The Laval Rocket completed a solid swing through New England last Sunday, shutting out the Providence Bruins to reclaim first place in the AHL’s North Division. They returned to Place Bell for a three-game homestand against division rivals, starting with the Syracuse Crunch on Wednesday night. The Crunch sat just two points back of the Rocket and were led by the duo of Dylan Duke and Jakob Pelletier, who both were playing at over a point-per-game pace.
Pascal Vincent left his forward lines as is after a strong showing against Providence, giving Florian Xhekaj another game on the top line along with Laurent Dauphin and Alex Belzile. On defence there was one change, with Josiah Didier giving way to Nate Clurman on the third pair. Marc Del Gaizo and Adam Engström took over first pair duties, while in net it was Jacob Fowler getting the nod.
A bright start by the Rocket was a great sign against a dangerous team like Syracuse, with Xhekaj blasting a clean look off of Brandon Halverson’s blocker, and the next shift saw Will Dineen just put a rebound chance wide of goal. Engström put the Rocket in a tough spot however as he threw a massive hit in the neutral zone without the puck anywhere nearby. Laval’s penalty-killers remained in fine form, denying the Crunch a strong look on goal and kept it a scoreless game early in the first period.
Just as the Rocket were beginning to gain some steam following their penalty kill, Xhekaj found himself the next player headed to the box, leaving Laval without one of its leading penalty-killers. Even with Xhekaj in the box, Laval did a fantastic job at stymieing the Crunch advantage, and managing to spend a chunk of the kill operating deep in the Syracuse zone. As Xhekaj exited the box, Owen Beck began to work below the goal line, swinging a pass to Filip Mešár in the slot, with the Slovak just missing his chance to open the scoring.
The Crunch were happy to control the flow of play as the first period came to a close. The Rocket were unable to get much sustained offensive-zone time, while the Crunch continued to pepper Fowler from distance frequently. Luckily for Laval, Fowler was dialed in and allowed Syracuse nothing in terms of second chances as the two sides went to the intermission scoreless.
Laval jumped out of the gate quickly to start the second, with multiple shifts in a row where they turned the offensive zone into a shooting gallery, racking up a 5-0 shot advantage in the opening minutes. Halverson remained a stubborn obstacle, giving up no second chances as the Rocket swarmed all over the offensive zone.
Before long, a moment of magic from Adam Engström broke the deadlock. The Swedish defenceman took a pass from Laurent Dauphin in the neutral zone and barrelled ahead deep into the Crunch end. Engström held the puck, looking off a pass to Xhekaj in the slot to call his own number and sniping one over Halverson’s shoulder to open the scoring.
Laval’s penalty issues continued after the goal however, with Tyler Thorpe being called for holding by the Rocket net. Before Syracuse could fully get their man advantage in gear, Ethan Gauthier was called for slashing the stick out of Owen Beck’s hands, making it a four-on-four situation. Laval’s brief power play as Thorpe exited the box did not yield much, but allowed the Rocket to resume their offensive onslaught at even strength.
Even as the Rocket continued to dominate control of the puck and the flow of play, they could not stop making their way to the penalty box, with Will Dineen heading off for tripping this time. After three flawless kills, one odd bounce killed their streak as Mitchell Chaffee collected a bouncing puck in front of the net and lifted it past Fowler.
Following Chaffee’s goal, the Rocket lacked some of their earlier punch, making sure to tighten up defensively so they didn’t fall behind late in the second period. The team had its opportunities, but many of the shots either whistled over the net or were shoved off to the side of goal. It was a tightly contested affair as expected, with the score tied at one heading into the second intermission.
Having not learned their lesson, the Rocket continued to hamper their own efforts, with Joe Dunlap being called for holding entering the offensive zone, then just 30 seconds into the penalty kill Owen Beck joined him after firing the puck out of play. In perhaps some of the worst officiating seen so far this season, a Crunch stick caught Fowler high in the body, knocking him over into the net. Mitchell Chaffee took advantage and threw the puck in, counting as a good goal while Fowler was demonstrably incensed.
Laval’s entire bench was furious and on the following shifts they made it clear that they were not going to go down without a fight. Another lengthy offensive-zone shift saw the puck worked back to the point with Clurman patrolling in open space. Clurman moved the puck to a pinching William Trudeau, and the Rocket defender ripped it by Halverson to tie the game once again.
The story of the game continued to be the officiating as the third period wore on, with the Crunch again ending up on the power play. Alex Belzile was rightly called for a slash, and was then cross-checked from behind evening up the the calls. The officials, however, believed that Belzile embellished a heavy cross-check from behind and dinged him with an unsportsmanlike penalty as well.
Laval’s penalty-killers, again missing one of their key pieces, battled through a strong Crunch power play to keep the score level as the final minutes of regulation approached. With Belzile out of the box and the Rocket playing a very angry style of hockey, the game was far from decided with under four minutes left to play.
Unfortunately for the Rocket, one bad pass at the offensive blue line saw the play move the other way and resulted in Laval being stuck deep in its zone. They couldn’t find a clear to get the puck out and eventually it was Tommy Miller firing a shot through traffic that fooled Fowler and put Syracuse back in the lead.
With under 90 seconds left the Rocket quickly got Fowler to the bench for the extra attacker, hoping to perform some magic with a limited amount of time left on the clock. A bobble at the line broke the Rocket’s cycle going with the net empty, and that allowed the Crunch to kill off the remaining few seconds to seal a Rocket loss.
Final Score: Syracuse 3, Laval 2
A very frustrated, and likely very angry Rocket team won’t have to wait long to try to make up for this defeat. In what is always a chaotic affair, the Rocket will welcome the Belleville Senators on Friday night to Place Bell.
