Less than 24 hours after the Laval Rocket suffered a frustrating 4-1 loss to the Toronto Marlies, the two teams squared off once again. The Rocket needed to find a regulation win to keep pace with their divisional rival after a lacklustre power-play performance cost them the previous night.
J.-F. Houle made a pair of lineup changes for the Rocket heading into the afternoon contest, with Jan Mysak and Filip Cederqvist replacing Riley McKay and Nathan Légaré in the forward group. In net it was the long-time Toronto Marlie Kasimir Kaskisuo obtaining the start for Laval, going up against Dennis Hildeby.
Much like Friday night’s game, the Rocket’s lack of care with the puck allowed the Marlies to take early control of the game. Kaskisuo was at his best, kicking out his pad repeatedly to deny Toronto the opening goal of the afternoon and giving the defence some time to sort itself out. After Xavier Simoneau and Kyle Clifford got into a post-whistle dust-up, the Rocket seemed to get themselves in gear.
First Mitchell Stephens wired a pair of shots wide of net, and then it was Jan Mysak battling through a Toronto defender in the neutral zone. Mysak fought through the stick-check, broke in alone on goal, but wasn’t able to tuck the puck by Hildeby as the game remained scoreless approaching the halfway mark of the period.
Then, as it did in the previous game, the sloppy play caught up to the Rocket and they surrendered the game’s opening goal. A failed clearing attempt by William Trudeau kept the puck in the defensive zone, and Kieffer Bellows eventually found just enough space to get to a loose puck and fooled Kaskisuo for the first goal of the day.
Laval was then finding itself on the back foot as the final minutes ticked away, with passes missing and the defensive structure continuing to collapse under any amount of pressure. To cap it all off, as the period came to a close Olivier Galipeau was called for cross-checking, giving Toronto the first power play of the day to start the second period.
Before the Rocket could kill off Galipeau’s minor penalty, Trudeau flicked a backhand clearing attempt right out of play, handing Toronto a five-on-three power play. It didn’t take long for Nick Abruzzese to cash in on a Joe Blandisi rebound chance to turn it into a 2-0 game, and leaving the Rocket looking at a massive uphill battle for the rest of the game.
A startling lack of composure continued to haunt the Rocket as Jared Davidson went off for cross-checking and Toronto went back to the power play. It wasn’t a long power play either as a point shot trickled through Kaskisuo and was swept into the net by Joe Blandisi to make it a 3-0 game. That soon became a 4-0 game as Justin Barron was caught out and Josiah Slavin wired his shot in, forcing Houle to make a goaltending change.
Before the second period was out, the Rocket did finally manage to get on the board thanks to one of their veterans. Jakub Dobeš played a long pass forward for Mysak, who fed a pass to Philippe Maillet in the slot. Maillet waited just a second before snapping his shot past Hildeby to make it a 4-1 game before the second period came to a close.
The joy wasn’t made to last as the Rocket were unable to use the late goal to create some third-period momentum, managing a few meagre shots on net only. For good measure, the Marlies added another goal as Bellows tipped home a Topi Niemela point shot to run the score up to 5-1.
The fifth goal let the final few gasps of air out of the rapidly deflating balloon and the Rocket, even with multiple power plays, never really threatened Toronto as the final minutes ticked away. After starting their week with a huge win over the Hershey Bears, the Rocket failed to capitalize on the momentum and made their path to a playoff spot that much more difficult in what was an eight-point swing over two games versus Toronto.
Final Score Toronto 5, Laval 1
The Rocket now have a few days off before they travel to Bridgeport on Wednesday for a meeting with the Islanders.
