The Laval Rocket were facing their toughest stretch of the schedule, were missing an entire top line, and playing the second half of a back-to-back after travel. They couldn’t close out two separate leads in a 6-3 loss to the Utica Comets on Saturday night.
Laval was playing their fifth game in seven days, dating back to last Sunday in Winnipeg. They also were without Mitchell Stephens and Philippe Maillet, who both left Friday night’s game with injuries.
The Rocket started the game off with a couple of shots on the first shift, from Joel Armia and Logan Mailloux. A turnover in the defensive zone led to a Utica power play less than two minutes into the first period.
On the power play, it was the Rocket’s penalty kill that set the tone. Jayden Struble, playing his first game back after a three-game suspension, took control of the puck and started what eventually became a two-on-one. He fed Armia, who made no mistake for his fifth goal of the season in his seventh AHL game this year.
Strauss Mann played very well throughout the opening minutes, making key saves as Utica outshot the Rocket 12-6 in the opening frame. Overall, he made 26 saves on 30 shots against.
The Comets forced another turnover in the Rocket zone and it led to the puck finding Shane Bowers in the slot, who beat Mann to tie the game at 1-1.
Utica took a 2-1 lead before the end of the period, on a goal that had to be reviewed. It was originally ruled no goal and looked that it might have hit the crossbar and the post, but in the end, Samuel Laberge’s shot was ruled to have gone in past Mann.
The Rocket started the second period in the same way that they started the first, with a strong shift from the Armia line with Lucas Condotta and Xavier Simoneau. This time it ended with a goal when Logan Mailloux fired a slap shot from the point for his fourth of the season, to tie the game at 2-2.
Laval continued their strong shorthanded play when Nathan Légaré pounced on a loose puck and sped towards the Utica goal, he made no mistake on the breakaway and snuck the puck past Isaac Poulter.
The lead was not long-lived. About six minutes later, after yet another Rocket penalty, Samuel Laberge’s shot was tipped by Timur Ibragimov and past Mann to tie it at 3-3, which was where the second period ended.
“We made a push,” said Rocket head coach Jean-François Houle. “[A 3-3 score] given the circumstances was good, we’d like the win, but the effort was there,” he said.
Laval entered the third period of their gruelling stretch and a short bench. The fourth line of Jared Davidson, Nolan Yaremko, and Alex-Olivier Voyer had some flashes, and Yaremko hit the post and missed the net on the same shift. Yaremko and Voyer were recalled just for this game from the ECHL’s Trois-Rivières Lions.
The Comets took the lead when a bad pass from Brady Keeper to Kidney fell right to Laberge. He found Ibragimov who fired a shot from the high slot, and gave the Comets a 4-3 lead and this time it held up.
Struble had a chance for the Gordie Howe hat trick, after a fight to end the second period and assists on both shorthanded goals, but his chance was stopped by Poulter. That was as close as Laval came. The Comets added two empty net goals to turn the 4-3 lead into a 6-3 win.
“Knowing that the guys were battling all week and I had fresh legs, I wanted to give whatever I could,” Struble said after the game. He finished the game with two assists, a fight, and three shots on goal.
It shows the difference between someone tired and someone fresh,” said Houle. “He played a really good game, he was physical, he made good passes, I’m happy for him.”
The Rocket will come back home before going back on the road. They have three road games next week, two in Rochester on Wednesday and Friday and one in Syracuse on Saturday. The week after will go to Abbotsford for two games against the Canucks, and in the end will have six straight road games, including the loss to Utica.
Before the game, the Rocket announced Lias Andersson will be out 6-8 weeks with his injury. Riley McKay is also day-to-day. The team is also missing Stephens, Maillet, Gabriel Bourque, and Emil Heineman.
