Friday night was a tough one for the Laval Rocket as they battled for every inch of ice to score a goal late in regulation, only for a slight mistake to sink them as they fell 2-1 to the Rochester Americans. They did not have to wait long to try and get their revenge, however, as the Amerks returned for a Saturday afternoon rematch at Place Bell.

It was another season debut, this time for William Trudeau who had missed the entire pre-season with a lingering injury, and had just cleared waivers on Friday ahead of the Rocket’s game. He joined Adam Engström on the top pair, while David Reinbacher formed the second pair with Tobie Bisson. Joseph Dunlap replaced Tyler Thorpe in the lineup, sliding in on the third line. Owen Beck found himself demoted after a tough outing, with Alex Belzile taking his spot on line two while Joshua Roy moved into Belzile’s first-line spot. Beck lined up with Florian Xhekaj and Luke Tuch on the fourth line, and Jacob Fowler got the start in net.

It took just 59 seconds for the Rocket to score as many goals as they did on Friday night, with Trudeau making an instant impact. He jumped up and kept a play alive heading into the offensive zone, sending a feed across to Laurent Dauphin. The Rocket forward rifled the puck by Alexander Georgiev to get Place Bell on its feet early.

As things often do in divisional games, tempers were soon boiling over as Bisson laid out Konsta Helenius just as the whistle blew for offside. The hit drew a crowd, and after everyone was separated the Rocket were headed to the game’s first power play with Helenius sitting for roughing.

Laval’s top unit hammered plenty of chances on net, with Georgiev coughing up multiple rebounds, but the Rocket were unable to poke any of them by the netminder. Rochester then nearly levelled the score as Marc Del Gaizo was unable to corral a loose puck and it turned into a Graham Slaggert short-handed breakaway that forced Fowler into a shoulder save. The rough first period continued for Del Gaizo after that, as he was called for cross-checking in front of the Rocket net, putting the Amerks on the power play.

Just like they did on Friday night, the Rocket penalty-killers did well to smother the first wave of Rochester’s power play, and then played keepaway with the second wave with Engström in particular doing a great job to keep the puck out of his own end.

With Del Gaizo out of the box, the Rocket began their search for a second first period goal. Instead it was the Americans finding their first goal of the game, from range on Fowler. Zac Jones sent Viktor Neuchev into the offensive zone with speed, and from near the top of the high slot he fired a shot that Fowler just whiffed on with his glove to tie the game up.

Things risked spinning out of control as the next shift saw Trudeau sent to the box for cross-checking and putting Rochester back on the power play. Rochester peppered Fowler with plenty of chances on their second man advantage, but the rookie netminder held the line as Laval’s penalty kill kept a perfect weekend going.

The new-look second line did everything it could on its next shift to try to get the lead back as Filip Mešár dipped and ducked through the offensive zone, but a goal was just not in the cards. As the Rocket were beginning to get some momentum back, it was Del Gaizo again finding himself in the penalty box with just over a minute left in the period.

The Rocket penalty kill showed impressive form as they escaped the first period with 54 seconds left on the kill and the game knotted up at one goal apiece.

Once more, Laval’s penalty-killers showed incredible poise as they fended off the final 54 seconds of Rochester’s power play, then went back to work and drew a call of their own to head to their second man advantage of the game.

After failing to score on Friday, the Rocket power play made sure to avoid the same mistake as their top unit swarmed all over the offensive zone. Engström dished a puck off to Roy, with Roy then putting it on the tape of Belzile at the side of the net. Belzile, playing in his 500th professional game, kicked it across the crease where Dauphin dove in to swat the puck past Georgiev.

Just as the Rocket were slowly building up some consistent pressure and momentum, sloppy defensive-zone play left Folwer under siege and the Rocket going back to the penalty kill. While the offensive efforts were inconsistent, Laval’s penalty kill continued to be a game-changer as they stymied the Amerks for a fourth straight time and keeping their lead intact.

The penalty-killers were called upon for a fifth time in the game after a dubious roughing penalty sent Reinbacher to the box, and the young Austrian was baffled at the call as he took a seat.

The story continued as it had all afternoon with the Rocket penalty-killers dispatching another Rochester power play, just in time for Bisson to take a penalty and putting the kill to the test for a sixth time. Laval as a team clearly took this penalty personally as they pushed for short-handed markers on every shift, killing off a ninth power play of the weekend much to the joy of the home crowd.

Laval finally got another chance on the man advantage after Engström buried Olivier Nadeau by the benches and drew a response from Trevor Kuntar. The Rocket power play wasted no time pushing their lead to two goals as the top power-play unit ran roughshod over Georgiev. Roy took a feed from Engström, then fired a no-look pass across to Dauphin who kicked the puck to his stick and buried his hat-trick goal.

For good measure, the officials continued to be the focal point of the game as Joseph Dunlap took a stick in the ribs, and was called for holding the stick. Before Rochester could begin its seventh power play , Riley Fiddler-Schultz shoved Xavier Simoneau from behind and evened up the penalties heading into the intermission.

Laval learned from their Friday loss to stifle the Rochester attack at four-on-four. The Rocket controlled the puck and pace of play to neuter the Amerks’ counter-attack and returned the play back to five-on-five without much issue.

Laval’s continued, controlled pressure eventually gave them another power play chance as Red Savage was whistled for cross-checking in the offensive zone. The Rocket man advantage continued to generate strong looks, with Belzile just missing a pass to Dauphin that looked like a sure fourth goal for the Laval forward. While Rochester killed off the penalty, the Rocket were wresting control of play firmly into their own hands as the third period wore on.

After Rochester mounted a strong push, the Rocket top line turned the pressure up to 11 and the hard work of Roy and Del Gaizo resulted in a Laval power play as the Rocket defenceman was tripped up. While the top unit had played well all day, Pascal Vincent made the call to let his second unit get the full two minutes. It was a great call as well as Reinbacher swung the puck over to Jared Davidson, and Davidson blistered his league-leading seventh goal by Georgiev.

Laval continued its special teams dominance as they killed off a seventh Rochester power play, then again returned to the front foot to attack the net. While the Rocket were flying high, a frustrating day for Owen Beck continued as he got into it with Helenius behind the play and ended up as the only player heading to the box.

It was nearly 11 straight penalty kills for the Rocket, as they pushed the Americans down to the final 36 seconds of the power play before the streak came to an end. Jones found enough time to tee up Noah Ostlund, and Ostlund ripped a shot that Fowler had no shot at saving off the crossbar to set up a nervy final 1:45 of game time.

Thankfully Fowler was up to the task as he slammed the door shut on the Rochester empty-net push, and Dauphin deposited his fourth goal of the game to seal a win to end the weekend for the Rocket.

Final Score: Laval 5, Rochester 2

Laval now has nearly a full week off before they welcome the Hartford Wolf Pack to Place Bell on Friday, November 7. Puck drop is set for 7 PM ET.