2023-11-05 03:49:29
LAVAL, Qc – Things can change quickly in 24 hours and the Laval Rocket will be able to add it to his notebook of learnings from the start of the season.
The ecstasy of victory gave way to the bitter taste of a bitter 5-0 defeat at the hands of the Toronto Marlies on Saturday night at Place Bell.
One would have thought that the Rocket (2-7-1) would have fed off the victorious comeback from the day before, after erasing a two-goal deficit in the third period, but Jean-François Houle’s men were not in the game for the majority of this rematch against the Marlies (5-2-2).
“To appear like that in front of our supporters is unacceptable,” said defender Olivier Galipeau. We didn’t work for 60 minutes. We were able to recover yesterday, but today we didn’t show up and they took advantage of that. »
The Laval residents buzzed during the meeting, but they lacked finishing. This was especially noticeable on the power play, as they missed five chances with an extra man.
Houle – like some players – was not satisfied with the efforts made on the numerical superiority.
“Our execution is not good. We lack strength in our passes and we are not combative enough. We want it to be easy, he observed. I understand that we have players with smaller stature who like to try beautiful plays, but sometimes you need more zeal to go to the net and score. »
Even Riley McKay tried to create a spark by delivering a furious fight to Marshall Riqai at the start of the third period. The Rocket immediately had golden chances, but then gave up three goals.
“We failed Riley. He went into battle for us. He’s a warrior, tough, and we allowed goals. It’s not good,” said forward Lucas Condotta.
“We had three good chances after the fight and we didn’t score. That’s the momentum of hockey. The line is very thin,” added Houle.
Alex Steeves, twice, Kyle Clifford, Logan Shaw and Nicholas Robertson moved the ropes for the Marlies, who can boast of having offered a full 60 minutes, unlike Friday’s duel. Dylan Gambrell and William Villeneuve both contributed to two of their goals.
Dennis Hildeby was perfect in front of 26 shots and recorded his first career shutout in the American Hockey League.
Left to his own devices on a few occasions, Jakub Dobes gave up five times in 23 shots, even if he made some good saves during the match.
The Marlies give nothing
The Rocket should have expected a good start to the game from the Marlies and did a good job of limiting the chances in the opening minutes.
The visitors slowly increased the pace and tested Dobes in partial breakaways. The goalkeeper, however, closed the door in front of Clifford and Nick Abruzzese.
By persevering, the Torontonians managed to open the scoring. Steeves made fun of Mattias Norlinder’s coverage and returned to the front of the net to deceive Dobes’ vigilance in the top corner.
The intensity was raised a notch at the end of the first period and indiscipline followed. The two teams exchanged several numerical advantages, but despite some interesting shots, neither finished their momentum behind the red line.
The Rocket even lost after wasting a fourth power play. Rifai, who had just come out of the penalty box, took a first shot which was stopped by Dobes, but Clifford tried twice to thread the needle.
After the fight between McKay and Rifai, Laval responded with a short, wild sequence near the enemy net, but the effect only lasted a few seconds.
Immediately after this sequence, Robertson managed to slip the puck between Dobes’ pads to make it 3-0.
This third Marlies goal sort of sounded the death knell for the Rocket’s night, as Shaw and Steeves scored in 1:59 to close the books.
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