Game Thoughts: A Heartbreaking End to the Playoffs

After three tough losses to start the Eastern Conference Final, Laval was playing to keep their playoff hopes alive on Tuesday.  They had their best game of the series by far but a late goal from Jesse Puljujarvi gave Charlotte a 3-2 win and the series sweep.

Pascal Vincent made multiple lineup changes for this one.  Jacob Fowler got the nod in goal with Cayden Primeau struggling in all three outings.  Xavier Simoneau was out due to injury, meaning Filip Mesar made his AHL playoff debut.  Meanwhile, Logan Mailloux was a game-time decision with an injury of his own but was able to suit up.  The team lined up as follows:

Roy – Kapanen – Barre-Boulet
Farrell – Gignac – Beck
Harvey-Pinard – Condotta – Davidson
Tuch – Xhekaj – Mesar

Engstrom – Reinbacher
Hayes– Mailloux
Hoefenmayer – Reinbacher

Game Thoughts

1) It was a relatively uneventful start for both sides with few shots and even fewer scoring opportunities (though they had a couple of good looks around the midway mark).  Considering how badly first periods had been for the Rocket this series, I don’t think the coaching staff was particularly upset about that at all.

2) With a little under eight minutes left, it looked like Florian Xhekaj was going to be in on a breakaway but he was called for the hook that led to that opportunity.  But they got a breakaway soon after when Alex Barre-Boulet blew past the defence.  He tried to go five-hole on Kaapo Kahkonen but there wasn’t much room there.  He had a breakaway last game and didn’t fare any better either but the chances are there.  All in all, it was a solid first kill.

3) It looked like the two sides were going to play to a goalless draw, which, again, Laval probably would have happily taken.  However, in the final minute, Gustav Lindstrom was able to get a point shot through on net (the lanes from the point were very limited overall in the first) and Joshua Roy was there to get a tip to get it past Kahkonen for the first lead of the series for the Rocket.  A late penalty to Jared Davidson for slashing put a small damper on the end of the period but they weren’t going to be complaining about finally having a lead.

4) Laval was able to kill off the carryover penalty and then got some offensive pressure.  After Oliver Kapanen couldn’t beat Kahkonen all alone in front, the Rocket kept up the pressure.  Noel Hoefenmayer started to pressure offensively, at one point coming close to a wraparound.  He held onto the puck, then spotted Owen Beck cross-ice and Beck was able to fire it home.  That was a perfectly timed feed as Beck was largely covered but he was able to free up just enough to get the shot.  Would that get them playing with some confidence?

5) As it turns out, no.  Not even two minutes later, Justin Sourdif intercepted a turnover in the neutral zone, springing the Checkers on a two-on-one.  He kept the puck and went high-blocker, beating Fowler clean.  It was a good shot but Fowler was not exactly square to the shooter, leaving too much of the net far-side open.  If I could notice that, so could Charlotte’s coaches.  Keep that thought in mind for a moment.

6) A couple of minutes later, Laval’s banged-up back end got even more banged up as Riley Bezeau threw a textbook blindside hit on Gustav Lindstrom.  Unsurprisingly, that landed Bezeau five and a game, giving the Rocket a great chance to restore their two-goal advantage.  But Charlotte scores more at four-on-five than five-on-four for a reason.  Laval had a couple of good looks in the first half of the power play before Sean Farrell turned it over at centre ice to Tobias Bjornfot, sparking another two-on-one.  Bjornfot went cross-ice to Mackenzie Entwistle who found himself in the exact spot Sourdif was.  Once again, he went high-blocker and once again, Fowler was not in a good position for the shot; I wonder if that was part of the scouting report?  The Rocket had a couple of looks after the goal but couldn’t capitalize on the power play.

7) For the most part, it wasn’t a bad second period from Laval.  For the longest time, the Checkers had all of four shots in the period, two coming on odd-man rushes with them taking full advantage of their opportunities.  They struggled in the final few minutes, merely holding onto the tie with Fowler being busy.  If you’d have said to me before the game that it’d be tied heading to the third, I’d have been happy and I suspect Laval’s coaches would too.  But how it got to this point with the blown two-goal lead and down a top defender (Lindstrom was quickly ruled out for the game mere minutes after the hit), that’s a tough way to end the period.

8) It was a fairly quiet start to the third period with both sides not doing much early on.  The best chance came a little before the five-minute mark when Wilmer Skoog rang a shot off the crossbar.  At the other end, Kapanen tripped Trevor Carrick, giving Charlotte another chance on the power play.  Once again, Laval had a solid kill.  If only they had as much success on the man advantage.

9) Throughout this series, Charlotte has really taken advantage of some defensive miscues with some bad positioning or bad coverage often leading to goals.  I want to highlight that Laval was much, much better for the most part in this game.  There was the odd miscue – no team is going to have a perfect game in that regard – but they looked much more competent after a rough first three games.

10) But it only takes one mistake to make things go sideways.  And that’s exactly what happened.  With a little over two minutes left, Zach Hayes was trying to catch Jesse Puljujarvi and dove for the puck to try to tap it away.  Unfortunately, Fowler was coming out of his crease at the same time with no communication between the two.  Hayes wound up tapping the puck right to Puljujarvi instead of away from him and with Fowler out of his crease, he had an empty-netter and made no mistake.  In hindsight, Fowler should have stayed back but there was a lot of bad luck on that play.

11) Laval wasn’t able to muster up much after that.  They had a bit of pressure in the final minute and had a buzzer-beating shot just miss the net but it’s fair to say that late goal deflated them.  Still, they didn’t cave down 3-0 in the series going into this one and fought to the end.  That’s a more than respectable way to end their season.

HW Rocket 3 Stars

1st Star: Owen Beck – He had been pretty quiet in this series although to be fair, it’s hard to do much from the fourth line which is where he started.  But in a more offensive role in this game, Beck was a lot more noticeable.  He had the second goal and pitched in on the penalty kill.  That’s a solid finish to an up-and-down postseason.

Stats: 1 goal, even rating, 2 shots

2nd Star: Noel Hoefenmayer – He’s at his best when he has some freedom to get involved offensively.  We saw how that could work out on the Beck goal but he also had some other strong pinches to keep possessions going.  Defensively, he was better than he had been the last couple of games.  He wound up being a useful midseason acquisition and I wouldn’t mind seeing him back in a similar depth role next season.

Stats: 1 assist, +1 rating, 1 shot

3rd Star: Oliver Kapanen – I could have easily gone with Joshua Roy here who had the other goal but he was pretty quiet outside of that.  Kapanen, on the other hand, was much more noticeable on a shift-to-shift basis, even if he didn’t make much of his scoring chances.  To be fair, that was largely the story of the playoffs for him.

Stats: 0 points, +1 rating, 3 shots, 2 PIMS