Less than 24 hours after celebrating their home-opener with a 5-2 win, the Laval Rocket were back in action against their rivals, the Syracuse Crunch. It was a fantastic Friday night for the Rocket with Joshua Roy potting two goals to go alongside Alex Barré-Boulet’s four-point evening.
The victory did come with some bad news as Vincent Arseneau obviously was on the injured list following his gruesome hand injury. Xavier Simoneau was also a new addition to the injured list. He and Arseneau found themselves replaced by Sean Farrell and Riley Kidney in Saturday’s lineup. In net it was Connor Hughes getting the start as expected, with the new netminder looking to record his first career AHL win.
While Friday’s game got off to an immediate start with a goal and a feisty scrap, Saturday’s was much more meticulous and cautious in nature. While the Crunch took the lead on the shot counter, it was the Rocket who were owning control of the puck at every turn, but were unable to turn that control into the finished product. The closest they came was off a nice bit of interplay with Lucas Condotta trying to squeeze one short-side on Brandon Halverson.
Coming out of the first media timeout, the Rocket finally got their breakthrough thanks to the recently assembled “Kid Line.” Filip Mesar swiped the puck off a Syracuse stick deep in the offensive zone, then cut to the slot to find a new attacking angle. As he was tripped up, Mesar fed the puck over to Owen Beck, who rifled his first career AHL goal over Halverson’s shoulder to open up the scoring.
The goal seemed to inspire the Rocket’s offence, and they began to hem the Crunch in with regularity, leaving Syracuse no choice but to throw the puck out of the zone and hope. The Rocket nearly doubled their lead late when Farrell cut across goal, tipping a shot on net, but Halverson smothered it before it could trickle through.
Despite the low shot totals, it was a strong first period for the Rocket as they entered the intermission up by a goal, and seemingly controlling every step of the game.
The Crunch came out flying to start the second period, forcing the Rocket back onto their heels, and requiring Connor Hughes to make a pair of incredible blocker saves to keep the lead intact.
In the scramble following Hughes’s saves, the Rocket found themselves on the game’s first penalty kill, with William Trudeau called for tripping. Almost instantly the penalty-killers poked the puck free into a short-handed chance and then forced Dylan Duke into taking a penalty of his own and ending the Crunch advantage.
The brief Rocket power play yielded little, and as the play returned to even strength, Laurent Dauphin was whistled for high-sticking and put Laval back on the penalty kill. Again it was a short-handed rush, this time led by Beck, that disrupted the Crunch power play, and again led to a Syracuse penalty cutting the man advantage short.
Things settled into a lull following the short Rocket power play, but it was clear that tensions were simmering just under the surface between the rival sides. They finally boiled over when Max Crozier levelled Mesar with a hit, drawing the ire of Jared Davidson, who was called for roughing in the scrum afterward. The Crunch, yet again cancelled out their own power play as Crozier was called for high-sticking after a short-handed rush by the Rocket.
While the Rocket power play continued to chip away and looked to increase their tenuous lead, the Crunch helped them along by giving Laval a short five on three power play. The chances were flowing with ease as Joshua Roy and Alex Barré-Boulet put shot after shot on Brandon Halverson, but the Syracuse netminder refused to yield a second goal as the play shifted back to even strength once again.
The first-period goal still remained the difference between the two sides as they entered the second intermission, with the Rocket having just barely clawed ahead on the shot counter as well.
Just 19 seconds into the third period, the Rocket found themselves on the penalty kill as Adam Engström was called for interference off a faceoff in the defensive zone. Laval’s penalty-killers were dialed in, giving the Crunch no good angles and blocking everything on its way to the net to kill off Engström’s minor penalty.
The penalties continued to slow down any hopes of a Crunch comeback as they were called for high-sticking behind the Rocket net. The Rocket’s power play wasn’t able to convert on their fourth opportunity of the afternoon, leaving their lead at just a single goal. To further the special teams’ frustration, the Rocket’s march to the penalty box continued with Alex Barré-Boulet taking a seat for slashing.
The penalty-killers again swallowed up the attack, giving Hughes little to do on the penalty kill, and allowing Barré-Boulet to escape the box without any damage done.
Eventually the game entered its final, desperate minutes, and the Crunch pulled their netminder for the extra attacker to try to force overtime. Laval’s defence clamped down on the attack one last time to secure the back-to-back victories and a first AHL win for Hughes: a 23-save shutout.
Final Score: Laval 1, Syracuse 0
The team will be off until next Friday when they open a home-and-home series with the Utica Comets, starting with a clash at Place Bell.
