The search for balance and consistency still continued for the Laval Rocket as they rolled into Syracuse on the heels of a lopsided loss to the Hershey Bears on the weekend. The Crunch presented a massive challenge to the Rocket, as they sat second in the division under the watchful eye of former coach Joël Bouchard.
Laval got a boost on the injury front as Sean Farrell returned to practice, though he was not yet cleared for game action quite yet. Returning to game action was feisty winger Xavier Simoneau, who slotted in on the top line opposite Joshua Roy. In net was Jakub Dobeš, backed up by Strauss Mann while the newly signed Kasimir Kaskisuo watched from the press box.
Despite an early long shift in the defensive zone, the Rocket were the more aggressive team out of the gate, testing Matt Tomkins multiple times, but were unable to capitalize on the rebound chances he was surrendering. Then, as things have often gone lately, the Rocket yielded the first goal to their opponents. Jack Thompson had all day to line up a shot from the point, which seemingly fooled Dobeš, but it was deflected at the last moment by Gabriel Dumont to open the scoring for Syracuse.
The Rocket did well stymieing the Crunch attack after their goal, but were still mostly unable to generate more than a shot here and there when they entered into the offensive zone. The defence was clearly driving the bus through the opening minutes, with repeated chances on Tomkins, so it was fitting that they also found the back of the net first for Laval.
Lucas Condotta collected a leading pass from Gabriel Bourque, then circled back through the faceoff circles while finding an open teammate. Tobie Paquette-Bisson had jumped off the bench to join the play, and he took the feed from Condotta and snapped a shot right by Tomkins to tie the game up.
A Simoneau slashing call put the Rocket penalty kill in a tough spot in the final minutes of the first period. However, the speedy play of Brandon Gignac and Nathan Légaré pushed the Crunch back, while Dobeš held the fort to keep it a level game entering the final 90 seconds of the period.
Laval managed to just barely escape the period with the game still tied, as Dobeš came across his crease to make a save, removing it from its pegs. As he did, the Crunch wired a shot off the inside of the post, but luckily for the Rocket the time had expired, and there was no further review into whether or not the puck had crossed the line at all.
It took just 76 seconds for the Crunch to retake the lead in the second period, thanks to multiple mishaps inside the Rocket zone. First was Bourque having his stick slashed away without a call coming for it from the officials. As Bourque went to retrieve it behind the net, Logan Mailloux did not adjust, leaving Gage Goncalves wide open in front of goal to make it a 2-1 game.
Another Simoneau penalty put the Rocket penalty-killers back to the test, and the Crunch refused to let anything leave the zone, keeping the first unit trapped on the ice for the full two minutes. Dobeš was dialed in, denying the Crunch a power-play goal, and allowing Laval to escape their second penalty kill unscathed.
In response, the Crunch then promptly sent Laval to its first power play of the game as Daniel Walcott sat for elbowing. Laval’s power play was held in check, failing to register more than a spare chance on Tomkins and the Crunch held onto their lead.
After killing a minor from Jared Davidson, the Rocket set out to try to find another late tying goal. They found it through some lucky and timely bounces deep in the Crunch zone. Roy skated in, feeding a pass to Simoneau for a one-timer, but Simoneau fanned on his shot and could only push the puck behind the Crunch net. It continued around to Paquette-Bisson at the back post, and in the scramble the Rocket defender buried his second goal of the night to send the teams into the intermission tied once again.
The third period kicked off with a physical edge as the two rivals traded hits, and also traded scoring chances through the opening minutes, but both Tomkins and Dobeš remained sharp.
The Rocket’s top pairing and top line eventually wore down the Crunch enough to find a soft spot and earned the tie-breaking goal. Mailloux drove deep through the Crunch zone, hitting the end boards behind Tomkins. As he skated into the trapezoid behind the net, he flicked a pass to Brandon Giganc who was open at the side of the net, and the Rocket’s leading scorer buried his ninth of the year to make it a 3-2 game.
Syracuse did come storming back, putting the Rocket defence on its heels, but the young group did well to limit chances around their crease. Dobeš was quick to smother any loose pucks, while the defence cleaned up and cleared pucks quickly to limit the potential chances from the Crunch as the game reached its final minutes.
With just over two minutes left the Crunch played their final card, pulling Tomkins for the extra attacker. Following an icing, they also took a timeout to try to draw up a last-minute goal. It was the Dobeš show in the closing seconds as the Crunch attackers caused all sorts of chaos in front of Laval’s net, with the puck bouncing around amongst the sticks and skates, but the rookie netminder swallowed it up under pressure with relative ease.
A last gasp deflection by Bourque killed off the remaining seconds on the clock, and the Rocket found a crucial win against a rival that typically has given them fits.
Final Score: Laval 3, Syracuse 2
The Rocket have a travel day on Thursday and then return home to Place Bell for a Friday night clash with the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins at 7:00 PM. The team will then be off for the Christmas holiday before starting a three-games-in-three-nights stretch to end the year.
