(Hartford) The Laval Rocket was probably better than the Hartford Wolf Pack during the last 45 minutes of play, but it was the first 15 that were costly.
Dylan Garand stopped 32 shots and the Wolf Pack held off the Rocket to win 2-1 Friday night at the XL Center.
Garand wasn’t really challenged in the first half and during that time his teammates gave him a 2-0 lead to work with. He then quietly put his mark on the match to allow the Wolf Pack (27-17-7) to end a streak of three losses.
“It’s disappointing because I thought we played well enough to win. Their goalkeeper made good saves, but you have to score more than a goal, argued head coach Jean-François Houle. We had more chances than them, but it may have been a long time before we got going in the first 10 minutes. »
Two weeks ago, the Montreal Canadiens’ farm club played the opposite role in a 5-2 victory in Hartford, thanks in particular to 34 saves from Jakub Dobes.
Since that win, the Rocket offense (23-23-7) has scored 13 goals in its last seven outings and has gone 2-4-1 during that stretch. Emil Heineman proved to be the only one to outwit Garand.
“It’s not worrying. I think we can build on the last 20 games. There are several offensive players here and it was a night like that today. I think we played a good game, but there was a little something missing. We have to go more to the net and in the slot,” noted Heineman.
Houle agreed with his Swedish forward’s assessment and once again hopes his players don’t hesitate to send pucks to the net to regain their offensive touch.
“That was one of our messages after the first period. It doesn’t have to be a great goal. We’re not that kind of team. We want more shots on net and more traffic in front of the goalie rather than trying two or three passes before throwing,” he expressed.
Dobes took the loss, but he still stood up to several good scoring opportunities from the Wolf Pack. He only gave up twice in 22 pitches.
Brandon Scanlin and Brett Berard threaded the needle for the New York Rangers farm club, which got hot in the last minute of play, but was able to close the books.
The Rocket will return to action Saturday night, when they visit the Springfield Thunderbirds.
Slow start
The Laval residents would undoubtedly have liked to resume their start to the match, because they really were not ready to measure up to the intensity of the Wolf Pack. The home team took advantage quickly, after a little over three minutes of play.
During a fast counter-attack, Turner Elson pushed the defenders back and left the puck behind to Scanlin. The latter fired a powerful slap shot that seemed to surprise Dobes over his glove.
Being a little alone on the ice, the Rocket goaltender tried to wake up his troops, halfway through the engagement. Adam Sykora was forgotten in front of him, but Dobes released his left pad to deprive him of a goal.
The Wolf Pack, however, took their revenge a few minutes later, during a penalty on Logan Mailloux. Berard brought the puck back to him and used Mattias Norlinder as a screen to move the strings.
The Laval team seemed to pull itself together at the intermission and reduced the gap from the 39the second of the second third. Brandon Gignac skillfully controlled the puck with his skates and passed it to his right to Heineman, who only had to push it into a free cage.
The Rocket’s momentum could have been slowed with just over 12 minutes remaining. Blade Jenkins appeared alone in front of Dobes, but the Czech closed the door.
The visitors even came within inches of bringing both teams back to square one. Norlinder took advantage of a Cameron Hillis turnover to fire a shot on net that Filip Cederqvist deflected against the post to Garand’s left.
In the last twenty, the Rocket held on shorthanded, notably thanks to two blocked shots from William Trudeau, to give themselves a chance to push the match into overtime. The attack took place in the last minute of play, but Garand was not really threatened.