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Laval was back at home last week for a trio of key divisional games. They didn’t start the greatest but rebounded well with a pair of weekend wins to stay atop the North Division standings.
The Week That Was
Nov. 19: Syracuse 3, Laval 2 – Let’s just say Laval wasn’t thrilled with the officiating in this one. Syracuse wound up with seven power plays to the Rocket’s one while the Crunch’s second goal had Jacob Fowler irate due to contact from a Syracuse player’s stick. (Adam Engstrom’s was also in the area.) Still, it was tied until late in the third when Tommy Miller scored with just 87 seconds left which stood as the winner.
Nov. 21: Laval 4, Belleville 3 (OT) – This was a game that the Rocket dominated for large stretches, especially in the second period. However, they couldn’t hold the lead in the final minute of regulation with Xavier Bourgault tying the score with 39 seconds left. However, Laval controlled the play in overtime (largely playing keep-away like the Habs do) but a little past the midway point, Laurent Dauphin split the defence, eventually paving the way for an Alex Belzile spin pass to Adam Engstrom who shot the puck through two defenders (but no goalie as Mads Sogaard was well out of position) to give the Rocket the win.
Nov. 22: Laval 7, Belleville 2 – For a while, this was a close game. David Reinbacher scored the ‘Teddy Bear Toss’ goal in the first period which is worth noting and it was a one-goal game heading to the third period. From there, Laval poured it on, scoring four times in the first 6:03 of the third to make it a rout. Adam Engstrom had a career-high five points in the victory.
StatPack
Skaters:
| # | Player | GP | G | A | +/- | SOG | PIMS |
| 2 | Marc Del Gaizo | 3 | 0 | 1 | +1 | 7 | 2 |
| 4 | Tobie Bisson | 3 | 0 | 1 | +1 | 1 | 0 |
| 5 | Nate Clurman | 1 | 0 | 1 | +2 | 0 | 0 |
| 6 | Tyler Thorpe | 3 | 0 | 0 | E | 2 | 2 |
| 15 | Sean Farrell | 3 | 2 | 2 | +1 | 16 | 2 |
| 17 | Alex Tuch | 3 | 1 | 1 | +1 | 2 | 5 |
| 21 | Riley Kidney | 2 | 0 | 0 | +1 | 4 | 2 |
| 22 | Alex Belzile | 3 | 0 | 2 | +3 | 10 | 9 |
| 26 | Will Dineen | 3 | 1 | 1 | +2 | 5 | 7 |
| 27 | Laurent Dauphin | 3 | 0 | 5 | +4 | 7 | 0 |
| 42 | Lucas Condotta | 3 | 0 | 0 | -2 | 1 | 8 |
| 44 | Josiah Didier | 2 | 0 | 1 | E | 1 | 12 |
| 48 | Filip Mesar | 3 | 1 | 1 | +2 | 4 | 0 |
| 56 | Adam Engstrom | 3 | 3 | 4 | +4 | 9 | 2 |
| 62 | Owen Beck | 3 | 0 | 4 | +1 | 9 | 4 |
| 63 | Florian Xhekaj | 1 | 0 | 0 | +1 | 2 | 2 |
| 64 | David Reinbacher | 3 | 3 | 1 | +3 | 7 | 0 |
| 77 | Joe Dunlap | 3 | 0 | 0 | +1 | 4 | 2 |
| 81 | Xavier Simoneau | 3 | 0 | 1 | +1 | 3 | 2 |
| 84 | William Trudeau | 3 | 2 | 0 | E | 7 | 0 |
Goalies:
| # | Player | Record | GAA | SV% | SO |
| 1 | Jacob Fowler | 1-1-0 | 2.53 | .884 | 1 |
| 34 | Kaapo Kahkonen | 1-0-0 | 2.86 | .864 | 0 |
Team Leaders:
Goals: Dauphin/Davidson (9)
Assists: Laurent Dauphin (12)
Points: Laurent Dauphin (21)
+/-: Laurent Dauphin (+17)
PIMS: Florian Xhekaj (44)
Shots: Laurent Dauphin (53)
News and Notes
– With seven points last week, Adam Engstrom moved into a tie for second in scoring by defencemen, earning him Player of the Week honours. It also earned him a recall to the Habs.
– Laurent Dauphin’s five-point week has moved him into a share of first overall in league scoring.
– Once again, Laval sits atop the Eastern Conference in penalty minutes. While a lot of the team has turned over from a year ago, some things have stayed the same.
– Riley Kidney was recalled from ECHL Trois-Rivieres while Mark Estapa was sent back down to the Lions.
Last Game’s Lines:
Farrell – Dauphin – Belzile
Kidney – Beck – Mesar
Simoneau – Condotta – Thorpe
Tuch – Dineen – Dunlap
Paquette-Bisson – Engstrom
Trudeau – Reinbacher
Del Gaizo – Didier
The Week Ahead
Saturday at Lehigh Valley – This is the second and final meeting of the season after Laval shut out the Phantoms last month. Since then, Lehigh Valley has been one of the hotter teams in the league, moving within striking distance of first in the Atlantic. Two of their top three scorers are rookies (Alex Bump and Denver Barkey) while Christian Kyrou has given them a big boost from the back end since being added early in the year as he’s averaging over a point per game with them so far.
Sunday at Hershey – The Bears are usually a contending team but are more in the middle of the pack so far this season. Like the Phantoms, two of their top three scorers are also rookies (Ilya Protas and Andrew Cristall) while they also added former Hab Corey Schueneman in a recent trade with St. Louis. They also recently added Brett Leason, a veteran of 220 NHL games over the past four years, helping to boost their depth after losing some players to Washington via recalls.
Final Thought
When you think about the top prospects on Laval’s back end, David Reinbacher and Adam Engstrom come to mind. When pondering the more experienced blueliners, Marc Del Gaizo and Tobie Paquette-Bisson come up as players with considerable professional experience. (Even Josiah Didier although he doesn’t play a lot.)
But there’s one impactful player in there that seems to slide under the radar, William Trudeau. He’s not quite a veteran but isn’t on the same tier as Reinbacher and Engstrom in terms of prospect status either. It doesn’t matter. On this roster, he’s a key piece.
Trudeau can play the power play when needed and kill penalties. He can be a matchup shutdown defender or play a more aggressive role. And while he’s not elite in any of those, he’s solid all-around. That’s certainly very useful and I don’t think it’s much of a coincidence that this team has played a lot better defensively since he rejoined the lineup a few weeks ago. He may not be a prospect that gets a lot of attention but whether he has that status or not, he’s one of Laval’s most important players.
