Fresh off a resounding win on Sunday evening in Bridgeport, the Rocket rolled back into Place Bell for their next meeting with the Belleville Senators. It was a joyous night for the Rocket as they welcomed Filip Mesar, Vincent Arseneau, and Jakub Dobeš back to the lineup after all three missed time with various maladies.
Dobeš got the start in net, while Mesar rejoined Owen Beck and Jared Davidson on the young guns third line. Arseneau’s heavy presence was returned to the fourth line with Luke Tuch and Florian Xhekaj while Riley Kidney and Sean Farrell were healthy scratches.
The game started in the usual fashion in this rivalry, with an early penalty and some feisty scrumming up after the whistle. Despite Xavier Simoneau’s early hooking penalty, the Rocket escaped the penalty kill unscathed and went to work on attacking the Senators in the offensive zone.
Noel Hoefenmayer stuck with the play inside the offensive zone, generating a couple of near-miss chances in tight, but Mads Sogaard denied the newest Rocket defenceman in close. The newly returned Mesar made his presence felt as well, weaving through the Senators’ defence and feeding a perfect pass to Beck at the back post. Beck got his stick on the pass, deflecting it to the net, beating Sogaard but not beating the goalpost as his shot trickled away harmlessly.
Arseneau welcomed himself back to the lineup on the following shift with a pair of big hits in the offensive zone and some words for the Senators he left in his wake. Stephen Halliday didn’t take very kindly to that, giving Arseneau a slash from behind and sending the Rocket to the power play. While the Rocket weren’t able to solve Sogaard on the advantage, they were soon given a second chance as Jan Jenik threw a late hit and drew the ire of many Rocket players on the ice.
Laval again came within mere inches of opening up the scoring as Davidson hammered a shot through Sogaard, but as the puck trickled toward the goal it was swept away before Xhekaj could poke it across the line. Then, as things often do in these contests, everything began to become a bit unhinged. Zack MacEwen put a shot on goal, and followed it up by slashing Dobeš in the neck, drawing the attention of every Laval player on the ice. When the dust had settled, MacEwen and Laurent Dauphin found themselves both in the box.
If anyone thought that things might settle down from there, they were dead wrong as tempers continued to rise to a boiling point. Tuch landed a huge hit on Garrett Pilon in the defensive zone, which in turn led to Donovan Sebrango chucking the gloves off and forcing Tuch into a lopsided fight.
The Rocket and Senators, despite being frothing mad at each other, entered the first intermission scoreless, with Laval on top on the shot counter in a big way.
The intermission did very little to simmer things down, as MacEwen came out into the period to throw a late and hard hit on Adam Engström. The hit drew an immediate reaction from Lucas Condotta who had his gloves off in an instant, earning him another two minutes in the box for instigating. While the penalty-killers continued to grind down the Senators’ power play, Simoneau soon joined them as he was called for hooking. Before the two-man advantage could begin in earnest, the Senators bench was called for unsportsmanlike conduct.
Before that penalty could really take full effect, Josh Jacobs was sent to the box for high-sticking after overpowering a Belleville forward next to the net. Laval did well to battle through the mountain of penalties, but they still had the rest of Jacobs’ double minor to fend off. The officials then dinged Alex Barré-Boulet on a questionable hold in the offensive zone after letting a hit on Filip Mesar go uncalled. The Rocket forward was incensed and for his troubles was called for holding, unsportsmanlike conduct and another misconduct penalty leading to yet another lengthy Rocket penalty kill.
Despite all of the insanity, Dobeš and the Rocket penalty-killers fought off the Senators’ advantage to keep it a scoreless game. Mere moments after the play returned to even strength, Hayden Hodgson threw a late shot at Beck and then got called for unsportsmanlike conduct, resulting in a four minute power play for Laval.
The Rocket power play attacked with relentless pressure, slinging the puck across the offensive zone at will trying to find any possible open lanes for shots. Sogaard continued to be a nuisance as he kept the Rocket man advantage off the board and the game still without a goal. That was until a pair of young stars finally brought Place Bell to its feet.
Engström curled off his defender at the blue line to create a shooting lane. His shot was deflected up over Sogaard by Joshua Roy, and then swatted home by Rafaël Harvey-Pinard to finally put the Rocket on the board.
After a hit from behind by Simoneau resulted in a Senators power play, the Rocket managed to eliminate the advantage thanks to the heavy forecheck of Dauphin.
Unfortunately, during the four-on-four period, an errant pass by Logan Mailloux bounced off a Rocket skate and to the Senators in the defensive zone. Maxence Guenette had no problem taking the open space and firing a game-tying goal by Dobeš to ruin the Laval momentum heading into the second intermission.
A distinct lack of sportsmanship continued into the third period as right off the bat Hodgson took a leaping run at Engström and then followed it up by hitting Joshua Roy extremely late after the puck had been cleared. The latter drew an instant reaction that resulted in Simoneau, Hodgson and also Sebrango being sent to the box, putting Laval on the power play.
Roy took the late hit personally as he took a pass from Condotta along the half wall and walked himself into a prime position. Once he got there, Roy loaded up and ripped his 11th goal of the year by Sogaard and gave Laval the lead once more.
The Senators were not going to go away quietly as they pinned Laval back inside the defensive zone, with Mailloux and Hoefenmayer trying their best to clear their lines repeatedly. Eventually, with Arseneau brute-forcing the play ahead, the Rocket managed to draw the Senators into a too many men penalty with a chance to increase their lead.
Sogaard remained a stubborn adversary however, denying chance after one-time chance on the Rocket power play. Perhaps none of those saves were as impressive as the last one he made to come across and deny Davidson on a blistering shot to kill off the final seconds of the power play.
Never ones to make it easy, Engström was called for tripping with five-and-a-half minutes left to play, giving the Rocket penalty kill another huge task late in an intense game. As they had done all night, the penalty-killers were up to the task against the Belleville power play, keeping it off the board and preventing Dobeš from having to make too many difficult saves.
Laval continued to grind the clock down to the final 90 seconds when Sogaard made his way to the bench for the extra attacker, giving the Rocket one final hill to climb on Friday night. In some late, gutsy play, the Rocket again battled through the final challenge to secure a second straight win, and over one of their biggest rivals as well.
Final Score: Laval 2, Belleville 1
Laval will have Saturday off as they celebrate their win over the Senators. On Sunday they’ll welcome the Springfield Thunderbirds for a 3:00 PM clash before the Christmas holiday.
