Rocket Weekly: Finishing Strong

Laval finished up their regular season with three games against Belleville, a division rival that they’ve struggled against at times.  However, they were able to pick up a pair of victories to secure first overall while also eliminating the Senators from playoff contention.

The Week That Was

Apr. 16: Belleville 2, Laval 1 – This game felt a bit like a playoff contest with some tighter checking on both sides.  Neither team scored in the first half of the game and Will Dineen’s first pro goal near the midway mark of the third tied it up.  However, the tie was short-lived with Xavier Bourgault scoring just a couple of minutes later to keep Belleville’s hopes alive for another night.

Apr. 18: Laval 5, Belleville 1 – This time, the Rocket got off to a much stronger start with two goals in the first five minutes to make this game go much differently.  Lucas Condotta and Sean Farrell then scored, the latter coming early in the third, to double the lead and take away any hopes of Belleville coming back.  With the win, Laval secured home ice advantage through the entire playoffs.

Apr. 19: Laval 5, Belleville 4 (OT) – Laval left numerous regulars at home for this one, avoiding the risk of injury to their top players.  That allowed some of their depth players to get a bigger role for this one and they got off to a strong start, getting staked out to a three-goal lead early in the second when Luke Tuch scored.  However, they weren’t able to hold it as Stephen Halliday scored twice in the final 90 seconds to force overtime.  There, Florian Xhekaj – the top centre for this game – was the hero as he scored his second of the night to secure the win.

StatPack

Skaters:

#	Player	GP	G	A	+/-	SOG	PIMS
2	Noel Hoefenmayer	1	1	0	+2	6	2
5	Gustav Lindstrom	3	0	2	+3	3	0
6	Tyler Thorpe	1	0	2	+1	0	0
10	Joshua Roy	1	0	0	-1	1	0
12	Alex Barre-Boulet	2	1	1	+2	6	0
15	Sean Farrell	2	1	0	+1	2	0
17	Alex Tuch	3	1	1	+1	6	0
19	Brendon Clavelle	1	0	0	E	1	0
21	Riley Kidney	3	0	1	+1	4	0
23	Tyler Wotherspoon	3	0	2	+3	5	0
24	Logan Mailloux	2	0	0	+2	4	4
26	Will Dineen	2	1	1	E	2	4
27	Laurent Dauphin	2	0	0	+1	4	2
28	Charles-Antoine Roy	1	0	0	E	1	2
34	Anthony Poulin	1	0	0	E	2	0
42	Lucas Condotta	2	1	1	+3	3	2
48	Filip Mesar	3	0	0	-1	2	0
49	Jared Davidson	3	0	3	+3	2	0
56	Adam Engstrom	2	0	0	-1	3	2
62	Owen Beck	3	1	2	E	7	0
63	Florian Xhekaj	3	3	0	+2	9	12
64	David Reinbacher	2	0	1	-1	3	2
65	Zack Hayes	1	0	0	-1	3	2
77	Joe Dunlap	1	0	0	E	1	0
79	Bradley Chenier	1	0	0	E	0	0
81	Xavier Simoneau	2	1	1	+2	3	2
84	William Trudeau	3	0	1	+4	5	0

Goalies:

#	Player	Record	GAA	SV%	SO
1	Jacob Fowler	1-1-0	2.97	.891	0
30	Cayden Primeau	1-0-0	1.00	.958	0

Team Leaders:

Goals: Laurent Dauphin (26)
Assists: Alex Barre-Boulet (41)
Points: Alex Barre-Boulet (63)
+/-: Dauphin/Davidson (+25)
PIMS: Florian Xhekaj (175)
Shots: Alex Barre-Boulet (171)

News and Notes

– To ice a full roster for the final game, Laval signed four players from the University of Ottawa – defenceman Brendon Clavelle and forwards Charles-Antoine Roy, Anthony Poulin, and Bradley Chenier.  All four were immediately released after Saturday’s contest.

– Pascal Vincent won the Louis A.R. Pieri Memorial Award as the AHL’s outstanding coach for the 2024-25 season.  The award is voted on by other coaches and media.  It’s the second time he won the award with the other coming back in 2017-18.  It’s the first time anyone has won the award with two separate organizations.

– Connor Hughes and Cayden Primeau were the co-recipients of the Harry “Hap” Holmes Memorial Award for the 2024-25 season, sharing the title with Syracuse’s Brandon Halverson and Matt Tomkins.  The award goes to the goalies on the team that allowed the fewest goals during the regular season, as long as they played in enough games.  Hughes and Primeau were the only Laval ones to play enough to qualify.

– With a 21-2-2 record (a .880 points percentage), Primeau had the best single-season record in AHL history in terms of points percentage among qualifying goaltenders.

– David Reinbacher returned to the lineup after sitting for a few weeks as he continues to work his way back from his knee injury.  Meanwhile, Rafael Harvey-Pinard and Brandon Gignac have resumed skating so they could be options at some point in the postseason as well.

Last Game’s Lines:

Davidson – Xhekaj – Beck
Tuch – Kidney – Simoneau
Chenier – Dineen – Thorpe
Roy – Poulin – Dunlap

Wotherspoon – Lindstrom
Trudeau – Hayes
Hoefenmayer – Clavelle

The Series Ahead

It’s an off week for the Rocket as they will await the winner of the best-of-three series between Toronto and Cleveland.  If the Marlies win the series, the series would begin next Wednesday with two games in Laval, two in Toronto, and the final game in Laval.  If the Monsters win, they would host the first two games with Laval hosting the final three.  (For travel reasons, series are sometimes scheduled this way to keep costs down.)

Final Thought

The theme of this season has been player development with some of Montreal’s prospects getting a chance to play a prominent role.  That will probably change in the playoffs.  Generally speaking, teams lean more on their veteran players to get through the postseason; that’s how an older Laval roster did so just a few years ago (with Cayden Primeau’s heroics also making an impact).  That means that there’s going to be less patience for players like Filip Mesar and Riley Kidney who could find themselves out of the lineup with much more regularity compared to the regular season.

But that’s okay.  A long playoff run is much more important than trying to find regular ice time for prospects if they’re not among the top 12 forwards or top six defencemen.  There’s development simply going through the process of staying sharp, video work, and stuff like that.  Plus, players will need rest so if there is a prospect or two sitting at times, they’ll have a chance to suit up from time to time.  But next week, it will be time to flip the switch and put the best players on the ice regularly, regardless of whether they’re prospects or veterans with no hope of helping the Habs down the road.