Back on home ice last week, Laval had a trio of matchups against divisional rivals. While they won two of three, the one they lost could very well prove costly down the stretch.
The Week That Was
Mar. 4: Syracuse 2, Laval 0 – In a battle of the top two teams in the division, it was a very tight checking affair with neither side getting a lot of chances to work with. Laval mustered up just 16 shots in the game but couldn’t beat Brandon Halverson. Kaapo Kahkonen was perfect for 54 minutes before Wyatt Newpower gave Syracuse the lead, one they wouldn’t look back from. The Crunch are now three points behind the Rocket in the North Division but have three games in hand.
Mar. 6: Laval 4, Rochester 2 – Jacob Fowler’s return came at the right time as he was quite busy in his first game back after missing multiple weeks due to illness. Once again, Laval was fairly limited offensively but they still managed to get four pucks past Devon Levi, including two shorthanded tallies, one each from Owen Beck and Florian Xhekaj (who also returned from illness). That was enough to stop Rochester from getting revenge after the Rocket put up nine goals on them last week.
Mar. 7: Laval 4, Rochester 3 (SO) – After the penalty kill came up big the night before, it struggled in this one. The Amerks scored three power play goals in the second period to erase an early deficit and take the lead heading into the third. But Marc Del Gaizo was able to tie it in the third (bouncing back nicely from a blooper-reel breakaway attempt earlier) and Laurent Dauphin potted the winner in the eighth round of the shootout.
StatPack
Skaters:
| # | Player | GP | G | A | +/- | SOG | PIMS |
| 2 | Marc Del Gaizo | 3 | 1 | 1 | +2 | 8 | 2 |
| 4 | Tobie Bisson | 1 | 0 | 0 | E | 0 | 0 |
| 5 | Nathan Clurman | 3 | 0 | 0 | E | 4 | 2 |
| 6 | Tyler Thorpe | 3 | 0 | 0 | +1 | 5 | 2 |
| 10 | Joshua Roy | 3 | 1 | 0 | E | 4 | 0 |
| 15 | Sean Farrell | 3 | 0 | 1 | E | 2 | 0 |
| 17 | Alex Tuch | 3 | 0 | 1 | +1 | 1 | 7 |
| 19 | Samuel Blais | 3 | 1 | 0 | E | 2 | 0 |
| 22 | Alex Belzile | 3 | 0 | 1 | -2 | 7 | 0 |
| 25 | Ryan O’Rourke | 1 | 0 | 0 | E | 0 | 0 |
| 26 | Will Dineen | 1 | 0 | 0 | E | 1 | 2 |
| 27 | Laurent Dauphin | 3 | 0 | 3 | E | 5 | 2 |
| 28 | Josh Jacobs | 2 | 0 | 0 | E | 2 | 2 |
| 42 | Lucas Condotta | 3 | 0 | 1 | +1 | 0 | 2 |
| 44 | Josiah Didier | 2 | 0 | 0 | +1 | 0 | 0 |
| 48 | Filip Mesar | 3 | 0 | 1 | +1 | 3 | 2 |
| 49 | Jared Davidson | 3 | 0 | 0 | E | 2 | 2 |
| 62 | Owen Beck | 3 | 1 | 0 | E | 5 | 0 |
| 63 | Florian Xhekaj | 2 | 2 | 1 | +3 | 2 | 7 |
| 64 | David Reinbacher | 3 | 1 | 1 | +3 | 13 | 2 |
| 84 | William Trudeau | 3 | 0 | 0 | +1 | 6 | 2 |
Goalies:
| # | Player | Record | GAA | SV% | SO |
| 1 | Jacob Fowler | 1-0-0 | 2.00 | .946 | 0 |
| 34 | Kaapo Kahkonen | 1-1-0 | 1.95 | .907 | 0 |
Shootout – Skaters:
| # | Player | G/ATT |
| 10 | Joshua Roy | 1/1 |
| 15 | Sean Farrell | 0/1 |
| 19 | Samuel Blais | 0/1 |
| 22 | Alex Belzile | 1/1 |
| 27 | Laurent Dauphin | 1/1 |
| 49 | Jared Davidson | 0/1 |
| 62 | Owen Beck | 0/1 |
| 63 | Florian Xhekaj | 0/1 |
Shootout – Goalies:
| # | Player | SVS/SF |
| 34 | Kaapo Kahkonen | 6/8 |
Team Leaders:
Goals: Alex Belzile (26)
Assists: Laurent Dauphin (44)
Points: Laurent Dauphin (59)
+/-: Dauphin/Del Gaizo (+26)
PIMS: Florian Xhekaj (133)
Shots: Joshua Roy (140)
News and Notes
– With Jacob Fowler able to return, Hunter Jones was once again sent back to Trois-Rivieres, a shuffle he is getting quite familiar with. He has been recalled and sent down four times in less than five weeks.
– David Reinbacher has six points in his last five games after taking on a bigger workload (including the power play unit) following the injury to Adam Engstrom.
– With his first assist of the week, Laurent Dauphin set a new career high in points. He sits second in AHL scoring, two points behind Syracuse’s Jakob Pelletier.
Last Game’s Lines:
Blais – Dauphin – Belzile
Davidson – Beck – Mesar
Farrell – Condotta – Roy
Tuch – Xhekaj – Thorpe
Del Gaizo – Reinbacher
Trudeau – Clurman
O’Rourke – Didier
The Week Ahead
Friday at Utica – While the Comets are still at the bottom of the Eastern Conference, they’ve been one of the better teams in recent weeks, shaving 12 points off their playoff deficit (though they still have a long way to go). While New Jersey ran former Hab Evgenii Dadonov along with Maxim Tsyplakov through waivers, they ultimately elected not to send them down at the trade deadline. Laval has taken four of six matchups between the two teams so far although Utica won the most recent one a couple of weeks ago.
Saturday at Syracuse – Yes, them yet again for the third (and final) week in a row; it’s their final matchup of the season. That means it’s Laval’s last chance to get closer to being in control of their destiny as it comes to first place in the North Division standings. No team is hotter than the Crunch at the moment as they’ve won 12 of their last 13 games, including two over the Rocket in that span.
Final Thought
It was only a couple of weeks ago that Laval was fully healthy. Since then, their back end has taken quite the beating. Adam Engstrom will miss a few more weeks with an upper-body injury and now some of their veterans are banged up. Tobie Paquette-Bisson was injured against Syracuse, Josh Jacobs didn’t make it through the first game versus Rochester, and now Josiah Didier is out with a lower-body injury and awaiting further evaluation. In Rocket-speak, that’s code for he’s probably going to be out for a while.
If none of those veterans are able to return by Friday, Laval will be down to just five healthy defencemen on their roster. If you’re curious, ECHL Trois-Rivieres has a pair of blueliners under contract with the Rocket in Charles Martin and Darick Louis-Jean while Jacob Dion spent a few weeks in Laval at the start of the season on a PTO. That at least gives them some options.
The good news is that there’s still time to address this as the AHL trade deadline is this coming Friday, one week after the NHL’s. At that point, eligibility becomes a bit more eligibility; it’s the same as the old Clear Day rosters. This isn’t the time when several big swaps will happen but working out a rights trade or loan agreement to add some extra depth would make a lot of sense. Depending on these latest injuries, they might even wind up with an open veteran slot to use.
Under this management group, Laval usually sits on the sidelines at the AHL deadline as most teams do; there are usually only a handful of moves compared to the dozens of NHL swaps in their deadline week. But with the Habs not having a bunch of extra defensive depth and now the Rocket banged up considerably, it might be time to backfill with some more depth, just in case.