With their backs against the wall and the season on the line, the Laval Rocket stepped onto the ice in Toronto for Game 4 versus the Marlies, coming off of back-to-back 6-2 defeats in Games 2 and 3. The Rocket had to give this game everything they had, or would risk going home much earlier than expected after a regular-season division title.
Pascal Vincent, clearly unhappy with the lineup’s effort over the last two games, scrambled things around all over the lineup. Alex Belzile was down to the second line with Sean Farrell and Joshua Roy, while Owen Beck was moved into his spot on the top line. Jared Davidson and Marc Del Gaizo found themselves as healthy scratches as Vincent Arseneau and Adam Engström drew in.
The message was well received by the Rocket, who struck first inside the opening minute of play to get out of the gate early. Belzile grabbed a loose puck and sped down the ice while being kept slightly to the outside by the Marlies’ defence. Belzile then borrowed a page from Jason Spezza as he faked a slapshot, then after the netminder bit on the fake rifled a snapshot over his shoulder to make it a 1-0 game.
Belz marque en premier!
— xy – Rocket de Laval (@RocketLaval) May 5, 2026
Belz opens the scoring! https://t.co/V4SmGJhwvC pic.twitter.com/2IEQ0W0SZU
Things could have gone sideways for the Rocket as Sammy Blais went off for tripping inside the defensive zone. Unlike the previous games, the Rocket penalty-killers gave Toronto next to no space to operate, making life easy on Kaapo Kähkönen as they killed of Blais’s penalty.
Beck’s hard work then drew the first power play of the night for Laval as they looked to increase their lead. Unfortunately for the Rocket, their first effort on the man advantage also went for naught as the Rocket lead remained at one goal.
Even with the power play not clicking, the Rocket managed to control the flow of play in the first period as they kept the Marlies out of all the dangerous areas around the net. Perhaps the most key was that the Rocket stayed out of the box, even when Toronto got into their faces after whistles and around the net, which allowed the depth of Laval to do what it does best.
After the first period, it was the Rocket on top by a goal, and leading 14-6 in shots.
Right out of the gate in period two it was the Rocket using their speed and forecheck to draw a call as Farrell was pulled back while trying to break away inside the offensive zone. While the power play moved the puck much quicker than their first attempt, the Rocket managed just one real shot that looked dangerous. Even with the large shot advantage, Laval very much looking for insurance against a strong Marlies offence.
They soon found that second goal thanks to the work of Beck and Blais in the offensive zone. Laurent Dauphin shovelled the puck around the net to Beck, and Beck quickly dished it off to Blais along the boards. Blais took the feed as a one-timer and ripped one over the glove of Artur Akhtyamov to make it 2-0.
BLAIS 🚨 2-0!!
— xy – Rocket de Laval (@RocketLaval) May 6, 2026
The temperature began to rise from there as the Marlies finished a hard check on William Trudeau, which prompted Lucas Condotta to barrel forward to try to extract his own pound of flesh. As play moved the other way, it was again Condotta at the centre of a kerfuffle. Josiah Didier waited and put a puck toward net, and Dakota Mermis then cross-checked Condotta on top of his goalie, and the official was buying none of the yells from Toronto as play was stopped.
Toronto was determined to get themselves on the board, and began to pick out some gaps in the Rocket defensive zone. Cedric Paré managed to get in alone, but a big blocker save from Kähkönen denied him. Tempers continued to boil as Pezzetta and Luke Tuch took penalties on the same shift, but not on each other in a rare occurrence.
The extra ice turned out to be a boon for the Rocket who used their speed in the offensive zone to open a clear lane to the net, and found another goal. As Dauphin worked laterally across the zone, he was able to find a charging Blais coming up the centre of the zone. Blais took the feed and with a full head of steam ripped his second goal of the game home to make it 3-0.
Toronto charged right down the ice, and with a delayed penalty it looked like Marc Johnstone finally solved Kähkönen as the red light came on. In a moment of confusion, the officials signalled there was no goal, but then blew play dead, causing Toronto to celebrate a goal that never went in. Laval however, still had to contend with an end-of-period penalty kill as Toronto looked to finally break their goose egg.
The Rocket penalty-killers put on a clinic as they allowed zero shots on net, getting into the second intermission with a 3-0 lead, and a 25-9 shot advantage in a crucial game.
After 40 minutes of solid hockey, the Rocket started the third period with a bit of a challenge as Beck went off for interference just 42 seconds in. Laval again clamped down the Marlies’ power play, and even turned Beck’s penalty into offence for themselves. A great play by Florian Xhekaj to escape the defensive zone sprung an odd-man rush on which Xhekaj fed a pass to Dauphin. The Rocket’s star forward calmly pulled the puck to his backhand and tucked it by Dennis Hildeby to make it 4-0.
Sur le pk 🚀 https://t.co/Y2XWzaB9gZ pic.twitter.com/W3BhI96gx9
— xy – Rocket de Laval (@RocketLaval) May 6, 2026
With a stout lead in hand, the Rocket switched into their defensive mode to grind out the minutes, and try to keep everyone else healthy going toward Game 5. After Condotta and Paré were each sent to the box, Dauphin drew a call to give the Rocket a rare regulation four-on-three power play. Despite the offensive prowess shown by the Rocket across the game, the power play continued to struggle in terms of creating goals as Toronto killed off a third Rocket advantage.
The Rocket continued to just grind out the clock, and even with the Marlies trying to extract some sort of revenge for the game, Laval kept themselves composed and drew a power play out of it to end the game. Before the clock could run out, Pezzetta attempted to make his presence justified as he threw a hit from behind, prompting Xhekaj to instantly seek him out, forcing the officials to sort out another round of penalties.
Pezzetta found himself ejected for a hit to the head, along with Marc Johnstone who had intercepted Xhekaj in a scrum. Xhekaj and also Vincent Arseneau found themselves with 10-minute misconducts as well, but the Rocket managed to close out the final minute without further incident.
Final Score: Laval 4, Toronto 0
Series tied 2-2
The Rocket have now forced a do-or-die Game 5 at Place Bell, which has been moved from Friday night to Saturday afternoon at 3 PM ET to avoid a conflict with Game 2 of the Canadiens-Sabres series. The Rocket may be without a young star defender as David Reinbacher left the game with an injury of some kind, but there are plenty of options for Pascal Vincent if Reinbacher is unable to play.
