(Laval) There is indeed a rivalry between the Laval Rocket and the Belleville Senators. Dormant until now this season, it manifested itself on Friday, which suggests several other duels fertile in emotions between two clubs which must cross swords on seven other occasions over the next three months.
In a match that got particularly lively from the middle of the second period, the Rocket defeated the Senators by a score of 5-2 in front of 9,745 spectators who got their money’s worth.
Jan Mysak led the Rocket (16-14-6) attack with two goals and an assist. He first scored the eventual victorious goal in the second period then an important goal which gave his club a 4-2 lead early in the third period.
“I would say, first of all, it was a great performance by the whole team,” replied Mysak when asked to analyze his evening.
“The first goal I scored came from the work of the whole trio. I was lucky to be in the right place. I played a good match, but it was a team victory,” he added.
Lucas Condotta ended a drought of about a month by collecting his fifth goal of the season, in the first period.
Philippe Maillet and Brandon Gignac, the latter in an empty net, also scored for the Rocket, who had 35 shots.
For the Senators (18-14-4), Tyler Kleven and Jacob Larsson, both in the second period, beat Jakub Dobes, who faced 30 pucks.
The match was marked by a total of 85 minutes of penalties, including 79 from the middle of the second period.
The numerous skirmishes and the Rocket’s victory, which allowed it to come within two points of the Senators in the North section of the American League, may well serve as an opening point for the second duel of this round-trip series. , Saturday evening at CAA Arena.
“It was part of the plan to play with emotion and not let yourself be pushed. Our players responded very well this evening,” said head coach Jean-François Houle, who expects another intense match on Saturday.
Waterproof defensive
A good way to prevent a team from taking a 2-0 lead in the first period – a feat the Senators had achieved in each of their first four games against the Rocket – is to limit the team in question to less than two shots.
The Rocket almost achieved the feat, allowing only three pucks to reach Dobes during the first 20 minutes of action.
“I really liked our first period. They almost didn’t touch the puck, we kept them on the outside,” Houle analyzed.
“That’s how you have to play. It has to be hard to play against us and we showed this evening that it is not easy to play against us. »
This defensive performance helped the Rocket open the scoring at 17:11 of the first period thanks to Condotta’s first goal since mid-December, with the help of a quality shot that passed to the right of goalkeeper Leevi Merilainen .
Kleven brought the duel back to square one at 5:47 of the second period, but the tie only lasted 75 seconds.
Maillet took advantage of the dexterity of Gignac, who slipped the puck between his legs and to his teammate, to score his ninth goal of the season and extend his streak of games with at least one point to eight.
The Rocket doubled their lead just 68 seconds later. Mysak collected a loose puck to the goalie’s right and lodged it in the net.
Flames
Rather calm until then, the match completely changed its appearance halfway through the second period.
It all started with a check by Heineman on Jiri Smejkal, at 9:48, which earned the Rocket forward a five-minute penalty for obstruction.
The Rocket got away with it, allowing only one goal, that of Larsson, scored just 34 seconds after the start of the penalty.
“You can look at it in different ways, but maybe I didn’t think it was a five (minute). We were on the wrong side. We had to defend ourselves. Killing a five-minute penalty isn’t easy, especially since they scored an early goal. Credit to the players who did a good job on this,” underlined Houle.
But tempers continued to flare long after this incident.
With 1:55 on the clock, Condotta and Cole Reinhardt received double minors for bickering. Thirty seconds later, another skirmish broke out, this one involving Logan Mailloux and Filip Cederqvist, for the Rocket, and Smejkal, for the Senators, who all went to calm down in the dungeon.
Finally, with 57 seconds left, Xavier Simoneau threw down the gloves against Josh Currie, who had just delivered a hard check to the Rocket attacker.
Mysak completed his double at 4:17 of the third period with a backhand shot, after a nice feint in the opposing zone.
About thirty seconds after this goal, tempers heated up again.
Condotta, who had hit a rival hard in the opposing zone, had to drop the gloves against Dillon Heatherington.
Another thirty seconds later, Arber Xhekaj literally brought the crowd to their feet by correcting Brennan Saulnier, who was literally no match.