Coming off a win over one of the AHL’s top teams on Wednesday night, the Laval Rocket kicked off their biggest two-game series of the season against the Toronto Marlies. With Laval trailing Toronto by a point in the standings, Friday night’s contest had major playoff implications.
The Rocket received a boost in the forward group as Sean Farrell returned after missing several weeks due to an upper-body injury. He was on the third-line wing with a returning Brandon Gignac at centre. Toronto opted for Joseph Woll in net as he was with the team on a conditioning assignment, while Jakub Dobeš was again J.-F. Houle’s preferred starter.
The opening minutes of the first period were packed with intensity, with the Rocket testing Woll inside 20 seconds with a partial breakaway chance from Mitchell Stephens that the Marlies netminder just got a shoulder on. On the next shift it was Emil Heineman laying the body into Alex Steeves in the offensive zone, knocking Steeves off his feet.
While the Rocket were the more aggressive team, the Marlies were settling in quickly, setting up in Laval’s zone and cycling efficiently. The Rocket defence, and Dobeš himself, were in top form though, breaking up chances in the high-danger area and not allowing Toronto to get clear chances off while keeping it a scoreless game.
The Marlies’ ability to keep the Rocket hemmed in their own zone eventually drew a holding call, with Chris Jandric going to the box and handing Toronto the game’s first power play. It took all of 30 seconds for the man advantage to finally break down the Rocket defence. A point shot from William Villeneuve was deflected just in front of goal by Joe Blandisi to give Toronto the game’s opening goal.
The efforts of Xavier Simoneau drew a penalty for the Rocket and gave them a golden opportunity to stem the momentum of the Marlies. On the ensuing power play, it was Simoneau acting as the catalyst as he fired a perfect feed across the goal to Lias Andersson. The Rocket forward slipped his shot by Woll, but not quite over the line, but before Toronto could clear the puck away, Woll kicked the puck backward over the line. After a lengthy review, the officials finally confirmed the goal, tying the game up with just under five minutes left to play in the first period.
In the aftermath of Andersson’s goal, Simoneau came to his defence as a Marlies defender appeared to be roughing him up after the whistle sounded. That prompted Kyle Clifford to get involved, and shifted the game to four-on-four for two minutes. That stint was interrupted by Cameron Gaunce attempting to provoke Logan Mailloux, drawing in Tobie Paquette-Bisson and adding another pair of roughing penalties.
Laval used that power-play goal to turn the momentum back in the other direction as the period came to a close, and for their efforts would start the second period on another man advantage.
Laval’s power play created chance after chance, with Simoneau operating with impunity along the goal line, but Woll fended off the Rocket’s chances and kept it a level game. It didn’t take long for the Rocket to get another crack on the power play, though, as Kieffer Bellows took a double-minor for high sticking.
Before the first two minutes were even up, the Rocket found themselves in another four-on-four situation with Justin Barron getting whistled for interference in the neutral zone. Before that could end, the Rocket headed back to a brief power play. The Marlies were called for tripping, creating a short two-man advantage. As that expired and returned to a standard five-on-four power play, the Marlies again took a penalty, this time for shoving Simoneau onto their goalie and tackling him for it, making it a two-man advantage again.
The fifth and sixth chances on the power play again yielded nothing despite the Rocket throwing everything they had at Woll, but the Toronto netminder was not budging at all. Just a few minutes after the play returned to even strength, the speed of Brandon Gignac forced Josiah Slavin into a holding penalty and gave the Rocket yet another power-play opportunity.
Laval’s power play continued to run ice cold, in spite of all the chances they were generating. Then, with the Rocket having controlled the puck nearly the entire period, there began a march to the penalty box of their own. First Nathan Légaré got into it with Zach Solow, drawing a double minor for roughing, and before his penalty expired Tobie Paquette-Bisson was the only player pulled out of a scrum with a roughing minor as well.
A gutsy three-on-five penalty kill allowed Riley Kidney to exit the box as Légaré’s first minor expired, and he made an instant impact. He broke up the Marlies’ cycle, getting a crucial clear, and then for good measure ran over Logan Shaw as the horn sounded to end the period.
Laval finished killing off Paquette-Bisson’s minor, freeing him from the penalty box for a few seconds before he was unceremoniously returned to the box after tripping up a Toronto player off a faceoff. This time the Marlies’ power play found its mark as Dobeš kicked a rebound away, and Olivier Galipeau wasn’t able to tie up Shaw, who swatted in the rebound to give Toronto the lead.
Another Rocket power play passed by without a tying goal, and then Chris Jandric fired a puck out of play, putting Laval back on the penalty kill. The Rocket almost made it out of that kill with just a single goal separating them and Toronto, but a chaotic scramble in net forced Dobeš into a sprawl, and Joe Blandisi corralled the puck and fired it past the downed goalie.
Laval seemed to be running out of gas as the final minutes approached and their offence slowed to a crawl. Toronto added a third unanswered goal into an empty net with four minutes to play, and started Laval’s weekend on a sour note.
Final Score: Toronto 4, Laval 1
The rematch between these two teams will take place at Place Bell today, with puck drop scheduled for 3:00 PM. Kasimir Kaskisuo is the presumed starter for the Rocket, and there is a slight chance Jan Mysak may be healthy enough to play as well.
