With the Laval Rocket collecting a fairly decisive win on Friday over the Abbotsford Canucks, they looked to mimic their brothers downtown by starting the year 3-1-0. The fans who piled into Place Bell on Saturday expected an energetic matchup after the previous day’s passionate affair. Laval and Abbotsford combined for 40 penalty minutes in a game that ended in a 3-0 shutout in favour of Laval that handed Abbotsford its first loss since winning the Calder Cup on June 23.
The forward lines showed a small shuffle, as Joshua Roy joined the top line and Alex Belzile dropped down to centre the second line. Lucas Condotta and Tyler Thorpe joined Xavier Simoneau on the third trio and Vincent Arseneau was the new addition slotting in for Owen Beck to play on the fourth line with Florian Xhekaj and Luke Tuch. On the back end, Marc Del Gaizo joined Adam Engström on the top pairing, and Jacob Dion played with Wyatte Wylie. The second defensive pairing of Tobie Paquette-Bisson and Nate Clurman was the only grouping from Friday’s match that stayed.
The teams didn’t lack for intensity as Xhekaj dropped the gloves and ragdolled Chase Stillman just 55 seconds into the game. Stillman, of course, was the perpetrator of the illegal punch to Josiah Didier after their respective fight on Friday.
After the fight, Laval did a good job of keeping the pressure on the Canucks, getting a couple of decent looks at goaltender Nikita Tolopilo right away. Laval kept pushing after forcing an icing before finally striking. Laurent Dauphin got the finish after Tolopilo made two great saves. His sliding stop on Sean Farrell teed up Dauphin right in the slot, and Dauphin made no mistake, blasting the puck past the sprawling Tolopilo and making it 1-0 just 2:51 into the game.
Right after the goal, the Rocket gave themselves a challenge, with Condotta picking up an interference call in the defensive zone. The Canucks put together a lively power play, putting three shots on net in just the first minute. Abbotsford took a penalty of its own after Tuch drew a hooking penalty from Sawyer Mynio on the forecheck.
Laval dominated the offensive zone for the four-on-four before its own power play started. The Rocket picked up only the one chance on the shortened man advantage, but still looked faster and more organized than their harsh-green adversaries.
The Rocket were showcasing their zone possession, putting together impressive stretches of dangerous zone time through the stretch of the period. It wasn’t a hesitant, passing mess either, consistently creating high-danger scoring chances. Laval had collected 11 shots by the time the 10-minute mark of the period hit, and at least six of them were dangerous. Farrell had at least four himself; the small, crafty forward was unleashing his one-timer whenever he could, acting as the trigger man for the Rocket’s first line.
As the Rocket continued to push, Abbotsford already looked slow and beaten. Laval took advantage of their lacklustre coverage, doubling their lead with a blast from Jared Davidson in the slot thanks to a play set up with a nice pass from Filip Mesar below the goal line.
With the Rocket leading 2-0 with just under eight minutes to go in the first, Abbotsford took another penalty, but Laval wasn’t able to convert.
The rest of the period finished without anything of note happening compared to the action-packed opening 10 minutes. Laval headed into the dressing room leading 2-0 on the scoresheet, having outshot the Canucks 15-6 in the period.
The Rocket didn’t get the start they wanted in the second, with Davidson picking up a slashing call just 1:30 into the frame. Abbotsford settled into the man advantage right away and Vitali Kravtsov got the Canucks on the board with a nasty wrister from the right circle.
Now leading by just one with less than two minutes having expired in the period, Laval needed a spark, and Davidson tried to provide just that, dropping the mitts with Dino Kambeitz after taking exception to a hit delivered by the defenceman.
Unfortunately, Davidson picked up the instigator, giving Abbotsford another power play. Once again, the Canucks looked dominant on the man advantage. This time it was Tom Willander wiring a wrist shot past Kaapo Kähkönen, tying the game 2-2.
Having now wasted their dominant play in the first, the Rocket tried to tilt the ice back in their favour. Laval controlled play for large swaths of the period, but weren’t able to create the same dangerous chances as they did in the opening frame.
A dangerous high stick from Wyatte Wylie gave the Canucks four minutes of opportunity with an extra man. Luckily for Laval, Joseph LeBate tripped Joshua Roy, nullifying most of the man advantage and certainly most of the momentum it would have brought.
Laval had a couple of good chances during the four-on-four that resulted, namely pouncing on Tolopilo’s poor rebound control, but the Canucks’ goaltender made the stops he needed to.
With 2:42 left in the middle frame, Adam Engstrom drew a holding penalty, sending Laval to the power play. The Rocket put together a better effort this time around, but still weren’t able to push through.
Once again, all the action in the frame was packed into the opening minutes, with both teams failing to produce anything of danger down the stretch and heading to the dressing rooms locked at 2-2.
The third period was the first to start without chaos. Davidson was charged with a roughing penalty five minutes into the frame, giving Abbotsford another go at the man advantage. Laval finally executed a good kill, stifling the Canucks through almost two full minutes of zone time.
The kill did exactly what it was supposed to: give the Rocket a boost. Just seconds later, they found themselves in the offensive zone, where Condotta freed himself in the slot and Simoneau made no mistake with the feed, giving Laval the lead with 12 minutes left in the game.
After the goal, Laval took another penalty but executed another good defence. After dominating on the man advantage earlier, these stifling kills were clearly affecting Abbotsford, with the Canucks looking like they were skating in concrete after the two-minute failure.
The game became sloppy and opportunistic in the final eight minutes. Laval had a couple of strong plays off the rush, but wasn’t able to convert. To Abbotsford’s credit, it did a good job of crashing the net and creating chaos around Kähkönen, but the veteran stood tall in the face of slashing sticks.
A scuffle between Belzile and LeBate had the teams playing at four-on-four with just over three minutes left, and the Rocket took advantage of the extra space, creating a couple of high-quality chances and keeping possession in the offensive zone.
Laval would get its insurance marker with 2:11 left in the game after a rink-long bank shot from Xhekaj sailed into the Canucks’ open cage.
Laval didn’t finish there as Belzile put another into the empty cage to secure the win for Laval.
Final Score: Laval 5, Abbotsford 2
The Rocket closed this one out confidently, pushing their record to 3-1-0 and winning back-to-back games against the reigning Calder Cup champions.
The Rocket are back in action against the Belleville Senators on Wednesday, October 22.