The path to the post-season lay right in front of the Laval Rocket, needing just two points in any form on Wednesday night to clinch another Calder Cup playoff berth. Standing in their way, also needing just a single point to punch their own post-season ticket, were the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins.
Laval continued to feel the impact of injuries as both Tobie Bisson and Josiah Didier would miss the next few weeks with injuries, and Xavier Simoneau had also been ruled out for the rest of the year with a shoulder injury. Luckily for Pascal Vincent, he was bolstered by the return of star defenceman Adam Engström to the lineup, placed on a pair with David Reinbacher. Laurent Dauphin was conspicuous by his absence on the top line, which saw Joshua Roy slide into his role. The newly acquired Hunter Shepard was the backup to Kaapo Kähkönen.
Out of the gate it was a slower start for the Rocket as the Penguins maintained control of the puck and generated the first shots of the game while the Rocket could not create any sustained pressure of their own. Kähkönen was sharp as ill-advised passes turned into close-range chances for the Penguins that the Rocket netminder skilfully turned away.
Despite the intense pressure by the Penguins, it was the Rocket who drew the game’s first power play as Sammy Blais was hooked in the neutral zone. Laval’s power play looked out of sorts, even with Engström back as the quarterback. The best chance came in the dying moments of the advantage as Filip Mešár flung a pass across the zone to Jared Davidson, but Sergei Murashov was able to slide across and take the opportunity away from him. Murashov followed up that save with another scrambling stop as he denied both Vincent Arseneau and Florian Xhekaj on a loose puck in his crease, leaving the Rocket still searching for an opening goal.
While the Rocket had clawed back on the shot counter, a Penguins power play threatened to undo their work as the final minutes of the first period approached. Even with one of their top penalty-killers in the box, a strong effort led by Florian Xhekaj saw the Rocket surrender just two shots and keep the game a scoreless draw.
A too many men on the ice penalty gave the Rocket a late power play opportunity to crack open the game after a tight first period. The man advantage needed just nine seconds to convert as Laval moved the puck effectively across the offensive zone. Reinbacher worked from the point toward the high slot, and then flicked a pass over to Davidson in the right circle. Davidson got all of his one-timer opportunity as his buried his 15th goal of the year to give Laval the game’s opening goal.
Davidson’s goal was the only one on the board as the two sides headed into the first intermission, with the Penguins holding a narrow shot advantage after 20 minutes.
Laval seemed to have shaken off their slow start to the game as the second period got under way. Even if the Penguins kept them hemmed in, they were able to keep the chances to the low-danger variety. Then, on the counter-attack it was the Rocket picking apart the Penguins’ defence, which led to a number of chances. Xhekaj’s backhand feed was pushed just wide by Roy, while Marc Del Gaizo clanged a shot off the inside of the goal post.
Eventually it was Sammy Blais who found a big enough gap to double the Rocket advantage just past the halfway point of the game. Nate Clurman collected a puck inside the defensive zone and rifled a leading pass to Blais, who was camped out at the opposing blue line. Blais barrelled forward, dangling around a sprawling Murashov to tuck in his 10th goal of the year.
The two-goal lead soon became three as the top line went to work after Blais’s goal. Alex Belzile worked the puck in deep, feeding a chance to Roy in front of the Penguins’ net. Roy couldn’t convert his chance, but the puck trickled over to Sean Farrell in the slot, and Farrell made no mistake as he put a shot out of Murashov’s grasp.
With a three-goal cushion, the Rocket were content to begin grinding out the remaining clock as their playoff berth clicked closer and closer. A slashing call on Mešár did open the door slightly for the Penguins as the second period was coming to a close. The penalty-killers did well to deny Wilkes-Barre any real looks as the period ended, but had just over a minute of power-play time to contend with at the start of the third period.
Laval’s penalty-killers remained flawless as the third period got under way, giving the Penguins next to no time or space to operate. With play back at even strength, the Rocket’s depth continued to be an issue for the Penguins, but a brief lapse in awareness broke Kähkönen’s shutout bid. An errant clear by William Trudeau was intercepted in front of net, and eventually Gabe Klassen fired a shot through traffic that found the back of the net.
Even with a multiple-goal advantage, the Rocket choosing to try to grind out the clock had the opposite effect of what they might have hoped. The Penguins were first on every puck, and shifts inside the Rocket zone started to last longer and longer as failed clears and lazy passes didn’t relieve any pressure.
Thankfully for the Rocket, they were also able to immediately capitalize on one of the few mistakes made by their opponent in the period. A long clearing attempted bounced in front of a Penguins’ defender and Farrell swiped it off his stick without much fight. Farrell then waited for a moment before sending a pass to Roy, and Roy neatly tucked his 17th goal of the year by Murashov to make it a 4-1 game.
The Penguins opted to pull their netminder with nearly four minutes left in regulation, and Xhekaj quickly put any comeback hopes to rest as he buried an empty-net goal from his own zone to make it a 5-1 contest with 3:53 left to play.
The Rocket easily saw out the final moments, and with two points secured in regulation, also punched their ticket back to the Calder Cup playoffs.
Final Score: Laval 5, Wilkes-Barre/Scranton 1
Laval will have Thursday off, then welcome the Springfield Thunderbirds on Friday night as they start toward their next goal of locking up a first-round bye. Puck drop is scheduled for 7 PM ET, and we’ll see if Luke Mittelstadt will make his professional debut after he joined the team on Wednesday.
