With their seven-game winning streak brought to a screeching halt on Wednesday night, the Laval Rocket embarked on their busiest week of the season to try to begin a new one. With five games over the course of seven days, including three games on the road against divisional rivals, it was going to be a stern test of the playoff mettle of the team. In the Rocket’s way was the team they were chasing for first place in the AHL’s North Division and also the overall league standings, the Rochester Americans.
While Laval had been off since Wednesday night, Rochester was wrapping up a three-games-in-three-nights stretch. With an injury bug biting the lineup, the Rocket were forced to sub in ECHL call-ups Logan Nijhoff and Alex Beaucage on the fourth line with Riley Kidney at centre. On defence, Logan Mailloux was cleared after exiting Wednesday’s game with an upper-body injury and took the top-pairing spot with Tyler Wotherspoon. In net, Connor Hughes got the nod to start, with Cayden Primeau getting the Monday matinee against Toronto.
Laval needed a quick start against a tired Rochester side, and they got just that as the top line took advantage of some open space inside the offensive zone. Sean Farrell sped in, dangled around a defender and sent a centring pass toward Alex Barré-Boulet in the slot. Barré-Boulet ripped a shot low and by the skate of Devon Levi to open the scoring just 85 seconds in.
While Barré-Boulet gave the Rocket the lead, he then put a dangerous Americans power play on the ice with a hooking penalty in the neutral zone. Being short-handed didn’t faze Florian Xhekaj as he grabbed a loose puck and skated the length of the ice on his own before cutting to the slot and sniping a second goal by Levi.
While they had scored, Laval still had plenty of penalty time to kill off. Thanks to some steadfast work on his posts, Hughes helped slam the door shut to keep a dream start going for the Rocket.
Despite having only two registered shots on goal, it was the Rocket creating chances on every shift, including Barré-Boulet ringing another clean look off the crossbar behind Levi. Then it was the fourth line generating a ton of pressure on the forecheck with Kidney deflecting a clean look just barely wide of Levi as the Rocket looked to put the game away early.
The missed chances came back to haunt the club as Ryan Johnson worked the puck in deep, then flung it across the crease for Jack Rathbone to put it past Hughes.
Rathbone’s goal seemed to bring some life into the Amerks’ game as they began to keep the Rocket pinned back as they forechecked relentlessly and forced mistakes in the defensive zone. Hughes fended off chances to try to give the offensive groups a chance to get things going, but the shots at the other end of the ice were few for the Rocket as the first period closed. A strong start allowed the Rocket to weather an early Rochester push, but with 40 minutes left to play there was still plenty of work to be done.
Rochester’s relentless pressing continued to wear on the Rocket as passes were missing targets and inside the defensive zone there were far more scramble situations than Pascal Vincent wanted. The Rochester pressure eventually yielded a second goal as Mason Jobst snuck one just under the arm of Hughes from in close and made it a 2-2 contest.
Laval’s struggles to get shots on net continued, but the ones they did manage to create they made the absolute most of. The Amerks had done a strong job at bottling up the tandem of Joshua Roy and Owen Beck, but the first chance they got to break free in the offensive zone, Laval took the lead back. Roy cut in toward the net on his backhand, creating a loose puck scramble in front of Levi. As it trickled across the crease, Owen Beck was there to gently poke it by the toe of Levi, giving Laval the lead back.
The following shifts began tilting the ice back in favour of the Rocket, with the combo of Farrell and Barré-Boulet driving Americans defenders nuts inside the offensive zone. However, the first real rush in a while toward the Rocket zone resulted in Roy hauling down the puck-carrier and sending the Laval penalty kill back on the ice.
It was a gutsy effort in every sense of the word as the Rocket fended off another power play, highlighted by Xhekaj blocking a shot that broke his skate blade and his stick at the same time. Rafaël Harvey-Pinard then dove in front of a point-blank slapshot.
Shortly after Roy exited the box he and the team went back to work in the offensive zone. While the clear-cut chances were fought off by Levi, it was another jam play for Beck at the netfront that restored Laval’s two-goal lead and force Levi out of the game.
As the Rocket took the lead back, Rochester decided to start a small parade of their own to the penalty box. Konsta Helenius went off first, giving the Rocket their first advantage of the night, and while the chances were there they couldn’t push one by new goaltender Michael Houser. Laval did end the period on another power play as well with Tyson Kozak getting caught playing with a broken stick.
With a very brief power play to start the period, the Rocket weren’t able to add to their lead, even with the Roy and Beck duo continuing to create some dangerous looks inside the offensive zone. The Amerks were not going to go away quietly as a broken stick for Wotherspoon behind the net forced Hughes into a sprawling save on Kozak at point-blank range. Kozak wasn’t quite done yet though as he landed a questionable hit on Rafaël Harvey-Pinard, drawing the ire of William Trudeau who threw his gloves off in response.
Laval had taken some lessons from previous games and kept their foot down as the period trudged on, and soon they added to their two-goal advantage. Barré-Boulet dug out a puck in the defensive zone, and carried it through all three zones before dangling around a Rochester defender. As he moved into open space, he fed Farrell, who one-timed his shot by Houser to make it a 5-2 game.
There was one final hurdle for the Rocket to clear in the final 10 minutes. They had to kill off another Americans penalty as Zack Hayes was dinged for cross-checking inside the defensive zone. The penalty-killers continued to be a standout group as they, along with Hughes, smothered a high-powered Rochester offence and kept their advantage intact heading into the final minutes of regulation.
Laval was happy to sit back and continue to defend in their defensive shell with a strong three-goal lead as the minutes ticked away. The conservative approach by the Rocket made the shot counter look a lot more lopsided than the game really was as Rochester just threw whatever they could at net, but at the end of things Connor Hughes stood tall with 34 saves in a bounce-back win.
Final Score: Laval 5, Rochester 2
There is no rest for the wicked as the Rocket head back on the road for a matinée in Toronto on Monday. Cayden Primeau is the expected starter as he looks to bounce back after his first AHL loss of the season.
