HabsWorld.net -- 

Back home to kick off April, Laval had a light week last week with a pair of games against Calgary, one of the weaker teams in the league.  However, they were only able to pick up a split but they still hold onto first in the division for the time being.

The Week That Was

Apr. 3: Calgary 5, Laval 2 – There are bad periods that a team will have over the course of a 72-game season.  Laval’s second period in this one was its own kind of misery.  The Wranglers scored five goals in less than nine minutes, erasing an early Owen Beck tally and taking complete control of the game, chasing Kaapo Kahkonen in the process.  Tyler Thorpe scored his first goal in two months after that but it was too little, too late in a game that the Rocket didn’t show up for.

Apr. 4: Laval 4, Calgary 3 (SO) – To Laval’s credit, they came out with one of their more dominant starts in recent weeks in this one although a 16-4 opening period shot advantage only yielded a one-goal lead.  They got it to two but blew that, then retook the lead in the third only to blow that as well.  In overtime, Joshua Roy couldn’t bury a penalty shot but in the shootout, Jared Davidson and Florian Xhekaj scored to give the Rocket the much-needed win.

Skaters:

# Player GP G A +/- SOG PIMS
2 Marc Del Gaizo 2 1 1 -2 6 0
3 Luke Mittelstadt 2 0 1 E 2 0
5 Nathan Clurman 2 0 1 -1 0 0
6 Tyler Thorpe 2 1 0 +1 2 2
10 Joshua Roy 2 1 0 +1 8 0
15 Sean Farrell 2 0 1 -2 5 0
17 Alex Tuch 2 0 0 -2 2 2
19 Samuel Blais 2 0 0 -1 3 6
26 Will Dineen 1 0 0 E 1 0
28 Josh Jacobs 1 0 0 -2 0 0
42 Lucas Condotta 2 0 0 E 2 2
44 Josiah Didier 1 0 0 +1 0 0
48 Filip Mesar 2 0 1 -2 2 0
49 Jared Davidson 2 0 1 +1 6 0
62 Owen Beck 2 1 1 -1 6 2
63 Florian Xhekaj 2 1 0 E 5 17
64 David Reinbacher 2 0 1 +1 4 4
83 Josh Nadeau 1 0 1 +1 2 0
84 William Trudeau 2 0 1 +1 1 6
91 Dillan Bentley 2 0 0 +1 6 2

Goalies:

# Player Record GAA SV% SO
32 Hunter Shepard 0-0-0 0.00 1.000 0
34 Kaapo Kahkonen 1-1-0 4.93 .814 0

Shootout – Skaters:

# Player G/ATT
15 Sean Farrell 0/1
49 Jared Davidson 1/1
63 Florian Xhekaj 1/1

Shootout – Goalies:

# Player SVS/SF
34 Kaapo Kahkonen 2/2

Team Leaders:

Goals: Alex Belzile (28)
Assists: Laurent Dauphin (44)
Points: Laurent Dauphin (59)
+/-: Marc Del Gaizo (+26)
PIMS: Florian Xhekaj (152)
Shots: Joshua Roy (169)

News and Notes

– With Josiah Didier returning from his injury, Laval returned defenceman Darick Louis-Jean to ECHL Trois-Rivieres.

– Laval can finish no lower than second in the North Division, guaranteeing home ice in the second round of the playoffs.  (The first round is a play-in round that Laval won’t have to play in.)

– With his 17 penalty minutes last week, Florian Xhekaj has moved into fifth in the league in that department.  He had 175 to lead the league last season but there are four with at least that many (including two well over 200) so it’s highly unlikely he’ll repeat as ‘champion’ in that department.

Last Game’s Lines:

Blais – Beck – Farrell
Roy – Condotta – Bentley
Davidson  – Xhekaj – Mesar
Tuch – Dineen – Tuch

Mittelstadt – Reinbacher
Del Gaizo – Clurman
Trudeau – Didier

The Week Ahead

Friday/Saturday vs Belleville – The home portion of the schedule comes to an end with a set against the Senators.  Belleville still has an outside shot at getting the fifth seed to get to the opening (play-in) round so they certainly will have something to play for.  Laval has taken five of eight games in the season series but their two top scorers in those games won’t be available due to injury (Laurent Dauphin) and recall (Adam Engstrom).  Injuries to Ottawa’s back end have wreaked havoc on Belleville as five of their blueliners are currently up with the big club (some of which have since gotten injured themselves). 

Final Thought

When the Habs called Jared Davidson up back in November, it was a well-deserved promotion.  He had nine goals in 13 games to start the season and with the Habs needing a spark (and an injury replacement), he was the logical choice.  And while Davidson didn’t do a ton with the Habs, he held his own and didn’t look out of place.

But sometimes, when players get sent back down, they struggle for a bit.  Owen Beck is a good example of that; it takes him a while to get going offensively whenever he’s sent down by Montreal.  But Davidson is taking this to a new level.  He has just 14 points in 36 games since being sent back down and only five of those points have come in his last 22 outings.  At a time when players should be getting locked in for the playoffs, he’s still seemingly finding his way even though it has been more than four months since he returned to the Rocket.

When he’s on, Davidson is a Swiss army knife-type of player for Laval.  He can play all three forward positions, play in a scoring role, a checking role, or an energy one.  That makes him one of Laval’s most versatile players while playing with the type of spunk that’s needed to get through the playoffs.  Unfortunately, we haven’t seen that version of him since early November.  With only two weeks left in the season, time is running out to get back to being the type of player he has proven capable of being.  Laval will need him at his best if they’re going to have any type of playoff success.