During a stretch of three matches in three days, it is often difficult to escape physical and mental fatigue. The Laval Rocket learned this the hard way on Saturday evening.
A quick three-goal spurt early in the second period helped the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins beat the Rocket 6-3 at Mohegan Sun Arena.
With two consecutive victories on the road, Laval had an effective first engagement against the Penguins, but everything collapsed in the space of 94 seconds.
Lack of concentration was a factor and mistakes were costly. And when the Rocket (21-20-6) thought they had found the right path, a bad start to the third period hurt their hopes of victory.
“It shows that all presences are important,” underlined head coach Jean-François Houle. We fell asleep at the start of the second half and it cost us three goals. You see that mental fatigue is starting to set in a little. »
The Rocket is used to this kind of situation. Since the start of the season, he has often been caught giving up two or three goals in a short interval, which has sometimes placed him in a precarious position.
Over the past two months, Houle and his players have made adjustments to their game and have had great success. These quick goal situations didn’t happen often anymore.
“We fell back a bit into the Rocket of 2023. It happened that for two to five minutes, our game was not on point and the other teams took advantage of it. It came down to that,” analyzed striker Nathan Légaré.
The Montreal Canadiens’ farm club is not at the end of its troubles, as it will take a bus trip of a few hours to face the Islanders in Bridgeport, starting Sunday afternoon.
The season is far from over, but points are becoming more and more valuable. Especially when we look at the standings of the North section of the American League, where five teams are separated by only seven points.
“We turn the page for tonight’s game and we keep our focus for tomorrow’s game. You don’t have to worry. You will have to go to the net and focus on the small details. It won’t necessarily be beautiful, but we have to get two points,” observed defender Olivier Galipeau.
Jan Mysak moved the strings twice while Xavier Simoneau added a goal for the Laval team. Logan Mailloux finished the game with two assists.
Kasimir Kaskisuo was entrusted with the Rocket’s net and he gave up four times in 29 shots. On a few occasions, however, he had to save the furniture following turnovers.
Jagger Joshua, Maxim Cajkovic, Jack Rathbone, Justin Addamo, Alex Nylander and Corey Andonovski responded for the Penguins (26-17-7), who returned to winning ways. Austin Rueschhoff had three assists.
The young 22-year-old goalkeeper Joel Blomqvist made 20 saves, but some of them were very important.
Defender Chris Jandric played his first game in a Rocket uniform, which will end its trip Sunday afternoon against the Bridgeport Islanders.
Rapid explosion
Both teams were methodical at the start of the match and scoring opportunities were a little rarer.
The Rocket opened the scoring at 6:45, following some good work from Filip Cederqvist behind the net. Mailloux inherited his pass and slipped the disc to Galipeau. His point shot was deftly deflected by Mysak behind Blomqvist.
The Penguins had a great chance to tie the game before the end of the opening period, following a turnover at the blue line, but Kaskisuo stopped a point-blank shot from Andonovski.
This stop did not shake the Wilkes-Barre / Scranton troop, who left the locker room with the knife between their teeth.
First, during a two-on-one build-up, Rueschhoff was patient and passed the puck to Cajkovic, who barely beat Kaskisuo. Then, Joshua saw his shot hit the skate of defender Justin Barron before surprising the Rocket goaltender. Just 26 seconds later, Addamo escaped his coverrs and pounced on a rebound to increase the lead to 3-1.
Houle decided to call a timeout and his men responded well. Cederqvist’s very good work once again led to a Mysak goal, after the latter had completed William Trudeau’s set-up.
If Kaskisuo had closed the door in spectacular fashion at the expense of Andonovski, at the end of the first period, Blomqvist gave him the answer in the second period. The Finn pulled out the mitt to frustrate Légaré with a goal that would have tied the game.
The Penguins thanked their goaltender by hitting the target during a power play early in the third period. While the Rocket players were running out of steam, Rathbone went alone to the crease and gave Kaskisuo no chance.
The Laval residents did not have the best commitment, but they did not give up. During a power play, Mitchell Stephens spotted Simoneau in the slot and the small forward did not miss this opportunity to reduce the gap.
Nylander and Andonovski, however, sealed the outcome of the match in an empty net.