During a sequence of three games in three days, it is often difficult to escape physical and mental fatigue. The Laval Rocket learned this to their cost on Saturday evening.
A three-goal surge early in the second period helped the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins beat the Rocket 6-3 at Mohegan Sun Arena.
With two consecutive road victories under their belts , Laval had an effective first engagement against the Penguins, but everything collapsed in the space of 94 seconds.
Lack of concentration set in and mistakes were costly. And when the Rocket (21-20-6) thought they had found the right path, a bad start in the third period hurt their hopes of victory.
“It shows that every presence is important,” said head coach Jean-François Houle. “We fell asleep at the beginning of the second period and it cost us three goals. You can see that mental fatigue is starting to set in a little.”
The Rocket are no strangers to this type of situation. Since the start of the season, they have often been caught giving up two or three goals in a short space of time, which has sometimes put them in a precarious position.
Over the last two months, Houle and his players have made adjustments to their game and have had a lot of success. Those quick goal situations weren’t happening as often.
“We fell back a bit into the Rocket of 2023. It happened that for two to five minutes, our game was not up to par and the other teams took advantage of it. It was played on that,” analyzed forward Nathan Légaré.
The Montreal Canadiens’ farm club is not at the end of its troubles, because it will make a bus trip of a few hours to face the Islanders in Bridgeport, starting Sunday afternoon.
The season is far from over, but points are becoming more and more valuable. Especially when you look at the American League North standings, where five teams are separated by just seven points.
“We’re turning the page on tonight’s game and we’re staying focused for tomorrow’s game. We can’t worry too much. We’ll have to go to the net and focus on the little details. It won’t necessarily be pretty, but we have to go get two points,” observed defender Olivier Galipeau.
Jan Mysak scored twice while Xavier Simoneau added a goal for the Laval team. Logan Mailloux finished the game with two assists.
Kasimir Kaskisuo was entrusted with the Rocket’s net and he gave up four goals on 29 shots. On a few occasions, however, he had to save the day following turnovers.
Jagger Joshua, Maxim Cajkovic, Jack Rathbone, Justin Addamo, Alex Nylander and Corey Andonovski replied for the Penguins (26-17-7), who got back on the winning track. Austin Rueschhoff had three assists.
Young 22-year-old goaltender Joel Blomqvist made 20 saves, but some of them were very important.
Defenseman Chris Jandric made his first appearance for the Rocket, who will end their trip Sunday afternoon against the Bridgeport Islanders.
Quick Explosion
Both teams were methodical at the start of the match and scoring opportunities were a little rarer.
The Rocket opened the scoring at 6:45, following some nice work from Filip Cederqvist behind the net. Mailloux got his pass and slid the puck to Galipeau. His point shot was deflected neatly by Mysak behind Blomqvist.
The Penguins had a great chance to tie the game before the end of the first period, following a turnover at the blue line, but Kaskisuo stopped a point-blank shot from Andonovski.
The stoppage did not shake the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton team, which left the locker room with a knife between its teeth.
First, on a two-on-one play, Rueschhoff was patient and passed the puck to Cajkovic, who barely beat Kaskisuo. Then, Joshua saw his shot hit the skate of defenseman Justin Barron before surprising the Rocket goalie. Just 26 seconds later, Addamo escaped his guards and pounced on a rebound to extend the lead to 3-1.
Houle decided to call a timeout and his men responded well. Cederqvist’s very good work once again led to a Mysak goal, after the latter had completed William Trudeau’s set-up.
If Kaskisuo had closed the door spectacularly at the expense of Andonovski, at the end of the first twenty, Blomqvist gave him the answer in the second period. The Finn took out his glove to frustrate Légaré from a goal that would have created the tie.
The Penguins thanked their goalie by scoring on a power play early in the third period. As the Rockets ran out of steam, Rathbone went alone in the crease and gave Kaskisuo no chance.
Laval didn’t have the best engagement, but they didn’t give up. During a power play, Mitchell Stephens spotted Simoneau in the slot and the small forward didn’t miss this opportunity to reduce the gap.
Nylander and Andonovski, however, sealed the outcome of the match in an empty net.
