The Laval Rocket closed out their series against the Cleveland Monsters with a commanding 4-1 victory, punctuated by standout performances from a few key prospects that fans have their eyes on.
Logan Mailloux
Pascal Vincent recently said that Logan Mailloux is playing the best hockey of his career, and I couldn’t agree more. It’s true that he is not perfect defensively. His game has a couple of holes that show themselves fairly often, but Mailloux is dominating right now. He looks bigger, faster, and more poised than everyone else on the ice.
Mailloux finished with four shots and two points on Tuesday. He was instrumental to all four of the Rocket’s goals and was the best player on the ice. He dominated offensively, especially on the power play, and Laval reaped the benefits.
I thought he was best, though, in the defensive zone. Mailloux was always the first man back to defend the rush, and was clearly playing with a defensive mentality, which makes his offensive dominance even more impressive. Additionally, he did all this without taking a penalty.
This was the best defensive game I’ve ever seen Mailloux play with Laval. It was also the best offensive game I’ve seen him play.
Owen Beck
Owen Beck played a confident game on Tuesday, and Laval was better off for it. He finished with four shots, and though held off the scoresheet he created more than enough opportunities to call his game a success.
He skated the puck into the zone assertively, sometimes slipping checks and sometimes absorbing them, with equal degrees of success. He created offence all night and the link between him and Florian Xhekaj is clearly something that Vincent has picked up on. Beck consistently finds Xhekaj in the offensive zone and creates good looks, often in tight.
We also saw the snarl that made him stand out in the Memorial Cup in 2023 and 2024. Maybe playing on a line with Xhekaj helped spur his prickly mood, but Beck got into it after just about every whistle, and seemed focused on dishing some hurt. He finished every check and was gritty on the forecheck.
Jacob Fowler
The first shot that Jacob Fowler faced on Tuesday came from just inside the right circle and hit his blocker. The rebound bounced straight through the slot and just over the stick of Cleveland’s Hunter McKown. It was a dangerous rebound, and it worried me. That was the last dangerous rebound I saw him give up. In fact, it was pretty much the only rebound he gave up all night.
Fowler was solid. His positioning, rebound control, and confidence were undeniable. I believe a team (especially the defence core) feeds off its goaltender’s emotion, and Fowler’s calming presence was palpable to everyone in the building.
Fowler saved 18 of 19 shots directed his way on Tuesday, and continued his statistical domination of the AHL. I don’t know who will get the call in Game 1 against the Rochester Americans, but I would start Fowler.
Florian Xhekaj
Xhekaj loves playoff hockey. With the refs giving everyone a longer leash, he is constantly straining it. If they look away for a second, he slips out of his collar and attacks the nearest player.
Florian finished every hit, engaged every player he saw in front of the net, and was generally a pest all night. This is unsurprising. What might surprise you is how solid he is defensively. Vincent relies on him in the defensive zone, and deploys him consistently on the penalty kill.
Xhekaj’s hockey IQ seems to be higher than his brother’s. His positioning isn’t perfect, but his aggressive pursuit of players and pucks alike makes him a nightmare for defencemen at the point or forwards high in the slot.
Adam Engström
Adam Engström is another on the long list of prospects who had a solid game on Tuesday.
When you watch Engström, the first thing you notice is his size. At 6’2 and 200 pounds he’s not huge, but he carries it well and is noticeably large in the corners. The second thing you notice is his skating. He has wheels, and he likes to use them. Size and mobility are a trend among the Laval blue-liners, and he fits the theme to a T.
He was positionally solid all night and was consistently a complement to David Reinbacher, allowing the big Austrian more offensive freedom to carry the puck through the neutral zone. Engström doesn’t play a super exciting brand of defence, but that’s precisely what Laval (and potentially Montreal) want out of him.
Oliver Kapanen
Oliver Kapanen has the capacity to dominate in the AHL. His skating looks like a cut above the rest, and he thinks the game at a higher level than the vast majority of the league. If he can consistently play with the physical fire we’ve seen from him at times, he would have a place on just about every NHL roster.
In Game 4, we saw Kapanen switch between centre and right wing, much like Game 3, but this time it was Brandon Gignac with whom he was swapping. On Tuesday, I thought Kapanen looked much better at centre than on the wing, but that’s most likely due to Gignac’s playmaking skill being less than Beck’s.
Though somewhat offensively stifled, Kapanen used his hockey sense to be defensively sound all night. He had the most effective stick out of any of the forwards (except maybe Xhekaj), but I’d like to see him play with a little more grit along the boards. I think he stood out less than he did in Game 3, but he still made it hard not to notice him as a positive.
Joshua Roy
I didn’t see Joshua Roy’s game as particularly positive the other night. I thought he looked disconnected from Laval’s mentality, and I thought he played below the level that should be expected of him. Roy looked physically disengaged most of the night and floated around for the most part.
Roy is better than he played on Tuesday. I hope to see a comeback game after the Rocket’s eight-day break.
Laval is back in action on Wednesday, May 14, as they open the third round of the Calder Cup Playoffs in New York, squaring off against the Rochester Americans (42-22-8, second in the North Division). Puck will drop at 7:05 PM ET.
