(Laval) The Laval Rocket remained at the height of the fight for a place in the American Hockey League playoffs thanks to an important 7-4 victory against the Springfield Thunderbirds in front of another packed house of 10,293 spectators, Saturday afternoon at Place Bell.
Facing a rival who was playing a third match in four days and who had arrived in Laval around 2 a.m. from Belleville, the Rocket (32-28-8) had to work hard to earn two precious points in the ranking.
These two points are mainly due to three players, Mitchell Stephens (3-2), Lias Andersson (0-3) and Arnaud Durandeau (2-1), who collected 11 points.
Durandeau scored the eventual winning goal at 6:37 of the third period. Stephens added the insurance goal about four minutes later before completing his hat trick into an empty net.
David Reinbacher (2e) and Philippe Maillet (20e) also found the back of the net for the Rocket against goaltender Vadim Zherenko, who blocked 30 pucks.
Adam Gaudette led the Thunderbirds offense with two goals and an assist. Mikhail Abramov (1-1) and Joseph Duszak (1-1) rounded out.
Dispatched in front of the Rocket net in a second game in less than 24 hours, goalkeeper Jakub Dobes faced 35 shots and made several quality saves.
The Rocket played this match in the absence of defender Justin Barron, urgently recalled by the Montreal Canadiens in the morning, and of his offensive pillar Brandon Gignac, who injured his lower body Friday evening against the Crunch of Syracuse.
There is only one local game left for the Rocket, and this one will close the regular season on April 20, against the Belleville Senators.
In the meantime, Jean-François Houle’s men will head to Cleveland early Tuesday, with a view to two matches against the Monsters, Thursday and next Saturday.
Rocket launch
On March 2 in Springfield, Zherenko was the big star of a 7-3 victory for the Thunderbird in a match in which the Rocket bombarded him with 56 shots.
Saturday afternoon, the Rocket players hit the target on two occasions in less than eight minutes, and with only six shots.
Stephens opened the scoring after a little over four minutes with a shot from the slot, after good work behind the net from Durandeau and Andersson.
About three minutes later, Stephens and Andersson made their presence felt in the opposing zone again, and their work allowed Reinbacher to score his second goal of the season with a shot from the blue line.
The Rocket then seemed in full control of the match. However, a bad penalty to Logan Mailloux, deep in the opposing zone and while his team had a man advantage, contributed to Abramov’s goal at 11:06.
Just 10 seconds later, the Thunderbirds came very close to tying the score, when Ryan Suzuki appeared alone in front of Dobes, who made a superb save. But Dobes and his teammates lost nothing by waiting.
Two other minor penalties to the Rocket, one to Olivier Galipeau at the end of the first period and the other to Gabriel Bourque after 19 seconds of play in the second period, led to Gaudette’s equalizing goal, with a wrist shot from the top of the enclave, at 1:03.
The good news for the Rocket was that the first punishment had just ended.
The other good news is that the trio of Stephens, Andersson and Durandeau picked up where they left off early in the first period.
The first two worked hard behind the net and the third rattled the ropes at 6:10.
This goal had an invigorating effect for the Rocket, who brought the score to 4-2 66 seconds later, thanks to a receiving shot from Maillet, coming from the right faceoff circle.
However, the tide would turn again to the point where barely five minutes after Maillet’s net, the two clubs were tied again.
Gaudette first scored his second goal of the afternoon, on a penalty shot poorly received by Rocket fans, at 11:40. Only 45 seconds later, Duszak completed a nice three-play.
For the third time in the match, the Rocket gave themselves a two-goal lead in the third period. And this time, the Laval team knew how to protect it.