Riding a four-game winning streak, the Laval Rocket returned home to the friendly confines of Place Bell for another clash with the Utica Comets, with the Montreal Canadiens’ front office in attendance. It would not be an easy contest for the Rocket, who were without four regular players after their previous road trip.
Gabriel Bourque was ruled out indefinitely after taking a blindside shot to the head, while Sean Farrell was ruled out for two months with an upper-body injury, Nathan Légaré was also ruled out for two months, while defenceman Brady Keeper would miss up to three. All this with Emil Heineman and Mitchell Stephens both with the NHL club right now, and Gustav Lindstrom claimed off waivers.
Jakov Novak and Alex-Olivier Voyer were called up from the ECHL, with Novak slotting in on the fourth line, while Nicolas Beaudin took Keeper’s spot on the third defensive pair.
Despite the potential for early fireworks after the previous meetings, it was a relatively quiet start to the game through the opening five minutes, with just two shots being registered on net. The few shots that were getting on goal were from the Comets though, with Kyle Criscuolo sneaking in and stealing a puck off Jared Davidson to create a mini breakaway chance on Jakob Dobeš. The rookie netminder shut the chance down.
On the next shift, the physicality of Riley McKay drew a penalty for the Rocket, putting them on the game’s first power play. While the special teams have been stronger of late, their first power play of the night was a struggle and then some as the group failed to get much momentum going, let alone shots on goal. Riley Kidney nearly opened the scoring after the penalty expired, but his five-hole chance was denied.
On the same shift, the Comets tore off down the ice, with Justin Dowling beating Dobeš to make it 1-0 Utica.
The pressure from the Comets continued after their goal, forcing Xavier Simoneau into taking a penalty and putting Laval on their first penalty kill. Dobeš was dialed in as he fended off a strong push from the Utica man advantage, managing to keep the deficit at just one goal as the first period neared its conclusion. The Rocket however, would not just go quietly into the intermission.
With Simoneau working down low, the puck eventually popped over to Philippe Maillet, and he in turn spun to put the puck across the face of goal. Joshua Roy was wide-open and made no mistake in burying his 11th goal of the year to tie the game up.
While the first period started slowly, the second began quickly as the two rival teams started trading chances early and often. First was another partial break, with Dobeš shutting down Dowling, and then the Rocket countering with a long cycle through the offensive zone. The action was punctuated by a scrap between Will MacKinnon and Nolan Yaremko as well, with some tempers finally starting to boil over after a quiet first period.
William Trudeau was caught flatfooted on the backcheck, forcing him to take a slashing call to prevent a clean breakaway chance. While it temporarily prevented a goal, the Comets’ power play broke down the Rocket’s penalty kill allowing Arnaud Durandeau to feed Dowling for a tap-in to put Utica back on top.
The Comets’ lead did not last long thanks to Roy playing spoiler once again. He picked off a pass in the neutral zone, creating an odd-man advantage for the Rocket, and the rookie winger called his own number and ripped his second goal of the evening by Isaac Poulter.
The goals continued to flow from there, with another rookie winger getting in on the action. Davidson collected a pass from Trudeau, and with his head up, Davidson found Tobie Paquette-Bisson across the zone and teed him up for a perfect one-timer to give Laval the lead.
Laval’s lead lasted less than a minute as Logan Mailloux found himself caught in no man’s land on a pass from Chase Stillman to Kyle Criscuolo that turned into a partial breakaway. Dobeš got part of the puck, but not enough as it trickled by him to tie the game up at three goals apiece late in the second period.
The Rocket wouldn’t leave the period with a tie either, as a Maillet penalty put them on a late penalty kill. The defensive pairing of Mattias Norlinder and Arber Xhekaj was not able to get the puck clear, including Norlinder firing the puck right to the Comets, and Brian Halonen fired it past Dobeš to make it a 4-3 game heading into the final period.
Laval jumped out to a fast start in the third. Trailing by a goal and frustrated by the officiating and their own play, the Rocket were hunting for an early third-period goal. A high-sticking call against Utica allowed Laval a power play opportunity to do so with just five minutes played.
This time the advantage clicked, and the Rocket again found a tying goal from their veterans when they needed it most. Roy had his initial pass blocked, but grabbed the loose puck and flicked it to Lias Andersson. Andersson in turn put it right into the empty space at the back post of the net and Maillet made it a 4-4 game with his seventh goal of the year.
Dobeš again had to come up big in net after Maillet’s tying goal, diving across with his glove to deny the Comets what looked like a sure goal just moments after the Rocket had scored. Even with the Rocket holding the control of the momentum afterward, it was Utica who broke the deadlock thanks to Laval’s inability to clear its own zone. Brian Halonen outmuscled Norlinder to the front of the net, and was able to chip the puck by Dobeš to make it 5-4 with just over two-and-a-half minutes left to play.
In typical fashion, Laval again refused to yield and pulled Dobeš to get an extra attacker out on the ice. Simoneau set up behind the Comets’ net, feeding Maillet, and then Maillet put it right on Andersson’s stick in front of goal to make it a 5-5 game.
The late goal was enough to grab at least one point from the Comets as the two sides headed for extra time once again. The chances were flying fast and furious from both sides, but both goalies were dialed in as it looked like another shootout was looming between the division rivals.
However, Simoneau was caught out on a long shift in overtime, then collided with Lucas Condotta trying to cover the front of the net. The moment of confusion allowed Joe Gambardella to slide across the front of goal and bury the game-winner.
Final Score: Utica 6, Laval 5 (OT)
The Rocket have Thursday off, then kick off a two-game series with the Manitoba Moose starting on Friday night.
