The Rochester Americans were ready and rested as the hosted the Laval Rocket on Saturday afternoon. After playing Friday night, the Rocket’s start didn’t go well as the home team scored within the first three minutes.
Laval took over after the goal, setting up play in the offensive zone while the Americans where happy to counter and feed on Laval’s mistakes.
After a situation where everyone was surprised by a minor call and didn’t know who should go off, the Americans got a power play looking to double their lead. However, Vincent Arseneau stole the puck at his own blue line and, under heavy pressure, passed it cross-seam to the streaking Laurent Dauphin. Dauphin was left with a lot of work as he came close to the net, but he finished the attack perfectly.
Laval went into the first intermission tied at one. It wasn’t undeserving even if the most clear-cut chances were for Rochester, Laval had applied sustained pressure throughout the period.
Rochester came out hard in the second, thanks to a power play left from the first period. The commercial timeout came at the right time for Laval, with a faceoff in the offensive zone and a chance for Laval to talk things through. The calm didn’t last though as William Trudeau took out Konsta Helenius, and a big scrum was formed. In the end, after offsetting penalties, Rochester got on the power play once more; a power play that was killed off after some stellar play from goaltender Connor Hughes.
With six minutes left in the second period, Joshua Roy was taken down off the puck and Laval got their chance to set up their power play for the first time in the game, something that was needed as Rocket only had two shots in the frame. However, the power play was more like the Montreal Canadiens’ infamous PowerKill™️. The most dangerous chance was as the penalty expired, and it wasn’t really that dangerous.
With the period winding down, Dauphin scored his second goal more or less out of nothing, off the post and in, to give the home team a shock with less than a second to play in the frame.
Though Dauphin had the goals, it was Hughes who kept Laval in the game. The question that everyone was wondering during the intermission was if the goaltender could steal the game.
In the beginning of the period, two Rochester players went in on a partial breakaway. Zack Hayes brought one them down, and a small fight ensued. When the dust settled Laval went the penalty kill with Jacob Perreault sitting for Hayes. The Rocket came through to kill off the two minutes and keep their lead intact.
With a little more than five minutes to go, Vsevolod Komarov was called for hooking, and Laval had a chance to put the game away, but the power play never really got going.
Rochester pulled the goalie with two-and-a-half minutes to go, a collision between two Laval players and the puck ended with a fortuitous bounce onto Gustav Lindström’s stick, and the defencemen scored from the red line to all but seal the result. Moments later, Dauphin scored his third for the night to leave no doubt about another Rocket win.
Final score: Laval 4, Rochester 1
In the end Laval scored four and Dauphin had his hat trick, but the win belongs to Hughes who kept the team in the game, especially during the second period.
After five consecutive games on the road, the Rocket return home for a rematch with the Americans on Wednesday, and then begin a home-and-home set with the Belleville Senators on Friday night.