It was a quick turnaround for the Laval Rocket as they took the ice for a rematch with the Manitoba Moose in Winnipeg, just 24 hours after a narrow 3-2 win on Tuesday night. The Moose were up to the challenge last night, nearly erasing a 3-0 Rocket lead before Cayden Primeau slammed the door shut to preserve the win and a big two points.
Wednesday brought about new challenges for an already thin Rocket defence as Gustav Lindström was set to miss the game, prompting an emergency recall of Vincent Sevigny from the other side of the country to fill in on defence. Unfortunately, Sevigny’s flight was delayed, leaving the Rocket with just five blue-liners in front of Primeau on the night. Riley Kidney and Vincent Arseneau both came out of the forward group, with Will Dineen slotting in on the third line while Jared Davidson moved up to the second. In Arseneau’s spot on the fourth line was the newly PTO’d Mark Estapa, one of Michael Hage’s teammates from the University of Michigan.
The opening minutes were strong for the Rocket as they tested Thomas Milic with multiple tipped shots in the early going, but the young goalie denied them. At the other end, Primeau was also called upon after a Logan Mailloux turnover sprung a breakaway that trickled just wide of the Rocket net. On the same shift a tight deflection bounced up and into Primeau, forcing an awkward save to keep things level in the opening minutes.
Sean Farrell was able to wrest control back in his team’s favour as he drew a penalty on Isak Phillips while cutting into the offensive zone. Laval’s man advantage struggled to generate much sustained pressure in the opening power play of the game, despite the looks they had on Milic. Their second attempt didn’t fare much better as their best chance was put off the side of the net by Alex Barré-Boulet.
Before the Rocket power play could finish up, Owen Beck got involved in a shoving match after a short-handed save by Primeau, earning a trip to the penalty box. Despite the lack of consistent pressure, the Rocket penalty kill handled the Moose’s abbreviated power play with ease and then began to grind their shot machine into life.
Mailloux showed off nice hands as he wove through the Moose defence to set up Laurent Dauphin for a few looks. The Moose responded by having Mark Liwiski run over Florian Xhekaj well after the whistle, sending the Rocket to a third power play in the period.
It changed little as the Rocket man advantage just refused to get itself into gear. The Moose easily fended off a third power play from Laval, before Dominic Toninato turned around and jabbed the butt end of his stick into Noel Hoefenmayer’s face. At the risk of sounding like a broken record, the Rocket power play continued to be a negative, as Manitoba killed off yet another man advantage, highlighting an anemic showing from the Rocket at this point of the season.
While the first period came to a close with the Rocket controlling most of the flow of play, their inability to convert on the power play loomed large as they chased down a division title.
The Rocket jumped out early in the second period, with their top line pressuring the Moose immediately, but a bold charge to the top of his crease by Milic denied Dauphin on the edge of goal. To make matters worse, on the next shift Dauphin’s skate just clipped the skate of Dylan Coghlan and sent the Moose to the power play. Some strong penalty-killing efforts from Dineen and Lucas Condotta allowed the Rocket to escape Dauphin’s penalty unscathed.
While it looked like Laval was primed to finally break the deadlock following their penalty kill, things slowed down once again. Estapa had to leave the ice with some sort of injury issue, and Hoefenmayer threw off his gloves to fight Dylan Anhorn for a hit on Filip Mesar. The chaos left the Rocket with four defencemen and 11 forwards for a big chunk of the second period.
The Moose were finally able to take advantage as Wotherspoon didn’t pick up Coghlan cutting in behind him through the neutral zone, and Coghlan buried his chance by Primeau to finally break the scoreless contest.
Continuing the run of bad news, a Wotherspoon penalty put the team in a high-leverage spot without one of its strongest members. Primeau continued to put in an incredible effort as he smothered the best chances from the Moose, and allowed Laval to escape the penalty. The following shift brought more good news as Sevigny had finally arrived at the arena, and jumped right out for a shift with William Trudeau.
The Rocket were able to keep the deficit at just one goal as the second period wound down, but with injuries and exhaustion setting in the team needed a big third-period effort to secure another two points.
Nursing a one-goal lead, Manitoba came out strong to smother every Rocket attack, limiting Laval to just three shots on goal as the period wore on. Just as Laval looked set to begin a long stay inside the offensive zone, Barré-Boulet turned and caught Tyrel Bauer up high and took a seat for high-sticking. Laval’s penalty-killers remained the stars of the night, with Xhekaj’s late rush nearly levelling the game as he tried to tuck a backhand by Milic.
Barré-Boulet came barrelling out of the penalty box, beating out an icing and starting another cycle deep inside the offensive zone. He then immediately made up for his penalty as he battled through the Moose defence to a loose puck, allowing him to throw it into the slot for Farrell, who finally got the Rocket on the board.
Farrell’s goal seemed to snap the Rocket out of their malaise, finally started to look like the AHL’s top team. The pressure resulted in an error on the part of the Moose, and handed the vistors the lead. Condotta barged into Coghlan on the forecheck, jostling the puck loose and allowing the Rocket captain to swipe it from him. Condotta instantly picked his head up, found Jared Davidson again alone in the slot, and Davidson buried the feed with ease to put the Rocket on top.
Laval did not let up on the onslaught and continued to force the Moose into mistakes, one that was promptly put into the back of their net. Barré-Boulet continued a strong third period as he forced a turnover below the goal line and then collected the loose puck. He waited and fired the puck back to the point, where Trudeau stepped into a shot and blistered it through traffic to make it a 3-1 game.
Time was running out for the Moose as they looked to stave off another defeat at the hands of the Rocket. They pulled Milic with over three minutes left to try to pull off some kind of comeback. Laval locked things down defensively from there, giving the Moose zero opportunity to cut into the lead, and left Manitoba with a series win.
Final Score: Laval 3, Manitoba 1
The Rocket will continue their trek out west as they head into Abbotsford for a two-game series with the Canucks starting on Saturday night. Puck drop is set for 10 PM ET on Saturday, with some lineup changes likely coming due to the injury bug ravaging the team.
League standings
