The Laval Rocket are entering the short holiday break on a three-game winning streak and in first place in the AHL’s North Division as they beat the Springfield Thunderbirds 3-1 on Sunday at Place Bell.
Laval put together one of their best defensive games of the season, allowing only 17 shots in the win. Connor Hughes got the start, and made 16 saves.
“I thought we played really well,” said Hughes. “We didn’t give them much. We were really good at keeping them to the outside, they didn’t really gain the zone with a lot of speed and we killed their momentum really quick.”
It did come with a potential downside.
“I had to stay awake sometimes because I didn’t see much, but that’s part of being a goalie.”
In total, Laval outshot Springfield 33-17.
The Rocket controlled the first period, outshooting Springfield 13-3 in the opening 20 minutes. Sean Farrell led the way with three shots for Laval, and he was the one to open the scoring.
Lucas Condotta fought along the boards to free the puck, which allowed Rafaël Harvey-Pinard to pick up the loose puck on the offensive zone with speed. He then fed a wide-open Farrell at the right circle, who made no mistake with 8:45 left in the period.
Sean Farrell finishes the feed from Rafaël Harvey-Pinard 1-0 Rocket!
— Scott Matla (@scottmatla.bsky.social) December 22, 2024 at 3:28 PM
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The Rocket’s edge in play and in shots came despite the Thunderbirds having the period’s lone power play. Laval used the kill to generate momentum, leading to Farrell’s goal about three minutes later.
Farrell, who was a healthy scratch for Friday night’s game against the Belleville Senators now has two goals on the season, both coming in his last three games. He currently has a three-game point streak, with four points in that span. It comes after a slow start to the season where he had only three points in his first 22 games.
Rocket head coach Pascal Vincent had nothing but praise for the forward.
“First of all, he didn’t deserve not to play, but we were playing Belleville,” Vincent said about scratching Farrell. The team needed Vincent Arseneau in the lineup as the Senators are going to be physical and there are only so many players to choose from.
“We had to make hard decisions, and we spoke to him and we made sure he knew the why. You look at practice yesterday, he’s been pushing hard, getting better. Making smart plays. We can see he’s a smart player, he can create offence and for some reason it was just not clicking early in the season. I thought [Sunday] he was skating, making plays, assertive with the puck, something that I didn’t necessarily see earlier, but his work ethic was there.”
“I think our line played pretty well and we had a bunch of chances so to finish that one was great,” Farrell said, adding that he doesn’t feel much has changed in terms of generating chances but now they are starting to end up in the net. “It’s important to keep grinding and working through things. Droughts will happen, it’s something that you have to live with.”
Things started to escalate physically in the second period, with battles between players down the ice and after whistles but it all came to a head just over the halfway point of the frame.
Florian Xhekaj and Sam Bitten had a fight in the middle of the ice with both throwing punches back and forth.
Florian Xhekaj and Sam Bitten are chuckin' em
— Scott Matla (@scottmatla.bsky.social) December 22, 2024 at 4:27 PM
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After the fight, Bitten tried to fire up his bench, but it was Hunter Skinner who got fired up on the ice. Players on both teams continued to scrum well after the fight between Bitten and Xhekaj finished. In total, 36 minutes of penalties were given out and the result was a Rocket power play. They were unable to extend their lead, however, with their best chance being a Laurent Dauphin chance that was saved by Springfield goaltender Vadim Zherenko.
Shortly after the power play, a William Trudeau wrist shot rang loudly off the post, but stayed out. Despite there being five power plays in the period, there were no goals as the game remained 1-0. Laval once again had the shot advantage, with an 8-5 edge in the middle 20 minutes.
The third period started off with more of the same, with the Rocket holding on to a one goal lead and not allowing much of anything. Despite a power play, the Thunderbirds only mustered three shots over the first 13 minutes of the third, and that allowed Laval just enough time to double their lead.
Adam Engström’s shot was saved by Zherenko, but Joshua Roy pounced on the rebound with 7:01 remaining in the game to make it 2-0.
Adam Engström puts it on net, Joshua Roy pokes home the rebound 2-0 Laval
— Scott Matla (@scottmatla.bsky.social) December 22, 2024 at 5:24 PM
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It was only then that Springfield started to generate more offence in desperation mode. They drew a penalty with 2:23 left in the game, which allowed them to pull their goaltender and attempt to put some pressure to tighten the game up.
They did just that. With 1:48 left, former Rocket Matthew Peca had the puck in the slot and passed it to Matt Luff at the side of the net who put the puck past Hughes and cut the lead to 2-1 with enough time to make things interesting.
Springfield would continue to put pressure on the Laval defence with the goaltender pulled looking for the equalizer. They had a bit of a respite when Roy and Alex Barré-Boulet couldn’t convert a chance with the empty net, but with 27.6 seconds remaining, Roy and Barré-Boulet had another chance, and got the puck to Laurent Dauphin who scored the empty net goal to seal the game.
Laval now has a bit of a break before their next game on December 27 when they host the Syracuse Crunch. The Rocket sit at the top of the division in terms of total points, but the Toronto Marlies own a better points percentage. The Marlies are three points behind Laval with three games in hand.
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