Credit: l'Arena du Rocket Inc.
Despite the Rocket ending their lengthy win streak last weekend at home against the Hamilton Hammers, they hopped on the road trying to start a new streak, starting with a late night contest in Calgary against the Wranglers. The lineup continued to see some shuffling as Owen Beck was again on recall with the Montreal Canadiens, so Laurent Dauphin bumped down to the second line in his place. Dauphin was flanked by Brett Berard and Josh Nadeau for the night.
Vincent Arseneau rejoined the lineup after missing the games since October 3. He formed a fourth line with Hunter McKown and Jared Davidson. Maksymilian Szuber slid down to the third pair with Owen Protz, while in net it was the veteran Kaapo Kähkönen getting the start once again.
The Rocket, who usually dominate the shot clock in all facets, didn’t come out of the gate hot against Calgary as they could only chip the puck out before the Wranglers rolled back in on their next attack. Through the opening few minutes, Kähkönen already made five saves while the offence tried to find its legs. The second line thankfully provided just that as Nadeau and Reilly Walsh tested Arsenii Sergeev with multiple looks, but through six minutes the game remained goalless.
After a hectic start to the game, things settled into a deep lull as neither side was able to really establish an offensive presence. Even the best chances by the Rocket were squandered, as Alex Belzile failed to tuck a puck under Sergeev and David Reinbacher’s shot hit a stick while he was staring down a wide-open net. Laval eventually kept the pressure on enough to draw the game’s first power play, and the AHL’s top unit did everything it could to open the scoring.
With Belzile operating in the slot, the Rocket had four separate chances to sneak a puck by Sergeev, but could not chip it over the Calgary netminder. That failed opportunity ended up mattering a great deal as the Wranglers went down the ice, and despite being outshot 19-6, scored the first goal of the night. Mike Benning followed up a chance by Rory Keirns to lift a shot over Kähkönen’s shoulder with eight seconds left in the period to send the Rocket into the intermission frustrated.
Much like the first period, neither team did much to establish a firm grip on the game. The Rocket had a few looks that didn’t amount to much, while the Wranglers added just one shot to their total. Eventually a careless hold by Reinbacher put the Rocket penalty kill to the test for the first time on the night. Belzile’s veteran wiles allowed the Rocket to chip away at the Wrangler’s power play, which ended up generating just two shots and allowed Reinbacher to escape.
Unfortunately for the Rocket, they followed up their strong kill by launching the puck out of play and heading right back to the penalty kill just 19 seconds after their first attempt. While the penalty-killers outside the net did everything they could to deny Calgary, William Strömgren snuck a shot under the arm of Kähkönen, and suddenly the Rocket were looking at a two-goal deficit midway through the game.
In response to the Calgary goal, the Rocket responded with a third straight penalty as Filip Mesar hooked Alex Nylander as he broke in on net, and if not for a stunning save by Kähkönen it could easily have been a 3-0 contest. After surrendering a quick power-play goal the last time out, the Rocket penalty-killers snuffed out the Calgary man advantage, allowing one shot on net as they looked to claw back into the contest with just over six minutes left to play in the second period.
When the Rocket did manage to generate some offensive-zone time they were able to test Sergeev multiple times, but again could not find the final touch needed to get the puck over the line as the period wore down. In fact they again entered the intermission with a strong shot lead, but nothing to show for it on the scoreboard.
The struggles to gain the offensive zone continued for the Rocket as the third period started, but a holding call against Rory Kerins gave the red-hot Rocket power play a chance to cut into the two-goal deficit. After struggling for stretches of the game, the power play went back to doing what it always does, and it paid off in a big way. Sasha Pastujov worked the puck back to the point for Luke Mittelstadt, who walked along the blue line and rifled his fifth goal of the year over Sergeev’s shoulder to cut into the lead.
The Wranglers were extremely content to dump their chances into the offensive zone, and muck it up along the boards as they continued to bleed down the clock and keep the Rocket’s top guns away from the offensive zone. It was for good reason as the Rocket were all over Calgary every time the puck crossed into the offensive zone, with Reilly Walsh continuing to be a force along the blue line with the puck as they started to generate actual pressure.
As the time continued to tick down, head coach Daniel Jacob turned to Braden Haché and Walsh to put pucks on net, and their pressure wore down the Wranglers in a way that finally opened up a game-tying opportunity. Dillan Bentley drove hard toward the net, dishing off for Xavier Simoneau who skirted Sergeev to tie the game 2-2.
For his troubles however, Bentley got absolutely lit up by Brayden Pachal into the end boards, with Bentley needing help to the bench. Simoneau’s goal stood, but the Rocket were exceedingly angry at Pachal, who escaped a penalty for his hit.
The tied game lasted just about a minute before a whiffed clearing attempt turned into a Calgary goal that again put the Rocket in desperation mode for the final three-and-a-half minutes of play.
With just under two minutes left it was time for Kähkönen to head to the bench, giving Laval 1:49 of an extra attacker to try and again tie the game up. Forty-six seconds later, a 125-foot wristshot by Ben Jones into the empty net sealed the Rocket’s fate as it moved to a 4-2 scoreline and sent the Rocket to a second straight loss. The Rocket did not take the empty-net goal well, with Vincent Arseneau taking a swing at the Wranglers netminder, and Haché tussling with multiple players to end the contest.
**Final Score: Calgary 4, Laval 2**
The bad blood will simmer for another day before these two sides square off on Saturday afternoon with a 12pm MT/2pm ET puck drop in Calgary.