Coming off of a comeback win in their first game of the season, the Laval Rocket couldn’t make it back-to-back wins as they fell 3-1 to the Springfield Thunderbirds on Saturday night.
It was Springfield’s first game of the season, while Laval was in the second half of a back-to-back after playing in Providence on Friday.
“It was a tough game, they were ready for us, they were fast. I don’t think we played bad. We made a couple of mistakes and they scored on that,” said Rocket forward Filip Mešár. “They were ready for us and we need to work on the details we did wrong today.”
“It was pretty even, the scoring chances were 20-19,” said Rocket head coach Pascal Vincent. “The speed was not there from yesterday, the execution wasn’t as good. We’ll go over some things with the system, more defensively but also our puck management.”
The first period had plenty of scoring chances on both ends, but Laval starter Connor Hughes and Springfield starter Vadim Zherenko stood tall, leaving the game 0-0 after 20 minutes. Laval outshot Springfield 15-7, and had three power plays, including a four-on-three, with the Thunderbirds having two of their own. Joshua Roy and Luke Tuch both had three shots for the Rocket in the opening frame.
Hughes made 23 saves on 25 shots in his AHL debut. Zherenko made 29 saves for the Thunderbirds.
“Every time you have a five-on-three or four-on-three and you don’t score it can hurt you,” Vincent said. “We could have had the lead going into the third and we didn’t, so those moments can come back and hurt you,” said Vincent.
The Rocket opened the scoring early in the second period when Filip Mešár made a defensive play in his own end to create the turnover and got the puck to Owen Beck. Beck then found Jared Davidson behind the defence, who made no mistake on the breakaway to make it 1-0.
Davidson en échappée 🚀
— Rocket de Laval (@RocketLaval) October 13, 2024
Davidson on the breakaway 🚨 https://t.co/qSG4PfLb9a pic.twitter.com/v8DrFxzHEu
It was Beck’s first professional point, while Mešár added his third assist of the season after a three-point night in the season opener.
“I feel really good actually,” Mešár said about his line. “We could have scored more goals. It comes from the details. We have a good forecheck, we play hard and create chances. I like playing with those guys.”
Vincent said the line was the team’s best.
“It’s huge because they are younger players and they find ways to be productive,” he said. “I’m not only talking about the offence, but playing the right way on both sides of the puck. I feel they’re confident, they’re hard on the puck. They’re supporting each other really well, they’re seeing each other well offensively and defensively. We’re going to be careful about touching that line and making changes because I’m really happy with the way they’re playing.”
Springfield tied the game almost 10 minutes later when Connor Hughes saved a Mackenzie MacEachern shot but the rebound went to Dalibor Dvorsky, who collected the rebound and put a backhand past Hughes. It was Dvorsky’s first AHL goal in his first AHL game to make it 1-1.
After a penalty-filled first period, the second period was played entirely at even strength, with just coincidental minors getting the game to four-on-four for two minutes. Springfield, who are playing their first game while Laval played on Friday, outshot the Rocket 13-9 in the second period.
Springfield took the lead early in the third period, just 1:25 into the frame. Hughes made a great, sprawling save on Zach Dean on a two-on-one in close, but the puck stayed at Dean’s skates and he turned and passed it to back to the slot for Hugh McGing, who fired it into an open net as Hughes had not yet recovered.
After the Rocket killed a Lucas Condotta penalty, Riley Kidney pounced on the loose puck and spun to find Florian Xhekaj with space, but his shot was saved by Zherenko.
The Rocket had a power play to close the first half of the final period, and while they generated scoring chances, they were unable to beat Zherenko and tie the game. Both power plays went 0/4 on the night.
“We need to work on our power play. It wasn’t good today, it wasn’t very good yesterday,” said Mešár. “We had a couple of chances to score but we need to score. This league is very physical so when you have a chance to score on the power play, we need to score.”
With 4:11 left in the game, Laval went back to the penalty kill with Xavier Simoneau taking a penalty. The Rocket killed that penalty, but Springfield sealed the game with 23 seconds remaining when Nikita Alexandrov scored into the empty net with Hughes pulled.
The Rocket will now come back home for a week of practice before their home opener on Friday against the Syracuse Crunch.
Lineup
The Rocket made three changes from their win on Friday. Connor Hughes started for Jakub Dobeš in goal. Riley Kidney entered the lineup for Vincent Arseneau and Zack Hayes played for Chris Jandric.
