Rocket Weekly: Slipping out of First
Last week was a tough one for Laval as their injury-riddled roster wasn’t able to take full advantage of a lighter week on the schedule in terms of their opponents. As a result, they no longer hold down the top spot in the North Division.
The Week That Was
Feb. 19: Manitoba 5, Laval 4 – This was a tough night at the office for Connor Hughes who allowed five goals on just 22 shots, some of which were ones he’d undoubtedly like another crack at. Even with a weakened lineup, the Rocket controlled large segments of the game but the Moose scored twice in the first three minutes of the third to retake the lead and while Noel Hoefenmayer got one back late, that’s as close as they got.
Feb. 21: Laval 5, Manitoba 1 – The Rocket got off to a bit of a sluggish start in this game but still held the lead thanks to a go-ahead goal from Joshua Roy. But Laval did well to shut things down from there and eventually, they were able to get some cushion with Sean Farrell and Florian Xhekaj scoring a bit past the midway point of the third, allowing them to pick up the victory.
Feb. 22: Syracuse 3, Laval 2 – This was Laval’s fifth game in seven days and it showed. They were outplayed from start to finish and had it not been for Hughes turning in one of his best games of the season, it could have been a lot worse. Xhekaj scored in his second straight game while Laurent Dauphin scored a buzzer-beater to make it look closer than it really was.
StatPack
Skaters:
| # | Player | GP | G | A | +/- | SOG | PIMS |
| 2 | Noel Hoefenmayer | 2 | 1 | 0 | +1 | 5 | 2 |
| 10 | Joshua Roy | 3 | 1 | 0 | -1 | 4 | 0 |
| 11 | Rafael Harvey-Pinard | 3 | 0 | 0 | -2 | 3 | 0 |
| 12 | Alex Barre-Boulet | 3 | 1 | 2 | +2 | 11 | 4 |
| 15 | Sean Farrell | 3 | 1 | 4 | +3 | 8 | 0 |
| 16 | Alex Beaucage | 3 | 1 | 1 | +1 | 5 | 2 |
| 21 | Riley Kidney | 3 | 0 | 2 | +3 | 1 | 0 |
| 23 | Tyler Wotherspoon | 3 | 0 | 0 | -1 | 8 | 0 |
| 24 | Logan Mailloux | 3 | 2 | 1 | +1 | 7 | 0 |
| 27 | Laurent Dauphin | 2 | 2 | 0 | +2 | 7 | 2 |
| 42 | Lucas Condotta | 3 | 0 | 1 | +2 | 7 | 2 |
| 46 | Vincent Sevigny | 1 | 0 | 0 | E | 0 | 0 |
| 49 | Jared Davidson | 3 | 0 | 0 | +1 | 3 | 2 |
| 56 | Adam Engstrom | 3 | 0 | 0 | +1 | 1 | 0 |
| 62 | Owen Beck | 3 | 0 | 2 | -2 | 6 | 6 |
| 63 | Florian Xhekaj | 3 | 2 | 1 | +2 | 4 | 9 |
| 64 | David Reinbacher | 2 | 0 | 0 | +1 | 2 | 2 |
| 65 | Zack Hayes | 2 | 0 | 0 | E | 1 | 0 |
| 79 | Logan Nijhoff | 3 | 0 | 1 | E | 1 | 4 |
| 84 | William Trudeau | 3 | 0 | 1 | +2 | 3 | 2 |
Goalies:
| # | Player | Record | GAA | SV% | SO |
| 30 | Cayden Primeau | 1-0-0 | 1.00 | .952 | 0 |
| 31 | Connor Hughes | 0-2-0 | 4.14 | .877 | 0 |
Team Leaders:
Goals: Jared Davidson (17)
Assists: Alex Barre-Boulet (28)
Points: Alex Barre-Boulet (40)
+/-: Jared Davidson (+16)
PIMS: Florian Xhekaj (126)
Shots: Joshua Roy (142)
News and Notes
– While Laval got Laurent Dauphin back, they also lost another key piece due to injury with Noel Hoefenmayer exiting the second Manitoba game with an undisclosed injury. There’s no word on how long he might be out for.
– The Rocket returned defenceman Chris Jandric to ECHL Trois-Rivieres. That came on the heels of David Reinbacher being sent to Laval. His absence against Syracuse was workload-related, not due to injury.
– Owen Beck was recalled to Montreal on Monday. In a corresponding move, Jakov Novak was recalled from Trois-Rivieres.
Last Game’s Lines
Farrell – Condotta – Barre-Boulet
Harvey-Pinard – Dauphin – Roy
Xhekaj – Beck – Davidson
Nijhoff – Kidney – Beaucage
Wotherspoon – Mailloux
Hayes – Engstrom
Sevigny – Trudeau
The Week Ahead
Wednesday at Toronto – In a rare morning start (it’s a school day game), Laval will get a chance to quickly avenge one of their uglier losses of the season, one that got particularly chippy at the end as well. Despite that loss, Laval has seven points out of ten in the head-to-head series thus far. Toronto is currently without their leading scorer, Alex Steeves, who is the AHL leader in goals scored. The Marlies are only four points behind the Rocket in the standings so this one will have some extra meaning.
Saturday vs Belleville – Laval kicks off a five-game home stand with this one but it’s against a Belleville team that has given them some fits once again this season, including a 5-0 blowout loss a week and a half ago. Cole Reinhardt is the lone point-per-game player for the Sens but he’s currently up with Ottawa (he played against the Habs on the weekend). While they’re one of the lower-scoring teams in the league, Belleville does have one of the top-scoring blueliners in the AHL as Jeremy Davies has 35 points, good for a tie for fifth league-wide among blueliners.
Final Thought
To say it has been an interesting year for Sean Farrell would be putting it lightly. He got off to an absolutely terrible start, being demoted to the fourth line and even healthy scratched at times. A couple of months in the season, he looked like a lock to be non-tendered in June if he made it that far as he looked like a prime candidate for a change-of-scenery trade.
But things have changed for the better lately. He now has 20 points in his last 24 games (after notching just two helpers in his first 22 contests) and consistently finds himself on the top line. He’s now one of Pascal Vincent’s more trusted wingers and while injuries haven’t hurt from that standpoint, he has more than earned his place in that role. Instead of being an afterthought, he’s legitimately playing himself into the recall mix.
Over the final few weeks of the season, it seems likely that Montreal will churn through some players from Laval through regular recalls, emergency recalls, and ’emergency’ recalls, ones that involve a phantom injury so that the team doesn’t have to burn a regular one. (Those last ones are quite common in the final week or two especially.) Farrell has definitely earned an opportunity to get a look at some point where he’ll have a chance to prove he’s worth keeping around beyond this season. Considering how it was looking just a couple of months ago, that’s a pretty good turnaround for him.