The end of the AHL regular season had not gone the smoothest for the Laval Rocket, alternating losses and inconsistent efforts over the month of April. However, thanks to the Belleville Senators of all teams, they clinched a second straight AHL North Division title, and had nothing really to play for over the weekend.
Sunday’s lineup reflected that for the Rocket as Sammy Blais, Joshua Roy, and Alex Belzile all got the day off, while Lucas Condotta was out serving a one-game suspension. That meant a total overhaul for the Rocket offence, with Vinzenz Rohrer making his AHL debut alongside Owen Beck and Sean Farrell. Dillan Bentley, Josh Nadeau, and Vincent Arseneau rounded out the forward group. On defence, it was a debut for Aiden Dubinsky, as he slotted in next to Tobie Bisson on the first pair.
With Toronto still vying for home ice in their first-round series, they struck first once again as the Rocket defence failed to break up an odd-man rush. Luke Haymes was able to feed a puck around Marc Del Gaizo to Dakota Mermis, who in turn fired it by Hunter Shepard for an early Marlies lead.
Despite the short-handed lineup and early goal against, the Rocket pushed back against Toronto almost instantly as Rohrer moved the puck through the slot with ease. The fourth line of Bentley and Nadeau also found room to operate, forcing some timely saves from Artur Akhtyamkov to keep the puck out. Shepard had to match the Marlies’ netminder as he denied Marc Johnstone’s partial break with a mask save of his own.
Luke Tuch, in a battle with Easton Cowan, was sent to the box after he hauled down the Toronto forward, but it did little to slow down the Rocket pressure. Rohrer charged down Cowan at the blue line, knocking the puck away and starting a short-handed rush with Owen Beck. Rohrer took a return feed and looked to throw a pass to the back post for Beck, but a Toronto stick directed his pass into the net, giving Rohrer his first career AHL goal.
Laval’s penalty-killers handled the rest of Tuch’s minor with relative ease, allowing the offence to begin grinding away again at even strength. Tyler Thorpe and Florian Xhekaj used their frames to win the puck along the boards and then generate chaos in the front of net as the Rocket looked for a second goal.
Even with nothing to play for, it was the Rocket who were getting the best looks as the first period came to a close. While the game was tied 1-1, the Rocket owned a 15-11 shot advantage.
Just like the first period, the Rocket surrendered the opening goal of the second frame and found themselves down 2-1 early. A cross-ice feed from Matt Benning to Vinni Lettieri beat Shepard over the shoulder and just under the crossbar, on just the second Marlies shot of the period. Toronto had begun to throw its top-six forwards over the boards more often as they tried to increase their lead, leaving a thrown-together bottom six scrambling to defend on most shifts.
Just as the fourth line looked like it was starting to tilt the ice, Vincent Arseneau got his stick in the mouth of Marshall Rifai, drawing a double-minor and putting the Rocket penalty kill in an extremely crucial spot. Laval’s penalty-killers did an impeccable job at keeping the Toronto power play in low-danger spots and also pressuring them while short-handed to keep the attack off-balance. One last clear by Beck sprung Vincent Arseneau from the box and the play returned to even strength.
An interference call gave the Rocket their first power play of the game, however with many of their usual starters out, the man advantage lacked much of its usual crispness. Jared Davidson and Filip Mešár each had solid looks, but fired their chances over the top of the net, leaving the Rocket still trailing by a goal. The end of the period didn’t feature much from either side, but with results coming from Cleveland, the third period would be played for nothing but pride.
Aiden Dubinsky kicked off the third period with a holding penalty, putting the Marlies’ power play back on the ice looking to find some potential insurance. Another strong penalty kill led by Beck and Rohrer kept the game at a 2-1 scoreline, as the Rocket moved to four-for-four on penalty kills on the afternoon.
Eventually the Marlies took advantage of Shepard’s aggressiveness in net as they doubled their lead. Jacob Quillan drew out Shepard with a shot, then after collecting his rebound he circled the net to tuck it in on the other side while Shepard was sprawled out at the opposite post. A scrum between Xhekaj and Ryan Tverberg resulted in Xhekaj being given an early shower, and the Rocket going short-handed again.
Right off the opening draw the Rocket dumped the puck in, forcing Akhtyamov to try to play it behind his net. Rohrer swept in, stealing the puck and setting up Beck for the second short-handed goal of the game to make it a 3-2 contest.
Laval managed again to fend off the Marlies’ power play, keeping their deficit at just one goal, but time was running down on the clock to potentially end the season on a win. While Bentley did his best to try to find a tying goal, his effort went just wide of goal, and left the Rocket with just two minutes left to work with.
A strong drive by Rohrer nearly saw him tally his second goal of the game, and it also allowed the Rocket to get Shepard to the bench for an extra attacker. Laval created chances, but with Michael Pezzetta camped out in the neutral zone, the puck soon found its way into the empty net to close out the game.
Final Score: Toronto 4, Laval 2
Laval will now have some time off as they await the winner of the three-game series between the Toronto Marlies and Rochester Americans which kicks off this week. The opening date is not yet confirmed, but the Rocket will have home ice for their five-game series.
