After coming up short in the Eastern Conference Final in 2025, the Laval Rocket began a new season with a Calder Cup being their end goal. The team said goodbye to a few core pieces from last year’s team, including veteran defenceman Tyler Wotherspoon, leading scorer Alex Barré-Boulet, and standout netminder Cayden Primeau.
However, much of the Rocket lineup did remain intact, including their top line, with former captain Alex Belzile replacing Barré-Boulet, joined by Sean Farrell and Laurent Dauphin. Joshua Roy lined up with Florian Xhekaj and Luke Tuch on the third line, and Filip Mesar with Owen Beck anchoring the second. On defence, some pre-season injuries left the Rocket without William Trudeau, David Reinbacher, Josh Jacobs and Ryan O’Rourke. Adam Engström and Tobie Bisson took top-pairing duties while Marc Del Gazio and Nate Clurman took the second.
In net, it was the future between the pipes as Jacob Fowler got the start for the Rocket.
While the Rocket came in with high expectations, the Moose were the team that charged out of the gate to start the game. Fowler had to be ready as the home side spent the opening minute inside the offensive zone before his teammates could finally clear their lines. Before long the youth of the Moose caught the Rocket third pair sleeping, with Colby Barlow sending Brayden Yager in alone, with Yager finishing high over Fowler’s glove.
The Rocket took the opening goal against to heart, closing down gaps in the defensive zone rapidly and forcing the Moose into turnovers that quickly went down the ice. While Laval began to spend longer and longer shifts inside the Moose zone, they weren’t able to force any pucks by Dom DiVincentiis. Florian Xhekaj notably was all over the zone, using his frame to win battles in front of goal and create chaos, even if his first goal of the year eluded him.
The Moose, however, made the most of their next real scoring opportunity as Kevin Conley drove into the high slot and fired a harmless looking shot toward Fowler. The shot looked to have hit another stick on its way to the net, fooling Fowler and doubling the Manitoba lead as the final minutes of the first period approached.
The second goal seemed to take some of the steam out of the Rocket attack as the first period wound down, and the attacks became slightly more tentative. While they got their chances, the Rocket left the ice at the end of the period facing a two-goal deficit and needing to find an early goal to stunt the Moose momentum.
Laval must have received quite the pep talk between periods as they came out flying to start the second period, piling up nine shots in the opening few minutes of play. DiVincentiis remained a stubborn obstacle as none of the shots made it through him the opening minutes. To make matters worse, a poorly timed penalty by Jacob Dion put the Rocket on the game’s first penalty kill. Laval’s penalty kill looked every bit as strong as it did last season, smothering the Moose in the dangerous areas and keeping their deficit at just two goals.
The officials were mostly content to let both sides play in terms of hits or stickwork along the boards, but a forearm to the head of Xavier Simoneau finally drew a power play in the Rocket’s favour. Laval’s ability to command control of the puck served them well as the Moose could not clear the zone and break the Rocket cycle. Adam Engström freed up Joshua Roy to cut to the net, firing a backhand shot and then following his own rebound to put Laval on the board after a strong period of play.
Laval then instantly gave the two-goal lead right back to the Moose as the home side struck in the minutes following Roy’s tally. Walker Duehr got a step beyond Marc Del Gaizo allowing him to cut across Fowler and ringing a backhand off the crossbar. Del Gaizo, trying to get back into position, had the misfortune of the puck then bouncing off of him and into the net to put the Moose on top 3-1.
The Rocket continued to make life hard on themselves as they followed up Duehr’s goal with a high-sticking penalty, handing Manitoba to push the game out of reach. Despite some of the other issues on the night, Laval’s penalty-killers again did a flawless job at beating back the Moose power play and keeping themselves in striking distance for a comeback.
Laval’s deficit nearly became three goals in the opening moments of the third period as Ashton Sautner hammered a shot off the post behind Fowler. The rebound bounced out to the Moose, but a diving kick save by Dion saved a sure goal for the Rocket. In the chaos following Dion’s save, the Moose had one too many skaters on the ice and put Laval back on the power play.
The Rocket’s man advantage could not recreate the same success as their first attempt, with the Moose firing everything quickly out of the zone and giving Laval nothing to work with. It was still all Rocket after the penalty expired, however, hemming the Moose in for repeated shifts, but the goaltending of DiVincentiis continued to hold Laval at bay.
Being unable to get a second goal by DiVincentiis proved costly as the final half of the third period began, with the Moose pushing their lead to three. A bouncing puck was batted towards the goal by Danny Zhilkin. It looked like it might go wide, but Nate Clurman accidentally steered it behind Fowler.
Another late power play struggled to generate much in terms of real dangerous pressure on the Moose, as the Rocket looked a step slow to every puck battle on the man advantage. Failing to get another power-play goal put the Rocket back on the ropes as the final four minutes ticked down, and the deficit still sticking at three goals. Pascal Vincent opted to not pull his netminder in the final minutes, choosing to ride out the loss and regroup for Sunday’s rematch.
Final Score: Manitoba 4, Laval 1
These two teams will play on Sunday at 3 PM ET. It is unknown if the Rocket will turn to Kaapo Kähhkönen or switch up their lines at all.