With a win on Friday night in Rochester, the Laval Rocket had secured the AHL North Division crown and were locked into their seed heading into the AHL playoffs. They were still in contention for the MacGregor Kilpatrick Trophy, awarded to the AHL’s top team every year, and they had a narrow lead over Hershey with their final four games remaining.
Standing in their way on Saturday were the Syracuse Crunch, a team the Rocket have always battled tooth-and-nail since they joined the AHL. The Rocket held the season-series lead, having won four of seven contests, and with the Crunch still seeking a playoff berth it was sure to be a tightly contested affair. The big news on the night was that Jacob Fowler was getting his first professional start for the Rocket, with Cayden Primeau serving as the backup.
Vincent Arseneau was out of the lineup after nursing a lower-body injury suffered in Rochester, Will Dineen drew in for him on the Rocket fourth line. David Reinbacher did take warm-ups, but was not in the lineup, Zack Hayes drew in to replace Noel Hoefenmayer on the second pairing.
On the first shift of the game, the Crunch made sure to test the reactions of Fowler immediately, forcing a quick side-to-side lunge, but Anthony Angello pushed the chance just wide. Laval did instantly recover and found their familiar, smothering defensive structure and allowed the Crunch little space to operate while they worked on their breakouts. The structure eventually allowed Laval to set up shop inside the offensive zone, and then to bury the first goal of the night.
A quick cycle along the boards sent the puck in behind the net to Owen Beck, who was already scanning for possible passing targets. He found Riley Kidney all alone in the slot, and Kidney easily one-timed his chance by Brandon Halverson and to put Laval on top early in the game.
The Rocket continued to play a nearly flawless road game against the Crunch after Kidney’s goal. Every puck was cleared safely, carried in deep, and just kept away from Fowler at all costs. The Rocket’s relentless yet disciplined approach to the game continued to yield good results as they frustrated their opponents into making mistakes.
With the puck deep inside the offensive zone, Xavier Simoneau engaged Max Crozier in a puck battle, and managed to subtly pull Crozier’s helmet off, forcing the Crunch player to abandon the play to put it back on. With space opened up, Simoneau fed the puck to Lucas Condotta, who fired a shot through Halverson to double the Rocket lead.
While Fowler didn’t face many shots, he was still on the spot for a number of saves, including a strong post-to-post move to deny Gabriel Dumont down low. That last save was a big one, as the next faceoff allowed Laurent Dauphin to draw a penalty, giving the Rocket a power play to kick off the next period.
Laval’s power play wasn’t bereft of opportunities, with Adam Engström directing traffic extremely well from the point, but the rebounds off Halverson weren’t capitalized on, allowing the Crunch to escape the first power play unscathed. However, control of the game still rested firmly with the Rocket as they continued to slowly grind down the Crunch on every shift and gave them absolutely nothing to follow up on.
Unfortunately for the Rocket, their first major mistake of the game in their own end resulted in their lead being cut in half. Jared Davidson was battling with Dylan Duke along the boards, but couldn’t clear the puck away from him, allowing Duke to shovel a one-handed pass to the slot. Tristan Allard had all the space in the world and rifled it over the shoulder of Fowler to make it a 2-1 contest.
Syracuse finally finding a goal gave the home team some of the momentum back in its favour as the second period wore on, and the Rocket began to make errors they weren’t making in the first half of the game. While Fowler was sharp in net, the Rocket were beginning to spend longer shifts defending the Crunch cycle game, but they were still maintaining their narrow advantage. While Syracuse continued to push hard to end the second period, the Rocket regained their composure enough to slow down the onslaught and made it to the second intermission with a one-goal lead on the board.
The start of the third period was all about Fowler as he was tested early and often as Syracuse looked to find another goal. After Engström stepped up to try to win the puck back, the Crunch turned it into an odd-man break in the offensive zone. Dumont took a clean centring pass, but a lunging Fowler robbed him with his left pad to keep the Rocket in the lead.
On the next shift, Maxim Groshev turned on the burners to round Hayes and broke in uncontested on net. Groshev cut back across the goal and flipped a puck back across the grain, but found himself denied by the blocker of Fowler yet again.
The Crunch continued to try to break down the Rocket defence as the third period ticked away on every shift. Laval was happy to chip pucks away and force the Crunch to break their attack to collect the puck and try again. However, the Rocket refused to budge and before long the Crunch had no choice but to pull Halverson.
With their first advantage of any kind on the night, Syracuse still could not break down the Rocket defence around the net as they looked for a late tying goal. Every chance was blocked, then held tight on the boards or chipped out. As the final seconds ticked off the clock, the Crunch sent one final salvo on net but every shot went wide to secure another victory for Laval.
Final Score: Laval 2, Syracuse 1
The Rocket now head back home for two games before finishing the season on the road for one last game in Belleville. Laval will welcome the Senators to Place Bell on Wednesday night.
