The Laval Rocket rolled into a snowy Syracuse in the midst of a frustrating losing streak, with just one win in their last six games. The team had continued to play well, but failed to hold onto leads late in games and it’s resulted in the Rocket slipping out of first place in the North Division.
Despite Luke Tuch returning to practice, he was unavailable to face his hometown club. However, Rafaël Harvey-Pinard had cleared waivers and slotted in alongside Owen Beck and Jared Davidson. On the top line, Lucas Condotta centred Alex Barré-Boulet and Joshua Roy, who had just been sent down as well. The defensive group remained the same as Saturday night, and Jakub Dobeš again got the nod between the pipes.
Things did not get off to the best of starts for the Rocket as just over a minute in, on a harmless dump-in, the Rocket were called for high-sticking, placing them on an early penalty kill. After struggling for much of the previous week in Pennsylvania, the Rocket penalty kill put in a strong shift to deny Syracuse an opening goal.
Despite the Crunch taking an early shot advantage, on the Rocket’s next shift they drew two penalties in rapid succession giving Laval a full two-minute five on three. The return of Roy was felt as the Rocket power play moved the puck aggressively, trying to set up a Barré-Boulet one-timer. The Crunch soon honed in on this, cheating a penalty-killer toward the veteran scorer and fending off the Rocket advantage to keep the game scoreless in the first period.
Neither side mustered much in the way of dangerous attacks as the period wore on, with both Brandon Halverson and Jakub Dobeš making plenty of routine saves on long-range shots. Compared to recent games, it was a higher shot total than usual in the first period, with the Crunch holding a 14-13 advantage heading into the first intermission.
The slow, methodical pace continued into the second period with the Rocket unable to generate any serious offensive-zone time, while also keeping the Crunch to low-percentage chances inside their defensive zone. Eventually the hard work of Laurent Dauphin drew a tripping call, giving Laval another chance to break the deadlock.
This time the Rocket man advantage made the most of their two minutes and finally broke through. Adam Engström sent Roy into the offensive zone with speed, allowing Roy to wind up a heavy wrist shot on Halverson. While the Crunch netminder got his glove to the shot, it bounced off the top of it and dropped right into the Syracuse net to open the scoring.
The lead was once again not made to last as the Crunch soon matched the power-play tally. An interference call well behind the play on Xavier Simoneau put Syracuse back on an advantage of their own. Right off of the faceoff, Conor Sheary filtered the puck to Derrick Pouliot at the point and the veteran defenceman ripped it by Dobeš to tie the game.
Following the exchange of goals, the game settled back into its previous, dare I say boring, routine of low-danger shots being traded back and forth. The Rocket came mere inches away from taking the lead back as Owen Beck’s deflected chance on net was denied by the very end of the toe on Halverson’s pads. In the aftermath Gabriel Szturc and Harvey-Pinard got into a heated tussle, meaning the third period would start at four-on-four with plenty left to play for.
The Rocket were the only side to create any chances out of the four-on-four period, but the pads of Halverson again denied Laval as they attempted to jam home a goal against the post. The Crunch in fact didn’t have much pressure to offer against the Rocket, but on their first real attempt on Dobeš it caused a mad scramble, and sent the Rocket back to the penalty kill.
While it wasn’t right off the draw, the result was the exact same for the Rocket on this penalty kill. Just under 30 seconds in, Sheary found a wide-open Pouliot again. Pouliot buried a heavy slapshot in the far corner to give Syracuse the lead. With nine-and-a-half minutes left to play, the efforts of Roy put the Rocket back on the power play in a crucial situation.
The Rocket’s top unit found itself smothered by the Crunch penalty kill, but the second wave made sure to make their limited time on the ice count. Dauphin picked out Simoneau at the side of the net, and promptly fed him the puck. Simoneau, with his head up, put it on the tape of Rafaël Harvey-Pinard who sniped one over the shoulder of Brandon Halverson.
Laval’s second wind had kicked in at the right time as they hounded the Crunch over and over, forcing turnovers and trying to find a tying goal. They got a huge boost when Joel Teasdale launched a puck out of play, giving the Rocket another power play, and a chance for a very late lead. There was not a last-gasp goal for the Rocket in regulation, but perhaps most importantly is that the team earned at least a point as the game headed into overtime.
After a close call in their own end, resulting in Dobeš flinging away Dylan Duke’s stick, the Rocket got right to work at securing a second point for themselves. Engström calmly started the breakout, and then found Beck wide open with acres of space in front of him. Beck curled the puck in and then ripped his shot by Halverson for the game winning goal.
Final Score: Laval 3, Syracuse 2 OT
Next up for the Rocket is another big test as they open a two-game homestand against the Toronto Marlies. The first game in set for Friday night at Place Bell.
