Game Thoughts: Opportunity Squandered

Laval had a chance to move on to the Eastern Conference Final if they could beat Rochester on Friday night.  Instead, they had a night to forget all around as the Americans tied the series with a 5-1 win.

Pascal Vincent made a pair of lineup changes for this one.  Tyler Wotherspoon’s Game 3 injury ended his consecutive game streak (he was the only Rocket player to play in every game this season), requiring the first change on the back end in the playoffs with Noel Hoefenmayer taking his place.  Meanwhile, the goalie rotation continued with Jacob Fowler getting his second start of the series.  The rest of the lines remained intact from Wednesday and were as follows:

Farrell – Dauphin – Barre-Boulet
Gignac – Kapanen – Roy
Harvey-Pinard – Condotta – Tuch
Davidson – Xhekaj – Beck

Engstrom – Reinbacher
Trudeau – Mailloux
Hoefenmayer – Lindstrom

Game Thoughts

1) Over the first three games of this series, there was either an early penalty, an early goal, or both.  There wasn’t in this one.  Beyond a couple of good skating bursts from Oliver Kapanen and a nice sliding play from Adam Engstrom to break up a two-on-one, there wasn’t much to write home about; shots were one apiece through eight minutes.

2) Unfortunately for Laval, Rochester’s second shot went in.  After Logan Mailloux took his fifth penalty of the series, Lukas Rousek set up Josh Dunne for a one-timer that went right through Fowler.  That was not a confidence-inspiring goal from Fowler as it was a pretty stoppable one while Mailloux’s penalty penchant needs to get cleaned up as well.  He’s too valuable a player to keep taking himself off the ice with unnecessary penalties.  (He picked up his sixth near the end of the period in an offsetting minors situation.)

3) I liked Laval’s response after the goal as they did well to keep Rochester at bay, for a few minutes at least.  Unfortunately, with five minutes left, Mailloux completely whiffed on a clearing attempt, instead sending the puck to Dunne.  His shot was tipped right in front by Tyson Kozak and just like that, it was 2-0 for the Americans who had all of three shots to this point.

4) A tough first period ended on another low note.  Already heading for a delayed penalty for Laurent Dauphin putting Mason Jobst in a bit of a chokehold off a faceoff, Alex Barre-Boulet decided it was a good time to hit Devon Levi in his crease.  Yes, Levi went down a bit easy but that was still clear-cut goalie interference at a very inopportune time.  I have no idea what Barre-Boulet was thinking on that one as that was befuddlingly stupid from a veteran who knows better.

5) Rochester took advantage of the carryover five-on-three pretty quickly.  Rousek, Dunne, and Isak Rosen had a perfect tic-tac-toe passing play with the latter being open in the slot and lifting one past Fowler who had no chance.  It’s hard to fault the penalty killers when they’re down two men but this was a kill they needed with how poorly the first went.  They did well with the other part of the kill though and to Laval’s credit, they bounced back with several good chances on cross-ice feeds.  However, they were either stopped or a shot never got through.  But it was good pushback nonetheless.

6) Eventually, they were rewarded for their efforts.  Engstrom went for a skate in the offensive zone, going from behind the net back to the point.  His shot was knocked down in front of the net and Joshua Roy was right there to bury it.  I still don’t think Roy has played particularly well in this series but that’s goals in two straight for him which is something.

7) But any hopes of getting the deficit back to one ended in a hurry.  Owen Beck’s broken stick led to sustained zone time for the Amerks and eventually, Kale Clague’s point shot was tipped past Fowler to make it a three-goal game again.  That was mercifully the end of the night for Fowler who was uncomfortable early and frankly, he looked overwhelmed.  With Laval only having one goal at this point, it can’t be hung on Fowler entirely but I think Cayden Primeau would have stopped at least two of the goals.  Even at that, how much different would the rest of the game have been?  The Rocket kept pushing with their best chance in the back half coming from a Luke Tuch breakaway but couldn’t get closer before the buzzer.

8) Knowing they needed at least three goals in the third, Laval didn’t exactly look like a team playing with a lot of desperation.  They got an early power play but it wasn’t particularly dangerous which largely felt like the final nail in the coffin for this game.  Then Florian Xhekaj took a completely necessary cross-checking penalty after the midway point, going after Dunne after the whistle for a very obvious call.  Dumb penalties was one of the themes of this game for the Rocket, who still haven’t learned that giving the best remaining power play team in the playoffs a bunch of power plays is not a viable strategy for success.

9) Dunne was called for tripping with a little over seven minutes left, giving Laval one last chance to get back into this one.  In theory, at least.  In reality, Rochester had the two best opportunities to score.  Primeau stopped the first but not the second when Nikita Novikov split the defence (Mailloux’s rough night continued) before sending a feed to Konsta Helenius who fired it home, cementing Sunday afternoon’s fifth and final game.

10) The final few minutes were a gong show for Laval, who seemed to only be interested in seeing how many guys could get misconducts.  At the beginning, Rafael Harvey-Pinard took exception to a hit from Brendan Warren while Lucas Condotta went to his defence.  Okay, that’s at least resembling a hockey play.  But then Jared Davidson and Hoefenmayer ended their nights early.  Xhekaj then skated around, trying to start something, and was rightfully sent to the showers before he could make that happen.

Mailloux decided to then end a pathetic night on a bad note, first giving a late slash so far away from the play that he should have been tossed right then and there, and then trying to fight Jobst, finally ending his night early; Roy also got the hook on the play in a separate skirmish.  All in all, Laval had 96 penalty minutes.  If their goal was to take the league lead in penalty minutes, mission accomplished.  But that shouldn’t be the goal, especially in a playoff game.  That was a pretty pitiful final few minutes.

HW Habs 3 Stars

1st Star: Adam Engstrom – In a game with five goals allowed, it might seem strange to have a defenceman here but Engstrom was impressive.  He broke up a pair of two-on-ones back when the game was still close, used his skating to set up several chances in the offensive zone, and set up Roy’s goal.  They’ll happily take another effort like that on Sunday.

Stats: 1 assist, +1 rating, 0 shots, 0 PIMS

2nd Star: Joshua Roy – This was his best game of the series, which admittedly isn’t saying a lot considering how his first three went.  But he was a bit more assertive and was the driver on a line that has had a few good individual efforts but not a whole lot of chemistry thus far.  Hopefully, he can build off that on Sunday.

Stats: 1 goal, even rating, 2 shots, 10 PIMS

3rd Star: Rafael Harvey-Pinard – I liked his feistiness in this game.  Aside from the stuff at the end (and his part in it was at least somewhat hockey-related instead of just complete nonsense from what came after), he was pretty disciplined but aggressive.  He could teach some of the younger guys a thing or two about that before Game 5.

Stats: 0 points, even rating, 2 shots, 12 PIMS