(Laval) Even if he perhaps deserved a better fate in Belleville, the Laval Rocket understood that he cannot let himself be walked on if he wants to accumulate victories.
A bit like they did at Place Bell in December, the Senators shook up the Laval team to score a victory on Thursday evening. The Syracuse Crunch arrived with a similar game plan on Friday, but this time, the Rocket responded to win.
Riley McKay set the tone for the Montreal Canadiens’ farm club by throwing down the gloves against Daniel Walker. From that moment on, Jean-François Houle’s men gained confidence and they were more physical and more disturbing than their opponents.
Crowd favorite Arber
The Crunch came out strong, but when we started fighting back, that’s when we took over. We are also a robust team and we are capable of fighting back. If we don’t let teams dominate us physically, we’ll be fine.
Arber Xhekaj
Although Houle said his players played “a little bit on the short end of the spectrum” against the Senators, he thinks they did enough to deserve better. The adjustments he made in preparation for the duel against the Crunch, however, were not in response to the match that had taken place 24 hours earlier.
PHOTO GRAHAM HUGHES, THE CANADIAN PRESS
Emil Lilleberg (84) and Emil Heineman (19)
The Rocket had lost the first two clashes against the Crunch this season, but during the last meeting between the two teams, on December 20, it was he who had the upper hand.
“We had success in that game in Syracuse and that’s what I relied on. It had no connection with the match in Belleville. We wanted to repeat what worked well against the Crunch,” he maintained.
The head coach has recently changed his power play units and the Rocket has managed to find the back of the net with an extra player in each of their last three games.
Against the Crunch, Philippe Maillet created the tie in this facet of the game and he was helped by Xhekaj, who now acts as quarterback on the power play.
“We changed the units a lot, but every player I played with did well. We start to build chemistry and we are rewarded by scoring goals. It helps,” Xhekaj said.
The Laval squad still left a lot of energy on the ice at even strength to counter the physical play of the Crunch and to resist the visitors’ comeback. The two teams will face each other again on Saturday afternoon at Place Bell.
The Rocket will play a third match in as many days while the Crunch will play a third in four days.
“It will be difficult, but it’s our job to do the details,” insisted striker Joshua Roy. We will have to rest and be ready for tomorrow. It will be the same for them so that’s no excuse. »