(Laval) There is nothing wrong with letting yourself be guided by the best people, but when everyone pitches in, it makes things much easier.
The Laval Rocket followed this recipe and easily defeated the Manitoba Moose 5-2 on Friday night at Place Bell.
Perfection is not of this world, but the Montreal Canadiens’ farm club has come close to it a few times over the past month. He has at least a point in his sixth straight game (5-0-1) and is 9-2-2 in his last 13 outings.
On Friday, defenseman Tobie Bisson led the charge with a powerful check and the Rocket scored two goals in 68 seconds to force the Moose, who had lost their last five games, to play catch-up hockey.
“It was very important to achieve these first two goals,” analyzed head coach Jean-François Houle. When you host a struggling team like that, you have to come out with poise and you have to continue to apply that pressure. That’s what we did. It wasn’t perfect, we need to reduce the turnovers, but in general our game is much better than three months ago. »
Lias Andersson, who added an assist, Jan Mysak, Emil Heineman, Logan Mailloux and Philippe Maillet scored for the Rocket (14-14-6), but it was a team affair for the majority of the game. the encounter.
Despite injuries and recalls to the NHL, each player seems to be giving their all lately and the results are following.
“We’ve had a number of good games recently and that’s a reflection of the team we have. We are very talented and when we work we see that we can be successful against anyone. It’s just repeating it night after night. Everyone participated this evening and that’s encouraging for the next matches,” mentioned forward Joshua Roy, who was recalled by the Canadian less than a year after the last siren.
The Rocket’s successes also come thanks to the brilliance of the goalkeepers. Jakub Dobes had his say in the opening minutes against the Moose and finished the matchup with 30 saves. He has only suffered two losses in his last nine starts.
The defense came to help Dobes in the third period, giving the visitors almost nothing. Mailloux, in particular, wanted to redeem himself after having experienced a performance below his expectations on Wednesday. He succeeded in his mandate.
“We talked about it with the coaches, not to play two games in a row like that. We knew we had to be better and it worked out well tonight. We knew what we had to do to maintain the lead in the third period and we did it,” said Mailloux, who will represent the Rocket at the American Hockey League All-Star Game.
C. J. Suess and Brad Lambert responded on the power play for the Moose (12-19-0). Oskari Salminen surrendered five times in 36 throws.
The two teams will face each other on Saturday afternoon, again at Place Bell.
The least we can say is that it was a very disheveled start to the match. Both teams came close to opening the score, until the Rocket did so after 4:08 of play.
Mailloux received the puck at the point and his shot slipped through traffic to beat Salminen. A little over a minute later, another shot from the point, that of William Trudeau, was deflected by Mysak to give Laval a two-goal lead.
The Rocket’s numerical advantage has been going well for a few weeks and it acted up before the end of the first period. Arber Xhekaj was patient and passed the disc to his right to Heineman, who fired a precise ball into the top corner.
The home team maintained the pace in the second half, but without threading the needle. His indiscipline also opened the door to the Moose, who didn’t ask for so much.
The visitors moved into enemy territory during a numerical superiority, but Dobes made two good saves. The young goalie, however, couldn’t do anything when the puck slipped slowly behind him and Suess pushed it behind the red line.
The Moose calmed the enthusiasm of the Rocket supporters a little less than five minutes later, again with one more player. Lambert used his speed to enter the opposing zone and deceived Dobes’ vigilance with an excellent wrist shot.
“There was a bit of indiscipline and I think those were the only moments in which they had chances,” observed Houle.
The Winnipeg Jets’ farm club’s celebrations were short-lived, as just 20 seconds later, Brandon Gignac did everything he could to set the table for Andersson, who scored his ninth goal of the campaign.
The Rocket players were effective in the final period to protect their lead and added a goal to close the books. Xavier Simoneau applied the brakes in the Moose zone and spotted Maillet, who was arriving at full speed. The veteran came to the crease and made the strings move with a lively wrist shot.
