The Rocket continued their trek through Pennsylvania on the heels of a humbling experience in a 5-3 loss to the Hershey Bears on Wednesday. In front of them on Black Friday was the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins, with the Rocket looking to get back into the win column.
The Rocket made just two changes to their lineup from Wednesday night with Jacob Perreault replacing Alex Beaucage on the fourth line, while Gustav Lindström swapped in for Zack Hayes. Connor Hughes got the nod in net, with Jakub Dobeš expected to play on Saturday in Lehigh Valley.
Laval showed no signs of Wednesday’s loss lingering in their minds, and they came out of the gate playing fluid and simple hockey to keep the Penguins back on their heels. If not for an incredible split save by Joel Blomqvist, it would have been an extremely early Rocket lead. The Rocket’s continued pressure in the offensive zone eventually led to them gaining the game’s first power play as well. The Rocket man advantage did everything in its power to put one in the back of the net, but Blomqvist again continued to be a brick wall between the pipes.
Outside of a puck bouncing off a skate in front of goal, Hughes didn’t have much action to face as the Rocket piled on shot after shot. Eventually they finally found a big enough gap in the defence, and on their 14th shot of the period finally put one behind Blomqvist. Adam Engström hit Laurent Dauphin with a great leading pass into the offensive zone, with Dauphin shoveling it over to Josh Jacobs. The veteran defenceman lifted it over the shoulder of Blomqvist to break the deadlock in the first period.
Forty-five seconds after their goal, the Rocket sent themselves to the penalty kill as William Trudeau was sent off for tripping. Laval’s penalty-killers did just about everything right as they worked to kill off the minor penalty late in the first period. However, a shot clanged off the crossbar, then off Dauphin’s skate and to Sam Poulin, who buried the tying goal late in the first period.
There was one final wrinkle left in the period however, as Blomqvist made his first real error of the game. On a dump-in, the Penguins goalie tried to play the puck behind his net, but Alex Barré-Boulet snuck in and banked it off Blomqvist to restore the Rocket lead with three seconds left to play.
While the Penguins came out in the second with a bit more fight than they did in the first period, the Rocket continued to dictate control of the puck and the pace of play. As the lines rolled over the Penguins in the offensive zone, the Rocket soon found themselves back on the power play with a chance to increase their lead.
After being denied on their first opportunity, the Rocket made sure to make the most of their second power play. After Logan Mailloux kept the puck in by centimetres, Barré-Boulet fed a pass to Jared Davidson in the faceoff dot. Davidson loaded up and ripped one right past Blomqvist for his ninth goal of the season.
The Rocket continued to smother the Penguins at every turn as the second period ticked on, allowing just three shots on goal as the period entered its final minutes. Some tempers began to boil over as Owen Beck got in a fight with Jonathan Gruden, and Xavier Simoneau engaged Filip Kral is some post-whistle shenanigans, too.
Despite the Rocket cruising, William Trudeau brought that momentum to a halt with another penalty, sending the Rocket back to the penalty kill. Boris Katchouk was able to find some soft ice and tucked in a perfect leading feed from Mac Hollowell to cut the Rocket lead down to just a single goal.
Rutger McGroarty handed the Rocket a golden chance to widen their lead once again, but sloppy play with the puck resulted in Barré-Boulet high-sticking Gruden and cancelling out the brief power play. Laval managed to keep the Penguins from climbing any further into the game, but a baffling penalty call on Xavier Simoneau in the final minute left the Rocket with a big third-period power play to kill off.
It took under a minute into the third period for the penalty kill to hamper the Rocket once again. Ville Koivunen took a one-time feed from Hollowell and beat Hughes on the far side to give the Penguins a tying goal.
Things didn’t get much better from there as the Rocket struggled to get their foot back on the gas, and the Penguins continued to hound them relentlessly. Laval was unable to do the simple act of clearing lines and starting any counter-attacks while Wilkes-Barre circled like sharks in the water. Eventually a screen developed in front of Hughes, and Nikolai Knyzhov fired one through it to give the Penguins an improbable lead.
With just under 12 minutes left to play Hollowell hit Sean Farrell from behind, putting the Rocket back on the power play, with a goal needed to stem the bleeding. While the Rocket were pushing hard for a goal, they managed to draw another penalty, giving them 27 seconds of five-on-three power-play time and desperately needing a goal.
Instead of getting the Rocket back into the game, it resulted in them going down by even more as the power play failed to convert. As the penalty expired, the recently freed Penguin, Joona Koppanen, was left all alone behind the Rocket defence and he buried the free breakaway chance to make it a two-goal deficit for Laval.
The second goal seemed to let out whatever air was left in the Rocket as they tried their best to dig out of the hole they made for themselves. Pascal Vincent appeared to be incensed with the effort from his team, opting to not pull Hughes and leave Wilkes-Barre/Scranton with another frustrating loss.
Final Score: Wilkes-Barre/Scranton 5, Laval 3
The team has just 24 hours to lick its wounds before they’re back in action again, heading down the road to Allentown for a 7:05 PM battle with the Lehigh Valley Phantoms.
