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Laval Rocket vs. Belleville Senators game recap: Six unanswered goals propel Rocket to second straight win

Posted on by Julian McKenzie

While the Montreal Canadiens ran into trouble against the Washington Capitals, their minor-league club handled their business in their second game of the season.

Four Laval Rocket players registered multi-point efforts in a 6-2 win over the Belleville Senators on Saturday night at Place Bell. The Rocket came back from two goals down with six unanswered goals for the victory, their second in two nights against Belleville to begin the season.

Laval’s offence buzzed in the first period, leading the Senators in shots, but it was the Senators who led on the scoreboard after the opening 20 minutes. Defensive stud Thomas Chabot scored his first professional goal, giving the Senators a 1-0 lead.

Discipline was an issue for the Rocket on Saturday, and they found themselves on the wrong side of a five-on-three in the second period. On the Senators’ 11th shot of the game, Chris DiDomenico made the Rocket pay. His goal gave the Senators a 2-0 advantage. Both Belleville goals came on the power play.

That’s where the fun times ended for Belleville, as the Rocket scored the first of their six unanswered goals in the second period. Stefan Leblanc scored his first professional goal to cut into Belleville’s deficit, thanks to a sweet feed from Daniel Audette—who scored Laval’s first ever goal on Friday.

Two minutes later, Peter Holland scored the first of two goals on the night. Antoine Waked fed defenceman Jakub Jerabek in the slot before the Czech wisely tapped the puck to his left. There, he found a wide-open Holland who responded in kind with a game-tying goal.

Markus Eisenschmid scored the go-ahead goal nearly four minutes later. His goal came on the power-play and was effectively enough for Laval, but it certainly didn’t stop them from piling on. Jerabek picked up his second assist of the period on Eisenschmid’s marker, while Chris Terry also registered an assist.

The Rocket gave themselves a two-goal cushion in the third period, thanks to a goal from Niki Petti. The Ontario native will get credit for his first goal of the season, but it was newcomer Nicolas Deslauriers who did most of the work on the play. Deslauriers took advantage of a turnover by Senators defenceman Jordan Murray, picking his pocket before feeding Petti in the slot.

Holland added his second goal of the evening nearly two minutes later. The forward scored his team’s fifth of the night after receiving a two-on-one pass from teammate Nikita Scherbak. That goal drove Belleville goalie Danny Taylor out of his net in favour of Andrew Hammond.

Finally, the Rocket added a sixth one for good measure. Jeremy Grégoire, who assisted on Laval’s first of the night, scored the game’s final goal with under five minutes left in the period.

Laval’s indiscipline stuck out as their worst aspect of the night. The Rocket took six penalties Saturday, including three in the second period. Belleville capitalized on two of those penalties and only took three penalties all night. Other than that, the Rocket were clearly the more dangerous side and peppered Taylor and Hammond with a total of 46 shots.

Charlie Lindgren allowed the game’s first two goals, but was perfect the rest of the way. The 23-year old only needed to make 17 stops for his second win in as many days.

Three Stars

  1. Peter Holland: (2G, scored the game-tying goal and an insurance marker)
  2. Jakub Jerabek (2A, assisted on game-tying goal and game-winner)
  3. Jérémy Gregoire (1G, 1A, energetic player who made a difference for Laval)

Laval returns to action Friday, October 13 against the Binghamton Devils.

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