Following a disappointing first weekend against the Belleville Senators, the Laval Rocket returned to Place Bell for Wednesday night. Their opponent from last year’s Eastern Conference Final, the Springfield Thunderbirds, took the ice against them.
While Mitchell Stephens was serving Game 2 of his suspension, Nate Schnarr entered the roster for a second straight game. Rookie William Trudeau was also back on defense, getting the go-ahead on Alex Green on third pair alongside Madison Bowey. In goal was Cayden Primeau who was looking for his first win of the season after losing in overtime on Friday.
It looked like the Rocket had opened the scoring in less than a minute thanks to a nice counterattack led by Danick Martel. The veteran winger broke in and got a shot on Joel Hofer that popped through the air and landed on his net. Brandon Gignac raced to the net, knocking the puck off the net and then driving it home, but a review led to the decision that it was played with a high stick and the game went scoreless.
The two teams continued to trade chances, Primeau catching a shot from Tyler Tucker with his glove, and Hofer pushing Rafaël Harvey-Pinard in front with a pad save. Laval tied on the game’s first power play, and they generated a few close calls, but the Thunderbirds survived the initial pressure to tie the game.
The Rocket’s speed gave adjustments to Springfield’s defense, while the Thunderbirds’ heavy cycle kept Laval’s group on their heels. The Rocket’s pace gave them the advantage as they took back-to-back penalties thanks to their pressure, and while the first came scoreless despite Jesse Ylönen pounding the crossbar, they also started the second period with the ‘advantage.
Laval’s power play was quickly called off as Harvey-Pinard was whistled for holding, pushing the game to four-on-four before a brief power play by Springfield. Again, the Rocket’s speed unsettled the Thunderbirds to the point that their power play was instantly neutralized, then they put Laval back on their own power play.
Power-play struggles continued to plague the Rocket as they were unable to convert for the fourth time, and then to compound the problem, they got their own kill penalty as Xavier Simoneau headed to the box. For every game the power play seemed out of rhythm, the penalty kill seemed composed, as they frustrated all of Springfield’s attempts to hit Martin Frk for his huge slapshot.
As the second period progressed, it was the Thunderbirds who began to take control of the game, finding a way to prevent the Rocket from using their speed and beginning to impose their heavy-handed style of play. With the Thunderbirds rolling hard, Primeau was determined to leave no chance of a follow-up at the net and keep the game scoreless.
As the period drew to a close, the intense forecheck returned for Laval and only a solid save from Joel Hofer prevented Laval from scoring in the closing seconds of the period.
The pressure finally paid off for Laval with just over four minutes in the third period. The Rocket countered out of their own zone, Schnarr firing a header pass for Otto Leskinen in the offensive zone. Leskinen tossed the puck through the area for Gabriel Bourque, who caught it by Hofer to break the deadlock.
Springfield almost equalized just after as a shot hit Primeau and the Rocket goaltender failed to locate the loose puck. Greg Printz found it, but was denied a goal in the net thanks to a solid stick along the goal line from Justin Barron to keep Laval in the lead.
The Rocket spent much of the period doing their best to resist Springfield’s repeated attacks as the visitor pushed hard for an equalizer. As he had been all night, Primeau held them off with aplomb. In the final four minutes, however, the Rocket faced a crucial penalty as Tory Dello drove into the box for a high stick.
The penalty killers, without one of their main pieces, did incredibly well to keep the Thunderbirds shooters locked in and escaped the kill unscathed to keep a tenuous lead intact.
There was one final challenge for the Rocket to overcome as the Thunderbirds fired Hofer in the final 1:55 of the game to try and find the tying goal once again. Some key blocks from Mattias Norlinder allowed Dello to finally collect the puck and shoot it into the empty net to seal the win.
Endnote: Rocket 2, Thunderbirds 0
With their first win in their back pocket, the Rocket now heads to Wilkes-Barre/Scranton for a showdown with the Penguins on Friday night, with a puck drop scheduled for 7:05 p.m.
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