It was a rare occurrence on Friday night as the Laval Rocket returned to the ice after a shootout loss to the Toronto Marlies on Wednesday night. The team was still without three of their key pieces as they were part of a winning effort in Pittsburgh for the Montreal Canadiens on Thursday.
That meant Kaapo Kähkönen was again the starter in net, while Ryan O’Rourke drew in alongside Josiah Didier on the Rocket third pairing. The rest of the lineup remained the same as the Rocket looked to increase their lead atop the AHL’s North Division beyond three points.
It was maybe a more tentative start than expected by the Rocket, with the Marlies jumping out to an early 4-1 shot advantage while the Rocket struggled to get their regular breakouts in order. However, as is often the case the top line of the Rocket righted the ship quickly. Alex Belzile dipped and ducked around Toronto defenders while putting a few looks on net that quickly evened up the shot counter. Then for good measure, Belzile threw a massive hit along the boards as he went off on a change.
With the momentum turning back in their favour, the Rocket’s bottom six provided some much-needed scoring. Filip Mešár working along the goal line was being tripped up as he looked to pivot and make a feed to the slot. The young Slovak still managed to get a puck to the net-front, where Lucas Condotta slammed it home to put Laval on top in the first period.
While the Marlies managed to steady their own ship following Condotta’s goal, it was still the home side that would strike again as the period came to a close. With the Marlies pushed back into their own end in the final minute of the period, the Rocket fourth line continued to keep them pinned there. Eventually a shot from Josiah Didier was tipped first by Laurent Dauphin, and then again by Luke Tuch to double the Rocket’s lead.
Laval continued to be a pure nuisance for the Marlies right out of the gate in the second period, keeping Toronto pushed back shift after shift. While the Rocket had them hemmed in, they also drew the game’s first penalty and went to the power play with a chance to push the game further out of reach.
The power play did just that. Even without Adam Engström to run the show, they struck effectively with the Marlies having absolutely no answer for the man advantage. David Reinbacher let a shot fly, and Sammy Blais made a fantastic play to get the puck to a wide-open Dauphin. The Rocket’s leading scorer continued to be red-hot as he neatly tucked it the net to make it a three-goal lead.
Josiah Didier soon gave the Marlies their first power play of the game as he launched a clearing attempt straight out of play. The Rocket penalty kill gave the division rivals nothing to work with, allowing just two shots on net while keeping the lead intact passing the midway point of the game.
Laval’s continuous dominance on the puck soon yielded another power play as Xavier Simoneau’s quick deke drew a high-sticking call and handed the Rocket a chance to really blow the game open. It took under 30 seconds for the man advantage to strike as Joshua Roy created a rebound off his shot, and Blais was in the right spot to fire home the loose puck.
Laval again had to kill another penalty after their power-play goal and again did so with ease, which led to the Marlies beginning to show plenty of signs of frustration. That frustration included Michael Pezzetta shoving Florian Xhekaj right into his own goalie, and putting the Rocket back on the power play. While the Rocket did not score, the game still changed rapidly as Pezzetta exited the box and landed a blindside hit on Marc Del Gaizo.
Xhekaj, after ignoring the goading of the Marlies all night, finally threw off his gloves to batter the former Canadiens player. While that was finishing up, Rhett Parsons got into it with the entire Rocket bench which kicked off a massive line brawl that the officials had to scramble to defuse before it got any worse. Belzile and Blais both looked beyond furious as the teams were ushered into the locker rooms to end the second period.
The outcome of all of the end-of-period chaos was a five-minute power play for the Rocket as Pezzetta was given a major penalty for the hit on Marc Del Gaizo. Laval was down Belzile and Tyler Thorpe, given misconducts for their fights and secondary altercations. For the Marlies, Pezzetta was given five and a game for charging while Parsons and Cedric Paré were ejected for secondary altercations as well.
The Rocket, with a power play in front of them, took their time to pick their spots, but their passiveness failed to increase their lead. In fact, a sloppy play with the puck in the neutral zone turned into a chance for Benoit-Olivier Groulx, who finished a backhand off the post and in to break Kähkönen’s shutout bid.
With the game separated by a hefty margin, and likely with a stern lecture from the officials, it settled into a relative lull as both sides were trying escape without any further incident. Kähkönen was the busier of the two goalies, but following Groulx’s goal he was happy to swallow up every puck and draw a stoppage in play.
Thankfully for the Rocket, a few Marlies players still wanted a pound of flesh with Blake Smith trying to rough up Roy after the whistle which put Laval back on the power play late in the third period. With the lead firmly in hand, the Rocket man advantage again opted for a more conservative approach to continue bleeding the clock away safely. This strategy came back to bite the Rocket again as Noah Chadwick threw a pass to the front of goal, and Travis Boyd deflected it over Kähkönen to make it a two-goal contest.
Boyd’s goal gave the Marlies a chance to pull their goalie as they attempted to steal at least one point of the Rocket with a third-period comeback again. Xhekaj, fresh from the penalty box after serving 17 minutes of penalties, made a fantastic defensive play to force the puck loose and allowed Roy to seal the game with an empty-netter.
Final Score: Laval 5, Toronto 2
There will be plenty of time for both teams to stew on this game, with the next contest being on the 31st of January. The Rocket now turn their attention to a 3 PM game with the Bridgeport Islanders today.
