After a tough loss on the road on Wednesday morning in Springfield, the Laval Rocket bounced back with a win in Hartford on Saturday night, securing a 5-2 win to keep pace in their division. They continued their trip through New England on Sunday with an afternoon stop in Providence for a meeting with the Bruins.
It was going to be a stiff test for the Rocket who were without two of their best offensive weapons as Jared Davidson was already on recall to Montreal, and Joshua Roy was called up last minute to replace the injured Kirby Dach. In front of the Rocket was one of the AHL’s top teams with the Bruins having lost just one game all year, and featuring the duo of Riley Tufte and Patrick Brown driving a strong offence.
Laval’s lineup got a shakeup heading into the contest, with Florian Xhekaj moving up to the first line with Laurent Dauphin and Alex Belzile. Sean Farrell joined forces with Owen Beck and Filip Mesar on line two, and Tyler Thorpe slotted in alongside Xavier Simoneau and Lucas Condotta. On defence, Josiah Didier rejoined the formation, with Marc Del Gaizo on the third pair. In net it was Jacob Fowler getting the start after being the backup in Hartford.
The Rocket came out of the gate red-hot, peppering Mikey DiPietro with six shots in the opening minutes and giving the Bruins’ attack zero space to get set up inside the offensive zone. As the Rocket were beginning another counter, the play came to a halt as Del Gaizo was called for a high stick through the neutral zone, forcing Laval to the first penalty kill of the game. Laval’s penalty-killers were in peak form, denying the Bruins even a shot on goal as they killed off Del Gaizo’s minor penalty.
After weathering the push from Providence, the Rocket came back with some strong shifts of their own, using their speed to find partial breaks and odd-man rushes. Fowler remained calm, turning away multiple looks without giving up a secondary opportunity. The Rocket struggled to find their same pace as the Bruins kept their forecheck on full blast, but the speed of Filip Mesar allowed them to break the siege. On the following shift it was Mesar dancing around the offensive zone, but DiPietro kept the game scoreless despite three or four opportunities created by the young Slovak.
The Rocket switching their offence back on eventually led to the Bruins catching Didier up high and putting the Rocket on their first power play of the night. While the top unit generated a few looks, they could not break the deadlock heading into the first intermission. However, the Rocket would begin the second frame with 66 seconds of power-play time still remaining.
DiPietro was busy to begin the second period as the Rocket power play swarmed in the opening minutes, but he held the line and kept the game scoreless. The Rocket continued to keep the pressure on, giving the Bruins no time to set up and immediately pushing play back in the other direction, with Xhekaj ringing a shot off the crossbar to nearly open the scoring.
The Rocket nearly gave the opening goal away coming out of a timeout as they thought they had cleared the blue line but had not, allowing Dalton Bancroft to take a feed behind the defence, forcing Fowler into a sprawling pad save to deny the Bruins in tight. Laval continued to follow up its defensive lapses with immediate offensive efforts, with Thorpe just missing the net, and William Trudeau also just firing his follow-up chance wide as well.
The dam finally cracked just enough for the Rocket to find the back of the net, and once again it came after they nearly allowed a goal with a shot off the crossbar. Trudeau led a rush in the other direction, with the fourth line keeping the cycle alive in the offensive zone. Trudeau picked up a pass, circling up toward the net and threw a perfect feed to Joseph Dunlap at the back post for Dunlap’s first career AHL goal.
Trudeau followed up his fantastic assist by taking a holding penalty to prevent a potential odd-man scoring chance in his own end. Laval’s penalty-killers continued their outstanding efforts from earlier in the game, allowing just two chances to the Bruins and keeping them off the scoreboard once again.
Laval had little issue with getting to the second intermission after that, with their lead intact and in solid control of the game.
Right out of the gate in the third period, Belzile found himself in the penalty box, called for tripping inside the offensive zone and presenting the Bruins with a chance to tie the game. Fowler was fantastic as the Bruins finally began to create some scoring chances off one-timer setups, but the rookie netminder pushed any rebounds the corners and was always set up in case there was a second chance around his crease.
It was again the fourth line creating chances for the Rocket after the penalty kill, with Will Dineen and Luke Tuch causing turnovers on the forecheck and keeping possession long enough to change on the Rocket’s top line. Belzile saw his open chance hit a broken stick and harmlessly bounce out of play, much to his frustration.
The Rocket were extremely content to play safe hockey as the period wore on, making sure above all else to not put the puck into dangerous areas for the Bruins. Anything that did get into the offensive zone was swallowed up by Fowler as Laval’s road-game strategy rolled on late into the third period. Before long the Bruins had no choice but to get DiPietro to the bench, and moved the game to a six-on-five with the Rocket trying to hold on for a win.
Laval’s defensive structure held, with Laurent Dauphin shielding the puck long enough to fire in his ninth goal of the year and to seal the Rocket win on the road. After a little hiccup to start the road trip, the Rocket moved on from the New England region with four of six points.
Final Score: Laval 2, Providence 0
Laval now heads back to Place Bell for a three-game week at home, starting with the longtime rival Syracuse Crunch on Wednesday night. Puck drop is set for 7pm ET, and it is likely Fowler will get the nod for Pascal Vincent again.
