It was a special night at Place Bell on Friday night as the Laval Rocket welcomed the Manitoba Moose for an all-Canadian matchup. The Rocket, as they do every year, paid tribute to the past decades of Quebec hockey, and celebrated their namesake with special jersey to commemorate Maurice Richard.
The team received a huge boost heading into the game, with Joshua Roy returning early from injury and forming a second line with Owen Beck who was just sent down from the NHL. Jared Davidson rounded out that line, bumping Filip Mesar down to the fourth line and shifting Florian Xhekaj to a line with Lucas Condotta and Luke Tuch. On defence, David Reinbacher was reunited with Adam Engström on the top pair, and in net it was again Kaapo Kähkönen.
After starting slowly in recent games, the Rocket were quick out of the gate against the Moose and looked much more like the top team in the North Division. The newly remodeled second line was all over the Moose from the outset with both Beck and Roy narrowly missing chances in the opening minutes.
A physical shift by the third line is the one that broke the scoreless draw however, as Luke Tuch got Laval on the board. He dumped a puck into the corner where Florian Xhekaj won the race to corral it and immediately looked over his shoulder for options. Tuch was cutting to the net front, taking a feed from Xhekaj and putting a puck on Thomas Milic. Tuch grabbed his own rebound to tuck it by the Moose netminder and handed the home side an early lead.
It was a brief lead for the Rocket, as a fire drill of sorts in the defensive zone allowed Manitoba to find a tying goal. Kale Clague whipped the puck back around the top of the zone with a shot finding its way into the high slot. Dylan Anhorn was there to grab the loose puck and he beat Kähkönen in close to make it a 1-1 game.
Despite giving up a quick response goal, the Rocket still kept their foot down to keep Manitoba pinned back, eventually drawing the game’s first power play as well. With their offence back to full potency they continued to put Manitoba under siege for two straight minutes, forcing Thomas Milic to hold the line repeatedly. It looked like Alex Belzile might have banked a chance off Tyrel Bauer behind Milic, but through the ensuing pileup the puck just barely stayed out.
Even with the Rocket dominating control of puck, Laval wasn’t immune from taking penalties of their own as Alex Belzile was called for a retaliatory slash. The Rocket penalty-killers kept the strong effort going to end the period as they stymied the Moose power play heading into the first intermission.
While Laval handled the remaining seconds of the Moose power play pretty easily, the offence was missing the same punch it had in the first period. The chances were more one and done, as opposed to extended zone time, and after a quick counter-attack, Laval found themselves back on the penalty kill. The strong penalty-killing efforts continued for the Rocket, allowing just one shot on net as William Trudeau escaped the box with the game still level.
The Rocket continued to test their penalty-killing prowess as Belzile again went off for a tripping penalty. However, after the Rocket pushed the Moose back repeatedly, a Nikita Chibrikov cross-check moved the game to four-on-four and the Rocket offence went back on the attack. William Trudeau dangled around defenders, fooling Thomas Milic with two separate chances, but was unable to tuck the puck behind the Manitoba goalie.
As the second period continued to tick away, it was easy to sense some frustration in the Rocket as they were doing just about everything except score a second goal against the Moose. The pressure applied by the Rocket lines piled up the shots, but Milic remained a difficult puzzle for Laval’s shooters. The strong work of Joshua Roy however, would draw another power play and opened the door for the Rocket to try and break the deadlock.
With a chance to break the game open again, Laval’s power play struggled a bit to find its earlier form as they began to try to force plays instead of taking what was available to them. The Moose managed to survive the late onslaught, and despite being doubled up on shots the visitors entered the intermission still tied 1-1.
The third period kicked off in much the same way the previous ones ended, with the Rocket hemming the Moose deep in their own zone and putting chance after chance toward the net. Milic and a few key blocked shots kept Laval from finding a second goal, even with the Rocket spending almost the entire opening five minutes inside the offensive zone.
Yet, despite all their control of the puck again the Rocket could not help but get in their own way as Vincent Arseneau lined up Tyrel Bauer and hit him square in the numbers. Despite Arseneau’s protests it was a two-minute penalty and another crucial penalty kill for Laval. The penalty-killers came through in spades for the veteran tough guy, dominating the Moose power play once again, keeping the game level as the final 10 minutes of regulation ticked on.
While Manitoba started to pick up more possession after their power play expired, it was the Rocket who managed to draw a late power play as Lucas Condotta was hauled down cutting to the net. Even with a late chance to break the 1-1 draw, the Rocket man advantage was again trying to find a perfect opportunity to their own detriment. Much like the game against Belleville earlier in the week, the Rocket would head to overtime hoping to grab a much-needed second point.
Overtime yielded nothing for either side with the Rocket recording the only actual shot on goal in the five-minute period, which meant the game would end up decided in a shootout. The skills contest was not favourable to the Rocket as Belzile and Roy were stopped by Milic. At the other end of the ice, Kaapo Kähkönen’s best efforts were not enough to stop Nikita Chibrikov and Brad Lambert from scoring, leaving the Rocket losers for the third straight game.
Final Score: Manitoba 2, Laval 1 (Shootout)
The Rocket won’t have long to stew over this loss. They’ll welcome the Moose back to Place Bell on Saturday with a 3 PM ET puck drop.
