2024-01-25 03:17:37

The Laval Rocket scored four consecutive goals in the third period and signed a fifth victory in a row, with a score of 5-2 over the Utica Comets on Wednesday evening at Place Bell.

Facing a one-goal deficit, Jean-François Houle’s men first tied the score thanks to captain Gabriel Bourque’s first goal of the season at 8:09 from the start.

Less than seven minutes later, they struck twice in just 10 seconds, courtesy of Mitchell Stephens and Logan Mailloux.

The latter added a goal into an empty net with just under two minutes remaining in the third period. William Trudeau scored the Rocket’s first goal in the first period.

Brian Halonen scored both Comets goals once morest Jakub Dobes.

In the victory, the Rocket goaltender was solid, blocking 27 pucks. For his part, the Rocket fired 33 shots towards Akira Schmid.

The Rocket players will play their next two matches abroad, once once more once morest rivals from the Northern section.

This short journey will begin on Friday in Syracuse, once morest the Crunch, following which the Laval team will head to Rochester to battle the Americans on Saturday.

Repeated punishments

For just over 14 minutes in the first period, the Rocket controlled the tempo of the game and held a 1-0 lead thanks to a goal from Trudeau, who beat Schmid at 11:26 with a shot in the upper right part of the net.

Then suddenly, Houle’s troop began to parade to the penalty box. The first was Mattias Norlinder, at 14:39, followed by Brandon Gignac, at 16:35, then Olivier Galipeau — the latter for four minutes for high stick — at 17:39.

Limited to four shots so far, the Comets players did what they were supposed to do: control the puck and spend a lot of time in the Rocket zone.

And despite the fact that Dobes made many quality saves and the Comets ranked 30th out of 32 clubs, before the match, in terms of efficiency on the power play, the law of average worked in favor of the visitors.

Completely forgotten to the right of the Rocket goaltender, Halonen took advantage of a wide open net to tie the score with 0.9 seconds on the clock, on the Comets’ ninth shot during this long numerical superiority.

The only good news in this entire sequence is that the Rocket was able to start the second period at even strength.

Eventually, the Laval team overtook its rivals in terms of shots on goal, but well following the Comets had taken the lead.

With just under 11 minutes left in the middle period, Halonen added his second of the night with a more NHL-style incisive wrist shot.

After receiving a cross pass from Samuel Laberge, Halonen, from the right faceoff circle, beat Dobes, who might do absolutely nothing, with a shot into the upper left area.

The Rocket had chances to tie the score towards the end of the second period, notably Philippe Maillet, who escaped alone in front of Schmid, who did not flinch.

Rather calm, the Rocket fans were able to wake up around the middle of the third period when Bourque recovered a puck in the right faceoff circle and surprised Schmid with a precise shot into the upper part of the net.

They then exploded with joy following goals from Mitchell and Mailloux, scored at 14:44 and 14:54.

From the back of his zone, Mailloux drove the final nail into the Comets’ coffin.

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