Fresh off a 4-3 win on Friday night at Place Bell, the Laval Rocket hopped on the road to make the trip to central New York for a rematch with the Utica Comets. The Rocket have gotten off to a strong start on the season, going 4-1-0 in their first five games, trailing just Toronto in the divisional standings
Their second game against Utica would be a difficult one, not only factoring in the travel, but the rash of injuries beginning to plague the team. Vincent Arseneau still remains out of the lineup with an upper-body injury, and was joined by Laurent Dauphin and Filip Mesar for this game. Due to these recent injuries, the Rocket were forced to run a seven-defenceman alignment, with Chris Jandric slotting in. In net it was Connor Hughes getting his third start of the season, and for the Comets it was Isaac Poulter getting the nod in goal.
With both teams having gotten in at 3 AM, the start to the game could charitably be called sluggish for both sides with just six total shots on goal well into the frame. However, an extended shift in the defensive zone forced the Rocket to take a penalty, and that opened up the floodgates in a big way. Just under 45 seconds into the Comets’ advantage, Nolan Foote found some open space and wired a shot past Hughes to give the Comets a first-period lead.
Foote’s goal snapped the Rocket out of their slumber and back into the game quickly, with Laval answering the opening goal rapidly. William Trudeau kept the puck in along the blue line, firing what looked like a harmless shot on goal until Luke Tuch got a stick on the puck to redirect it by Poulter for Tuch’s first professional goal.
Under two minutes later, the Rocket had managed to turn the game completely in the opposite direction, taking advantage of a stickless defender to put themselves in the lead. Alex Barré-Boulet pressured a defender back into his own zone, knocking the puck loose and right into the open ice for Joshua Roy to jump all over it. Roy calmly skated in, and then ripped his fourth goal of the season by Poulter to put the Rocket in front with just about three minutes left to play in the first period.
Laval was happy to head into the first intermission with their one-goal advantage, but Utica was primed to come out of the gate hard in the second period.
The Comets did come out of the break absolutely flying, putting seven shots on Hughes in less than five minutes while the Rocket struggled to clear their lines over and over again. When they did get the puck out, Riley Kidney took a tripping penalty behind the Comets’ net to put the Rocket back on the penalty kill.
Laval’s penalty kill again struggled to contain the Utica power play, with Foote hammering a shot off of Hughes’s pads and into the path of Adam Beckman to slam the rebound in and tie the game up at two goals apiece.
Despite being outshot heavily and hemmed in regularly by the Comets, the Rocket counter-attack put them back in the lead in rapid succession. Roy and Barré-Boulet were again at the heart of it, with Barré-Boulet taking a Roy feed and creating a rebound for Jared Davidson to fire home to make it a 3-2 game.
Just over a minute later, it was Barré-Boulet flicking a clearing pass out of the zone for Luke Tuch to collect after coming on from a change. Barrelling into the offensive zone, Tuch was able to find a tiny gap on the short side, and had his second goal of the night to make it a two-goal Rocket lead.
The Comets refused to go away quietly, taking their next trip into the offensive zone and turning it into a 4-3 game quickly. Nick DeSimone had the puck at the point, letting a shot go and it was Foote getting a stick on the puck to turn it back into a one-goal lead for the Rocket.
A late flurry pushed Hughes to the brink, but the Rocket netminder held strong as the two sides entered the second intermission with a 4-3 score favouring Laval.
Right out of the gate to start the third period the Rocket surrendered a breakaway chance to Justin Dowling, forcing Hughes to make a timely pad save to deny the Comets forward a goal. The Rocket were able to contain the Comets in the defensive zone pretty easily from there, until Samuel Laberge gave a bit of embellishment to draw a third Utica power play on the night.
The Rocket penalty-killers were up to the challenge from the Comets this time, dispatching the power play with relative ease and keeping their narrow lead intact with just over 11 minutes left to play in the final period. Utica’s pressure continued to force the Rocket into errors, including Hughes misplaying the puck behind his own net and having to make a save while sliding back into the crease on his backside.
The Rocket were happy to flip the puck out and slowly grind the clock down minute by minute as the Comets were unable to find a gap in the armour and level the game. Eventually, with just 90 seconds left, the Comets got their netminder to the bench. Hughes had his stick ripped from his hands, but even without it made a huge blocker save and helped get the puck out of the zone, where Florian Xhekaj beat out an icing to help melt away the last few seconds of game time to secure a fourth straight Rocket win.
Final Score: Laval 4, Utica 3
Laval now heads back to Place Bell where they will have a third consecutive game against Utica on Wednesday night. Hopefully there will also an update on the current injuries to Mesar and Dauphin, as both players didn’t travel with the team for this game.