on its first shift. Sean Farrell took a leading pass and took off deep into the offensive zone where he flicked a backhand across the crease. Alex Barré-Boulet was all over the pass, and swept in the puck to give the Rocket a lead.
Despite the difference between the two sides in the standings, the Moose came back charging hard on the following shifts and started to pin the Rocket back in their own end. It was the extremely quick pads of Cayden Primeau that repeatedly denied Manitoba an opening goal of their own as the home team was all over his crease following Barré-Boulet’s goal.
The Rocket eventually began to steady the ship and find their legs in a counter-attack of their own, eventually drawing a power play for their work. The Rocket power play wasn’t able to break down the Moose as the penalty-killers got in front of every Laval opportunity and Dom DiVincentiis swallowed up anything that got close to his crease.
The chances between both sides started to fizzle out as the period slowly began to wind down. The only real chance for either side came down to a backhand shot by Laurent Dauphin that trickled through DiVincentiis, but just wide of the net. Barré-Boulet’s early tally was the only mark in the period, sending the Rocket into the first intermission with a narrow lead.
A slow start plagued the Rocket stepping out into the second period as they struggled to establish their offence early on, and eventually an ill-timed Gustav Lindström penalty led to their first penalty kill of the game. While the Moose widened the shot gap on their advantage, Primeau gave them nothing in terms of second chances, and some timely work by Lucas Condotta and Xhekaj helped to grind out the remaining power-play time with relative ease.
While the Rocket offence didn’t have much going in terms of volume, they began to make the most of their opportunities as the fourth line scored yet another massive goal. Tuch chipped the puck in for \Arseneau, who then battled through a Moose bodycheck. Arseneau maintained just enough control to poke the puck to Xhekaj, who extended his stick and lifted it by the lunging goalie to double the Rocket lead.
Much like the first period, the Rocket goal only served to make the attacks from the Moose offence more consistent and more dangerous as they tried to claw back into the game. This played right into the hands of the Rocket however as they continued to make their open looks count.
Logan Mailloux was able to grab a loose puck, switching the Rocket defence into immediate offence as he knifed into the offensive zone. He then sent a leading feed to Farrell, who neatly tucked a shot through the five-hole of DiVincentiis to make it a 3-0 game late in the second period.
Farrell wasn’t done yet as his speed in the final 90 seconds of the period drew a penalty and gave Laval a prime chance to close the game out before the final period began. The Moose PK did well to fend off the first half of the power play, but the Rocket would start the third period with around 30 seconds left.
The Rocket power play did not convert on their abbreviated advantage and in the aftermath started a march to the penalty box and began to hand Manitoba a lifeline in the early third period. While the Rocket killed off Barré-Boulet’s minor, moments later they had to kill off a penalty called on Condotta. This time, without Laval’s top penalty-killer on the ice, the Moose were able to win the faceoff and get a shot through to Primeau. As it closed in on the Rocket netminder, Dominic Toninato deflected it by him to spoil the shutout bid.
It was all Moose following their goal as the short-handed Rocket were trying to just survive and prepare for the Wednesday evening rematch in Winnipeg. There were few chances for Laval to break out cleanly and the Moose were only being held back thanks to the heroics of Primeau. Thankfully, the strong efforts of Tuch drew a tripping call and gave the Rocket a full two minutes of clock to burn away late in the third period.
Laval’s man advantage wasn’t able to tack on a goal, but succeeded in grinding out more of the clock leaving just a few minutes for the Moose to try to mount a multi-goal comeback. It looked as though the Rocket were going to weather the storm as the final minute arrived, but a clean faceoff win allowed a shot on net that Primeau couldn’t smother. Toninato swooped in and swept the loose puck under the goalie’spad to cut the Rocket lead down to just one goal.
The Rocket stemmed the tide from there, defending their now one-goal lead for the final 43 seconds to seal two points to start their road trip.
Final Score: Laval 3, Manitoba 2
These two sides will square off once again on Wednesday night in Winnipeg.
League standings
