(Laval) A five-minute penalty could have put the Laval Rocket in trouble, but it instead took inspiration from it to turn the tide. The end result, however, remained the same.
Gabriel Fortier played the hero in overtime and the Syracuse Crunch defeated the Rocket 3-2 on Wednesday evening at Place Bell.
After witnessing a domination of the Crunch in terms of shots in the first period (17-3), and while Tobie Bisson was installed in the cell for having given a stripe, the fans probably did not give much of the skin of the Montreal Canadiens’ farm club. And they would have been right.
Nothing seemed to be working lately for Laval’s shorthanded unit, which had allowed nine goals in its last 25 opportunities. Against the Crunch, however, they had some good chances short of a man and they brought the crowd back to their side.
“We had to kill this five minutes. It hadn’t been easy in the last few games, but it was a statement of our numerical disadvantage. The sticks are in the right places, the guys manage to block a few more shots. It’s a question of mentality. When you have confidence, it helps,” said striker Philippe Maillet.
He and Mitchell Stephens scored in the second period, but the Rocket (23-24-28) ultimately escaped victory in overtime.
After an Emil Heineman shot missed the target, the puck took a wayward leap off Sean Farrell’s skate, leading to a two-on-one surge for the Crunch (32-17-5). Sean Day was patient and passed the puck to Fortier, who redirected it into the top of the net and behind Jakub Dobes.
It was a first victory in 13 visits to Place Bell for the Crunch and a sixth defeat in as many overtime games for the Rocket this season.
“In overtime, you can’t miss the net because if you do, the other team goes on attack,” observed head coach Jean-François Houle. We have our chances and we don’t score. And our opponents seem to be finding ways to score. I hope we will win the next ones because we need these points. »
The Rocket’s slow start hasn’t cost them the game at this point, but the trend certainly needs to turn around as they fight for a playoff spot. Too often in the last games, his opponents took the lead and put pressure on.
“Our team is inconsistent at the moment. We were on our heels in the first half, but I liked the way we came out in the second. In third too, but we fought ourselves,” underlined Houle.
The Laval troop suffered a third consecutive setback, but they can perhaps console themselves by saying that they left the last place in the North section. Dobes finished the game with 31 saves.
Gage Goncalves scored the other two goals for the winners, which saw Matt Tomkins turn aside 21 pucks.
The Rocket will return to action Friday night, when they host the Cleveland Monsters for a series of two duels in less than 24 hours.
Another difficult start
The Laval team hoped to have as good a first period as in Springfield, where they took 26 shots, but the pace was rather dictated by the Crunch.
The visitors gave the Rocket virtually nothing and spun into enemy territory on two power plays, but failed to take advantage. However, they opened the scoring before the end of the period.
Joe Carroll fought well behind the net and managed to steal the puck from Justin Barron. Alex Barré-Boulet recovered it and served a nice pass to Goncalves, who hit the target in the top corner.
The home team remained a little asleep in the first minutes of the second period and Bisson tried to wake them up. The defender applied a violent back check to Declan Carlile and received a five-minute penalty.
Despite a shot on the horizontal bar from Fortier and a missed opportunity from Gabriel Dumont, on the fly, it was the Rocket who was more insistent. Brandon Gignac, Jan Mysak and Nathan Légaré notably knocked on Tomkins’ door.
The confrontation took another direction from that moment on.
Installed next to his goalkeeper, Logan Mailloux joined Stephens 120 feet further to throw him on a breakaway. The veteran immediately fired a shot that beat Tomkins over the glove. Just over five minutes later, Jared Davidson’s work allowed Farrell to recover the puck. His superb backhand pass found the blade of Maillet’s stick, which moved the strings on reception.
The Crunch returned to the locker room with a one-goal deficit, but it only took one minute in the third period to level the score. Goncalves accepted a pass from Jack Finley and deceived Dobes’ vigilance with a backhand shot that the Czech goalkeeper would no doubt have liked to see again.
In overtime, Farrell had a great chance in front of Tomkins, but his backhand shot missed the target. Fortier then closed the books.