Rocket Weekly: A Decent Start Against Rochester
After a very long break between rounds, Laval kicked off the North Division Final with their two road games in Rochester. In a pair of back-and-forth affairs, they were able to split them, putting themselves in a good spot with the rest of the series being played on home ice.
The Week That Was
May 14: Laval 5, Rochester 4 – The Rocket pulled off a pair of comebacks in this one. After an early power play goal from the Americans, Logan Mailloux got that back with one of his own before David Reinbacher gave Laval the lead. Rochester then scored twice early in the second and this time, the veterans pulled Laval ahead with Alex Barre-Boulet notching a late go-ahead goal. Isak Rosen got that one back in the third, setting the stage for a very timely first-ever AHL goal from Oliver Kapanen who tipped Mailloux’s shot past Devon Levi with 4:38 left to give the Rocket the win.
May 16: Rochester 5, Laval 3 – For the second straight game, an early penalty led to a Kale Clague power play goal though once again, Laval was able to tie it up relatively quickly. A pair of goals in the second gave the Rocket a one-goal lead, the second of which was a soft shot from Jared Davidson that had eyes to find the back of the net. However, Rochester scored in the final minute of the frame (the opposite of the opener) and really put the pedal down in the third, eventually getting the winner off a Jiri Kulich one-timer on yet another power play.
StatPack
Skaters:
| # | Player | GP | G | A | +/- | SOG | PIMS |
| 5 | Gustav Lindstrom | 2 | 0 | 0 | -2 | 1 | 0 |
| 10 | Joshua Roy | 2 | 0 | 2 | -4 | 3 | 4 |
| 11 | Rafael Harvey-Pinard | 2 | 0 | 0 | +2 | 2 | 0 |
| 12 | Alex Barre-Boulet | 2 | 1 | 1 | +1 | 7 | 2 |
| 15 | Sean Farrell | 2 | 0 | 1 | E | 1 | 0 |
| 17 | Alex Tuch | 1 | 0 | 1 | +1 | 0 | 0 |
| 23 | Tyler Wotherspoon | 2 | 0 | 0 | -1 | 1 | 0 |
| 24 | Logan Mailloux | 2 | 1 | 1 | +1 | 5 | 4 |
| 27 | Laurent Dauphin | 2 | 1 | 1 | +1 | 3 | 0 |
| 37 | Brandon Gignac | 2 | 1 | 0 | -2 | 5 | 0 |
| 42 | Lucas Condotta | 2 | 1 | 0 | +1 | 1 | 0 |
| 49 | Jared Davidson | 2 | 1 | 0 | E | 4 | 0 |
| 56 | Adam Engstrom | 2 | 0 | 1 | +1 | 1 | 2 |
| 62 | Owen Beck | 2 | 0 | 3 | +1 | 3 | 0 |
| 63 | Florian Xhekaj | 2 | 0 | 1 | E | 3 | 6 |
| 64 | David Reinbacher | 2 | 1 | 1 | E | 6 | 0 |
| 81 | Xavier Simoneau | 1 | 0 | 0 | E | 2 | 0 |
| 84 | William Trudeau | 2 | 0 | 1 | +2 | 1 | 6 |
| 91 | Oliver Kapanen | 2 | 1 | 1 | -3 | 4 | 0 |
Goalies:
| # | Player | Record | GAA | SV% | SO |
| 1 | Jacob Fowler | 0-1-0 | 4.04 | .886 | 0 |
| 30 | Cayden Primeau | 1-0-0 | 4.00 | .852 | 0 |
Team Leaders:
Goals: Laurent Dauphin (4)
Assists: Alex Barre-Boulet (6)
Points: Barre-Boulet/Dauphin (8)
+/-: Dauphin/Harvey-Pinard/Trudeau (+4)
PIMS: Florian Xhekaj (17)
Shots: Laurent Dauphin (22)
News and Notes
– Xavier Simoneau left Wednesday’s series opener with an undisclosed injury. No information regarding his status has been provided since then. Luke Tuch took his place in the lineup.
– Alex Barre-Boulet has at least a point in five of Laval’s first six playoff games.
– With his goal in the opener, Brandon Gignac is now tied for second in franchise history for playoff points with Rafael Harvey-Pinard. The two are three points behind Danick Martel for the lead.
Last Game’s Lines:
Farrell – Dauphin – Barre-Boulet
Gignac – Kapanen – Roy
Harvey-Pinard – Condotta – Beck
Davidson – Xhekaj – Tuch
Engstrom – Reinbacher
Trudeau – Mailloux
Wotherspoon – Lindstrom
Final Thought
After missing the playoffs last season, this postseason run is the first for a lot of Laval’s young core group. It’s fair to say it shows for a lot of them. I don’t mean in the sense that they’re getting overwhelmed in terms of their play but rather in the sense that a lot of them haven’t been able to keep levelheaded enough to avoid taking some reckless and unnecessary penalties in the first two games of this series.
Granted, penalties have been an issue all season long. After all, Laval had the most penalty minutes and the most minor penalties of any team in the league in 2024-25, leading to them having the most penalty kills of any team in the league.
But it’s one thing to have this during the regular season with a variety of matchups and being comfortably in a playoff spot for most the year. It’s another to take them against a team with the best power play in the playoffs and frankly more firepower than Laval has. Going back to that well too many times will (and already has) come back to bite them.
When play has been at even strength over these first two games, Laval has largely been the better team aside from a few rough spots in Game 2. Even strength play allows the depth of their roster (which is better than Rochester’s) to make more of an impact over more special teams play that features the top players where the Americans have the edge. Here’s hoping that sooner or later, some of these younger players realize it and don’t go for the extra cross-check, slash, board, or hit on a goalie, plays that have given Rochester unneeded extra chances on the man advantage. Staying out of the box will be key over these next two or three games in Laval.