With just nine games left on the schedule, the Laval Rocket were down to the nitty-gritty of their schedule as they tracked down a second straight North Division title. With their magic number sitting at 19 points, the Rocket would need some help from teams playing the Syracuse Crunch down the stretch in order to reach that goal. It would be an uphill battle for the Rocket as it was announced that leading scorer Laurent Dauphin would be out with an injury for the rest of the regular season.
First up on their final run was the last clash of the year with the Utica Comets at Place Bell, with a chance to go four points clear at the top of the division. Coming off a pair of strong wins, Pascal Vincent opted to keep his winning lineup in order, with a few small tweaks. Most notably was sliding Luke Mittelstadt next to William Trudeau, and Marc Del Gaizo with Nate Clurman. Kaapo Kähkönen again was the starter, with Hunter Shepard serving as the backup once more.
After what was a quiet opening eight minutes for both sides, the Rocket offence began to find its legs and started to extend their shifts inside the offensive zone. After a strong fourth-line effort, the top line jumped on the ice and the pressure from Alex Belzile forced the Comets to take a penalty, sending Laval to the game’s first power play.
While the first wave generated a few looks on net, the power play as a whole didn’t challenge Nico Daws all that much as the game moved back to five-on-five with just over eight minutes left in the opening period.
With the man advantage ended, it was again the Rocket fourth line that kept the pressure on with Vincent Arseneau and Luke Tuch both creating great looks and drawing an icing. That icing allowed the second line onto the ice against a tired group, but an errant pass resulted in Jared Davidson taking an offensive-zone penalty.
Led by some gutsy shotblocking by Lucas Condotta and a timely short-handed rush by Florian Xhekaj, the Rocket killed off Davidson’s minor penalty without too much issue, keeping the game scoreless as the final minutes of the first period approached. The immediate pushback after returning to even strength sent the Rocket back to the power play as Owen Beck’s quick feet drew a holding call with 2:08 left on the clock.
The top power-play unit made sure to make this advantage count as they took less than a minute to find the back of the net. Sammy Blais worked the puck around the back boards to Belzile on the right wall. Belzile had all the time in the world to find a wide open Sean Farrell in the slot, and Farrell had no problem squeaking one through the five-hole for a 1-0 lead.
While the Rocket had just taken the lead, the next shift saw Luke Tuch head to the box for cross-checking. The Rocket killed off the first 1:04 of Tuch’s minor penalty, but would have to contend with the final 56 seconds in the second period.
The penalty-killers came out strong in the second period, with a perfectly weighted clearing attempt leaving Nico Daws in no man’s land trying to play the puck, but David Reinbacher’s chance was swallowed up without a rebound available. The period settled into a back-and-forth affair, with both sides generating a few one-off looks, but neither really sustaining pressure inside the offensive zone.
While it was the Rocket controlling the flow of play and creating more looks inside the offensive zone, the constant one-and-done attacks weren’t allowing them to increase their advantage beyond their opening goal. Meanwhile, Utica was being smothered on and off the puck, making it a relatively quiet period for Kähkönen in net as the Rocket shot advantage continued to climb.
A late push by the Rocket saw Daws scrambling around his crease as his teammates kicked the puck away from him as he tried to freeze the play. However, Laval fired their best look over the net, leaving them still in search of a second goal as the intermission arrived.
The third period began to mirror the opening two right out of the gate as the Rocket created opportunities while limiting the Comets to long-distance shots. The Rocket also continued to struggle at finding second-chance rebounds, and after Blais caused a ruckus in the crease, they found themselves at four-on-four once again. At least it was four-on-four for a moment before Belzile got a bit over-eager and joined Blais in the box for cross-checking.
A strong shift by Condotta and Reinbacher allowed the Rocket to get Blais free from the box, and thanks to another big effort by Xhekaj, Blais was joined by Belzile shortly after. Killing off a crucial pair of penalties without two regular penalty-killers and allowing just two shots on net was a huge boost for the Rocket, who needed to find an insurance goal in the final 12 minutes to give themselves some breathing room.
As it turned out, failing to add that second goal became a problem with just over five minutes left in regulation. A long stretch pass from the Utica zone hit Marc McLaughlin in stride as he split both Adam Engström and Reinbacher. McLaughlin held the puck just enough to poke a pass over to Calen Addison, who beat Kähkönen over the glove to tie the game.
The Rocket, despite again having more shots as the period came to a close, couldn’t capitalize on their first chances or get to the few second ones available to them. In the end, they would have to settle for extra time against the last-place team in the North Division.
A similar story began to unfold as the Rocket controlled the puck, created great looks on net that forced big saves out of Daws, and yet could not find another goal. A great defensive play by Beck even sprung Blais for a wide-open two-on-zero breakaway chance, on which Blais caught himself somewhere between a shot and pass, resulting in an easy save for Daws on the last scoring opportunity of the overtime period.
Down to a skills contest, the Rocket threw away their chance at a second point as both Comets shooters scored, while Sammy Blais and Sean Farrell were denied by Daws.
Final Score: Utica 2, Laval 1 (SO)
Earning one point moves the Rocket’s magic number down to 18 points. With just eight games left they’ll need some losses from their rivals to lock up a division title. Up next for the team is a two-game road trip, and up first are the Bridgeport Islanders on Friday.
