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Laval had a pair of divisional games on the road last week, including their last chance to gain ground on Syracuse, a team that has been gaining on them lately.  They were able to do that, picking up a shootout win over the Crunch but that was preceded by a disappointing loss to Utica.

The Week That Was

Mar. 13: Utica 5, Laval 2 – For a little while, things were looking good.  The Rocket led after the first thanks to goals from Filip Mesar and Florian Xhekaj and they were holding the Comets to just 10 shots through two periods.  But things went downhill in the final frame when Utica scored three unanswered to take control and they didn’t look back from there.

Mar. 14: Laval 4, Syracuse 3 (SO) – This time, the opposite of last game happened early on.  Laval managed all of eight shots through two periods and were probably lucky to only be down by one.  But Lucas Condotta and Samuel Blais scored in the third to give the Rocket the lead although they couldn’t hold it late.  After killing off a penalty in overtime, Laval got it to the shootout and scored twice on three shots to get the extra point.  They’re now four up on the Crunch for first in the division although Syracuse has two games in hand and the tiebreaker.

StatPack

Skaters:

#	Player	GP	G	A	+/-	SOG	PIMS
2	Marc Del Gaizo	2	0	2	E	4	2
5	Nathan Clurman	2	0	1	E	3	0
6	Tyler Thorpe	2	0	2	+2	1	0
10	Joshua Roy	2	0	0	-4	5	0
12	Darick Louis-Jean	2	0	0	E	2	2
15	Sean Farrell	2	0	0	-2	1	0
17	Alex Tuch	2	0	0	E	3	2
18	Vincent Arseneau	1	0	0	-1	0	0
19	Samuel Blais	2	1	1	-2	4	0
22	Alex Belzile	2	0	0	-4	8	4
27	Laurent Dauphin	1	0	0	-4	2	0
28	Josh Jacobs	2	0	0	E	1	2
42	Lucas Condotta	2	1	0	+2	1	0
48	Filip Mesar	2	1	0	+2	3	0
49	Jared Davidson	2	0	1	E	0	0
62	Owen Beck	2	1	0	+2	3	0
63	Florian Xhekaj	2	1	0	E	3	0
64	David Reinbacher	2	0	0	+1	4	2
84	William Trudeau	2	0	0	-1	4	2

Goalies:

#	Player	Record	GAA	SV%	SO
34	Kaapo Kahkonen	1-1-0	3.38	.863	0

Shootout – Skaters:

#	Player	G/ATT
15	Sean Farrell	1/1
19	Samuel Blais	0/1
22	Alex Belzile	1/1

Shootout – Goalies:

#	Player	SVS/SF
34	Kaapo Kahkonen	2/2

Team Leaders:

Goals: Alex Belzile (26)
Assists: Laurent Dauphin (44)
Points: Laurent Dauphin (59)
+/-: Marc Del Gaizo (+26)
PIMS: Florian Xhekaj (133)
Shots: Joshua Roy (145)

News and Notes

– The tough injury luck continues as Laurent Dauphin is dealing with an upper-body injury and requires further evaluation.

– With their injuries on the back end, Darick Louis-Jean was recalled from ECHL Trois-Rivieres.  Additionally, goaltender Hunter Jones was recalled yet again from the Lions.

– Laval signed defenceman Luke Mittelstadt for the remainder of the season.  His entry-level deal with Montreal begins in the 2026-27 campaign.  He replaces Ryan O’Rourke on the active roster with the blueliner being traded to Belleville as a secondary component of the trade Ottawa and Montreal made before the AHL trade deadline (more on that later).

– Laval has also signed winger Dillan Bentley to a two-year deal beginning next season while adding him on a tryout agreement for the remainder of this season.  The 24-year-old recently wrapped up his college career at UMass-Lowell and notched 14 goals and 11 assists in 33 games this season in his senior year.

Last Game’s Lines:

Farrell – Belzile – Roy
Davidson – Beck – Mesar
Blais  – Condotta – Thorpe
Arseneau – Xhekaj – Tuch

Del Gaizo – Reinbacher
Trudeau – Clurman
Louis-Jean – Didier

The Week Ahead

Wednesday vs Wilkes-Barre/Scranton – For the first time in more than a month, Laval takes on a team not in their division.  The Penguins have lost five straight but are still ahead of the Rocket in the standings.  Three of their top seven scorers are currently up with Pittsburgh but they are one of the stingiest teams in terms of goals allowed thanks to young goaltender Sergei Murashov.  Former Hab Rafael Harvey-Pinard has 27 points in 54 games with Wilkes-Barre/Scranton this season, producing basically at the same rate that he did with the Rocket last season.

Friday vs Springfield – It has been a rough year for the Thunderbirds as they have one of the worst goal differentials in the AHL and sold leading into the trade deadline, moving former Hab Matthew Peca to Syracuse.  They have just three remaining forwards with more than 30 points and one of those (Matt Luff) is up with St. Louis, as are youngsters Otto Stenberg and Theo Lindstein.  To keep pace, this is a game Laval will really need to get.

Final Thought

While the Habs usually sit out the AHL trade deadline ‘festivities’, that wasn’t the case this past week.  They made a move to add a goalie, picking up Hunter Shepard along with winger Jake Chiasson from Ottawa for Riley Kidney, while also sending Ryan O’Rourke to Belleville as the other end of the swap.  Kidney and Chiasson are effectively in the same situation, underperformers who are probably not getting qualifying offers this summer.  This gives them a chance to try to make their case to a different organization but the outcome will likely be the same. 

For Montreal, this deal buys them some goaltending insurance while solidifying that Jacob Fowler won’t be leaving the Canadiens anytime soon.  While Shepard has struggled the last couple of years, before that, he was Goalie of the Year in the AHL.  He should be motivated, moving from a struggling team where he was the third-string option to one where he should have a shot at some playing time.  With Kaapo Kahkonen believed to be heading overseas next season, Shepard has a chance to make a case to stick around. 

For Ottawa, this was a money dump.  Shepard has a $400,000 AHL salary, pretty good money for a veteran netminder.  However, when Leevi Merilainen struggled in Ottawa, they had to turn around and sign James Reimer, forcing Merilainen back down to play with Mads Sogaard, both of which are on one-way contracts.  Shepard thus became a very expensive insurance policy and for a budget-conscious team, that’s a luxury that they didn’t want to pay for anymore.

Is it possible that Shepard’s struggles continue and Kahkonen winds up continuing to play the bulk of the games moving forward?  It sure is.  But as far as trying to add a depth goalie goes, the Habs managed to land a pretty good one who might have a bit of upside.