(Cleveland) It’s now official: the Laval Rocket players will need outside help to participate in the playoffs in the American Hockey League. And a good dose.
Zachary Okabe scored his second goal of the game with 7:27 left in the third period, and the Cleveland Monsters handed the Rocket a painful 6-4 loss Thursday night at Rocket Mortgage Fieldhouse.
Okabe beat Jakub Dobes with a backhand shot from a difficult angle, which seemed to slide under the Rocket goaltender and just past the red line. The game was so close that it took the video replay to confirm the goal.
This net from Okabe spoiled a solid start to the match for the Rocket, who led 2-0 after less than six minutes of play, and who then erased a two-goal deficit in the third period.
But Jean-François Houle’s men completely disappeared in the second period, during which the Monsters scored four unanswered goals and amassed 16 shots against eight.
“We committed too many turnovers and we didn’t win the battles along the boards,” analyzed the Rocket head coach about the middle period.
Mitchell Stephens (12e), Lucas Condotta (7e), Tobie Paquette-Bisson (9e) and Emil Heineman (14e) thwarted goaltender Pavel Cajan, who faced 26 shots.
Josh Dunne, Samuel Knazko and Luca Del Bel Belluz also fooled Dobes, who made 29 saves. Alex Whelan added an empty-net goal for the Monsters (37-23-8 -82 points), who are now qualified for the playoffs.
The defeat leaves the Rocket (32-29-8 -72 points) in sixth place in the North section – therefore out of the playoff picture for the moment – two points behind the Belleville Senators, who have played two fewer games.
The table is as follows: with three games to play, the Rocket cannot do better than 78 points. However, three teams already have at least 81 points. Additionally, the Toronto Marlies have 76 points, in fourth place. Just like the Senators, the Marlies still have five games remaining but none against each other.
The Senators and Rocket will end their respective seasons in a home-and-home series on April 19-20. Meanwhile, the Rocket will face the Monsters again on Saturday in Cleveland.
“We have to win all the matches we have left and we will hope that other teams will lose,” summarized Houle after the match.
An ideal start
The message did not need to be hammered home; It was important that the Rocket players started the match with confidence. That’s exactly what they did.
Stephens, who was the big star of the Laval team’s victory with a performance of three goals and two assists last Saturday, picked up where he left off.
The Rocket center grabbed a loose puck in the right faceoff circle following a turnover and beat Cajan with a quick wrist shot, just 13 seconds into the game.
Almost exactly five minutes later, Condotta allowed the Rocket to double their lead by deflecting a shot from Olivier Galipeau, coming from the right point.
This goal seemed to wake up the Monsters, who increased the pressure in the Laval zone. As a result, the Rocket spent a good part of the rest of the period defending, to the point where Jean-François Houle’s players did not get a single shot on goal for an interval of almost 10 minutes.
Not only did the Rocket start the second period with this 2-0 lead, they played with a two-man advantage for 40 seconds following two minor penalties, the first occurring at the end of the first and the second, after only 38 seconds had passed in the second period.
The Rocket was not only unable to take advantage of this great opportunity, he gave the Monsters a numerical superiority less than a minute later.
The Monsters didn’t waste their chance, Dunne deflecting a Del Bel Belluz shot at 4:07.
About five minutes later, Okabe brought both clubs back to the starting square with a shot from the slot, rotating on himself.
The Monsters had not said their last word. After another missed opportunity on the power play, four of the Rocket’s five players were unable to be replaced and found themselves trapped in their zone.
Pressure from the Monsters eventually allowed Knazko to step into the left faceoff circle and beat Dobes with a stick-side shot at 13:31.
Then, with 2:45 left in the period, the Monsters put the Rocket in a precarious position when Del Bel Belluz deflected a Stefan Matteau shot.
“We have to play for 60 minutes if we want to win a hockey game, especially at this time of year,” admitted Logan Mailloux, who had two assists in the third period.
“We collapsed in the second and we couldn’t stop the bleeding,” added the defender.
While their situation seemed bleak, the Rocket players found new resources to the point of equaling the mark.
Paquette-Bisson first reduced the Monsters’ lead to 4-3 by deflecting a Mailloux shot at 9:29.
Less than two minutes later, the Rocket’s numerical advantage finally struck, on its fifth attempt thanks to a one-timer from Heineman, following a nice cross-field pass from Philippe Maillet.
But Okabe’s second goal of the match would eventually make the difference in favor of the Monsters.