A tough week on the road for the Rocket ended in a split in New York with a star-making performance on Friday night for Kaapo Kähkönen in a win in Rochester. That was followed up by a disappointing loss in Syracuse where the Rocket were unable to hold on to a two-goal lead against the Crunch. The split left the Rocket just four points up in the AHL’s North Division, and with a game against the Belleville Senators on Wednesday night.
To the surprise of no one it was Kähkönen in net again for the Rocket, while the lineup in front of him saw some slight shuffling. Vincent Arseneau joined the fourth line with Will Dineen and Tyler Thorpe while Josiah Didier slid up to the top pairing with Adam Engström. David Reinbacher and William Trudeau formed the second pair for Pascal Vincent while Luke Tuch, Florian Xhekaj, and Jared Davidson created a third line with a tonne of snarl.
In just 65 seconds the Rocket were handed the game’s first power play opportunity as Dennis Gilbert tripped up Laurent Dauphin inside the offensive zone. While the power play was often automatic on home ice, Laval’s first advantage was far from it as they struggled to generate more than single-look chances on net. While Mads Søgaard didn’t give them much in terms of second chances, Laval didn’t help themselves as the play returned to even strength.
Despite the Senators not offering much in the way of sustained pressure, the Rocket still ceded the game’s first goal to them in somewhat ugly fashion. Thorpe’s dump-in attempt went directly to a Belleville skater who sent Jamieson Rees into the offensive zone. Rees took advantage of a battle in front of net, banking a shot off the skate of Tyler Boucher and just inside the post to make it 1-0 Senators with just under 13 minutes left to play.
Thorpe’s no good, very bad first period continued as he was called for tripping up Rees as he tried to enter the offensive zone. While Thorpe didn’t think it was a penalty he still had to sit and wait to see if his teammates could cover for his transgression. Laval’s penalty-killers came out aggressive as they probed for short-handed rushes constantly and allowed Thorpe to exit the box with no further harm done on the scoreboard.
A lack of attention to the details and discipline came up again as Marc Del Gaizo shoved over Stephen Halliday in front of the net, drawing a cross-checking call from the officials. The penalty-killers were again all over the Senators, which forced Laval’s opponent to be far more aggressive than their first power play. Even as the Rocket continued to dominate the puck in the offensive zone, they were unable to get any second chances through on Søgaard thanks to some early whistles and the officials refusing to call obvious penalties.
A darting run by Will Dineen eventually forced one of the officials to call a Belleville infraction as Lassi Thomson upended him entering the offensive zone. The most notable thing that happened before the end of the period on Laval’s power play didn’t even happen on the ice unfortunately. Florian Xhekaj and Hayden Hodgson were verbally jousting on the benches, and the officials decided to just stick both of them in the box as the first period came to a close.
While the remaining 37 seconds of the power play was uneventful to start the second period, the Rocket soon had another chance as Stephen Halliday slashed the stick out of Thorpe’s hands and put the man advantage back on the ice. This time the power play did what it does best, and put pucks toward the net. Adam Engström started the play from his own end, allowing Laurent Dauphin to chip the puck up to Alex Belzile. The Rocket’s star forward made no mistake off the wing as he wired it by Søgaard to tie up the game.
A dubious hooking call on Thorpe sent the Rocket back to the penalty kill once again, and this time the team did not bail out its rookie forward. Xhekaj took a poor angle defending Boucher along the boards, allowing Boucher to create a loose puck in the slot. Jan Jenik was all alone in front of Kähkönen, and buried his fifth goal of the year to put the Senators back in the lead.
The officiating did not redeem itself in any way following Thorpe’s penalty as Xavier Simoneau took a stick to the face, causing him to bleed from the mouth directly in front of an official. Said official just gestured at Simoneau to leave the ice and did not call a penalty. They did however, instantly send David Reinbacher to the box for getting in a shoving match with Thomas Hamara after a whistle, putting the Rocket back on the penalty kill.
While the Senators nearly doubled their lead, the Rocket penalty-killers fended off yet another power play, and allowed the offence to get back to work as they looked for a tying goal. Instead, the Rocket went back to the penalty kill after Thorpe was called for a hit on Gilbert. Xhekaj nearly tied the game with a short-handed rush, but Søgaard denied him, then William Trudeau on the rebound. As the Rocket returned to defending on this penalty kill, Xhekaj soon found himself in the box on another iffy penalty call.
Down two players, the Rocket found themselves in arguably the highest-leverage spot of the game with just under two minutes left in the period. The penalty-killers allowed Thorpe to escape the box, right into a short-handed rush that forced Søgaard into another tough save. Place Bell was roaring as the Rocket then killed off all but the final four seconds of Xhekaj’s penalty as the period came to a close. Laval was down 2-1 on the scoreboard, but clearly playing a very angry brand of hockey as the final period of regulation approached.
With Xhekaj out of the box and the crowd in full throat, the Rocket came out swinging to start the third period as they sought a tying goal. They did eventually find it, in the most unlikely of places with just over two minutes played. Sean Farrell ducked and weaved through the offensive zone, creating a seam to the net where he placed a pass right on the stick of Vincent Arseneau. The noted pugilist took the feed from Farrell and slammed home the puck to tie the game up at two goals apiece.
Arseneau’s goal lit the fire under the Rocket even further as they began to hit every puck-carrier in range, and continued to put chances on net that forced Søgaard to make more difficult saves than the first two periods. The only thing missing was the finishing touch for the Rocket as the final 10 minutes of regulation ticked away.
Belleville continued to try to slow things down and goad the Rocket into beating themselves as the final minutes approached. Laval was finding space harder to come by and the Senators weren’t exactly pushing the pace entering the final three minutes. There would not be a winner decided in regulation as both sides claimed a point and headed to overtime.
There was not a second point to be had for Laval as Reinbacher’s feed to Xhekaj was batted away in the neutral zone. Reinbacher was interfered with as he tried to get back on defence, but by that time Thomson had already snapped the game-winning goal by Kähkönen.
Final Score: Bellevile 3, Laval 2 (OT)
After several poor performance over the past week, the Rocket will continue their homestand on Friday when they host the Manitoba Moose for a two-game set. Puck drop is scheduled for 7:00 PM ET.
