After a frustrating loss at the hands of the Belleville Senators on Thursday night, the Laval Rocket found themselves looking for a bounce-back win at home as they opened a two-game series with the Syracuse Crunch. Following Thursday’s loss, the team made just a few changes to the lineup to try to get back into the win column.
Lias Andersson was withdrawn and Gabriel Bourque returned after missing the previous game with an illness. On the fourth line, Nolan Yaremko replaced Jan Mysak as the fourth-line centre, while Brady Keeper ceded his spot on defence to Olivier Galipeau. In net it was a first start for the recently signed Kasimir Kaskisuo, who would be backed up by Strauss Mann for the night.
It was an oddly quiet start to the game for both sides as through the opening half of the period there were just six total shots on goal. Neither Hugo Alnefelt nor Kasimir Kaskisuo were tested by anything of note. In fact the first real action of the game came as Riley McKay ran over Max Crozier behind the Crunch net, drawing the ire of Daniel Walker and a pair of fighting majors for the two players, in addition to Syracuse heading to the first power play of the night.
The Rocket did fairly well to contain the Crunch man advantage, but it took just one small window for Syracuse to take the lead. Gage Goncalves worked off the wall, firing a puck toward the crease and Gabriel Fortier got a stick on the puck to deflect it beyond Kaskisuo to open the scoring with around eight minutes left to play in the first period.
Laval responded in kind by putting all the pressure they were able to muster on the Crunch in the offensive zone, resulting in them drawing a penalty and heading to a power play of their own. Much like the Crunch, it was the man advantage that helped break the ice for an opening goal for Laval. Joshua Roy laid a puck off for Arber Xhekaj, who fired a no-look feed to the faceoff circle for Philippe Maillet. The veteran forward kicked the puck to his stick and rifled his shot by Alnefelt to tie the game at one goal apiece.
Mattias Norlinder followed up the goal by drawing a late penalty, giving the Rocket an opportunity to open the second period on the power play and take the lead for themselves.
Laval’s man advantage almost repeated their its first-period antics when Xhekaj snapped a shot on net. It hit Alnefelt’s shoulder then clanged off the crossbar before bouncing away from the net. From there the pace of the game was significantly higher than it was in the first period as the two teams began to stretch the ice to create opportunities.
Another Crunch penalty put Laval right back on the power play, however, with Mitchell Chaffee heading to the box for high-sticking deep inside the Rocket defensive zone. Again it was a “close, but no cigar” sort of showing as Sean Farrell snuck in through the slot for a Brandon Gignac feed, but Alnefelt caught just enough of the shot to force it out of play and keep it a level game.
Even with the Crunch penalty kill standing strong, the Rocket again went back to the power play as Gabriel Fortier was called for roughing up Riley McKay after a hit along the boards. Again the power play looked great in creating chances, but lacked just a bit of finesse in finishing them off, leaving the game still tied as the second period crossed the midway point. Kaskisuo had been relatively quiet since the start of the game, but was called upon as Joe Carroll slipped by Logan Mailloux’s backcheck, forcing Kaskisuo into a quick pad stop and then a snappy glove save shortly after that to keep the game level.
Those saves ended up being important, because on the next shift the Rocket finally found their second breakthrough. Xhekaj let a heavy shot go from the point, bouncing around in front off Yaremko. Joshua Roy charged in from the half-boards to fire the puck from along the goal line that beat Alnefelt and put Laval in the lead.
Despite the Crunch’s inability to stay out of the box, they got the benefit of a dubious call as William Trudeau was called for hooking despite Syracuse’s player also barrelling right through Kaskisuo in net. While Laval escaped the second period with the lead, they had 93 seconds of power play time left to kill off to start the third period.
Laval’s penalty-killers did well to dispatch the remaining time that the Crunch had to start period three. Then it was again the Kasimir Kaskisuo show as the Rocket netminder made one save, then had to dive across his crease to rob Syracuse on the second chance with a miraculous stick save.
After Shawn Element finally got Xhekaj to drop the gloves, the Rocket kicked their offence back into gear for a third goal. Yaremko sent Nathan Légaré down the ice with pace with the Crunch doing well to keep Légaré to the outside. As the Rocket winger flew toward the net he quickly cut in front of his defender, then flicked his shot over Alnefelt to make it a two-goal game.
Even another Crunch power play failed to faze the Rocket as Kaskisuo stood tall between the pipes as the game entered its final minutes. With Syracuse throwing itself at the Rocket zone with reckless abandon, the Rocket had to weather the storm. With just over three minutes left the Crunch pulled their goalie for a final six-on-four push against Laval.
Kaskisuo continued to rise to the occasion, denying the Crunch with quick pads and calm, controlled goaltending under fire. He held the fort as well as could be expected under immense pressure, but Fortier managed to find a small crack in the armor and it was a 3-2 game with 30 seconds left to play.
J.-F. Houle threw his three letter-wearing forwards on the ice with his top defensive pair behind them. The Crunch never even got control of the puck back as the Rocket locked the final moments of the game down, and sealed a first Laval win for Kaskisuo.
Final Score: Laval 3, Syracuse 2
Laval ends their three-games-in-three nights marathon on Saturday afternoon against Syracuse once again. Jakub Dobeš will be the presumed start, while Lias Andersson is also supposed to be back in the lineup.
