10 Thoughts: Del Gaizo’s Winner Gives Rocket Four Straight Wins

After a big win on Wednesday to start their home stand, Laval looked to make it four straight victories as they hosted Cleveland on Friday.  It took some extra time but they did just that, coming away with the 5-4 overtime victory.

Pascal Vincent made one lineup change from their win over Utica, that coming up front.  With Samuel Blais clearing waivers earlier this week, he’s now back with the Rocket took the place of Vincent Arseneau, who was a healthy scratch.  Meanwhile, with Kaapo Kahkonen’s day-to-day injury now nearing the two-week mark, Jacob Fowler got his sixth straight start.  The team lined up as follows:

Farrell – Dauphin – Belzile
Roy – Beck – Mesar
Blais – Condotta – Simoneau
Tuch – Xhekaj – Thorpe

Engstrom – Didier
Trudeau – Clurman
Del Gaizo – Jacobs

10 Thoughts

1) If you’re looking at the right side of that back end and being a bit concerned, I don’t blame you.  The good news is that help could be on the way as David Reinbacher is believed to be nearing a return and while he’s still waiting for final medical clearance, it’s possible that he suits up in the rematch on Saturday.  It’s safe to say that he’ll have a big role when he returns.

2) The game got off to a nice start for Laval.  A little past the three-minute mark, Filip Mesar was tripped up in a sandwich check but still managed to flip a pass ahead.  Joshua Roy was there to corral it.  He skated in and fired a shot clean past Ivan Fedotov to open up the scoring.  In this week’s Rocket Weekly column, I wrote about how these next few weeks would be big for Roy as a player with a reasonable chance to be in play on the trade market and getting scouted.  That goal was a good impression to make though it’s still just his second goal in 12 games.

3) Unfortunately, the lead was short-lived.  On the next shift, Fowler made a stop on a sharp-angle shot from Luca Del Bel Belluz.  However, he kicked the rebound across the crease right to James Malatesta.  A pair of Rocket players were right there but were too slow to react and Malatesta had a tap-in to tie the game.  A penalty from Malatesta four minutes later for closing his hand on the puck proved to be unfruitful for the Rocket, who spent a good chunk of the advantage regrouping.

4) All in all, Laval played a pretty strong opening period.  They put a lot of pressure on Fedotov and controlled a good chunk of the play.  That’s the good news.  The bad news is that they were trailing when it was all said and done as a one-timer from Guillaume Richard in the right faceoff circle beat Fowler with 1:06 left to give the Monsters the lead at the break.  Despite the setback, that was one of their better periods in a while, especially encouraging considering it came against one of the teams trying to catch them for the division lead.

5) It’s too bad that didn’t carry over to the start of the second.  A little past the three-minute mark, we saw the good and the bad from Florian Xhekaj.  He got the puck at centre and rushed in one-on-one.  He wasn’t able to score and then took out his frustration on the defender, hitting him up high.  He received a double-minor for it and frankly, he should be happy there’s no video review for that in the minors; it could have been worse.  Less than a minute into the advantage, Del Bel Belluz sent a cross-ice feed for Luca Pinelli.  Lucas Condotta had drifted out of position a bit and Pinelli had an easy one to give the Monsters a two-goal lead.  During the second half of the penalty, Laurent Dauphin caught Fedotov in the head while trying to screen a shot, giving Cleveland a two-man advantage for 1:44.  Laval managed to kill that off and settled back in from there.

6) A few minutes later, Xhekaj was able to make up for the bad penalty.  Now on a power play, Owen Beck sent a hard pass to the front of the net.  Xhekaj was hustling to get to the spot and was successful, redirecting it home to get the Rocket back within one.  The skills are there for Xhekaj to be at least an impactful fourth liner in the NHL, not just a fighter.  But the discipline (or lack thereof) needs to be cleaned up before he’s going to get a longer opportunity with the Canadiens.

7) Laval’s fourth line doesn’t play a whole lot, particularly compared to how Montreal’s fourth line is being deployed with a largely healthy lineup.  But Tyler Thorpe still made an impact.  With just under six minutes left, he threw a big hit on Caleb MacDonald in the neutral zone.  It wasn’t a big momentum-shifter but it opened up a brief lane.  Roy was able to get the puck in the neutral zone and skated right to that lane.  That allowed him to build up a head of steam and drive the net and he was able to squeak one through Fedotov to tie the game and allow them to overcome those early-period struggles.

8) After a fairly even start to the third period, it was Cleveland who eventually struck to break the tie.  A little past the eight-minute mark, the puck was in the Laval zone in the corner and just about everyone was around the area.  That is, except MacDonald.  Zach Aston-Reese got control of the puck and spotted MacDonald wide-open at the point.  Beck was the only Rocket player not battling for the puck but he was in the middle of the ice.  That left plenty of time and space for MacDonald to skate into his shot and he wired it past Fowler.

9) This apparently was the game for Montreal’s prospects to snap their slumps.  Roy ended his earlier, as did Xhekaj with just his second in 12 games.  And, with a little more than five minutes left in the third on the power play, Beck snapped his 18-game drought, wiring a wrister past Fedotov.  His shot is above-average, especially for the AHL level, and for him to only have now four goals on the season still seems hard to believe.  If he could get going down the stretch, that would be huge for Laval.  William Trudeau nearly scored on the next shift and had what looked like a wide-open net but Fedotov (and his 6’8 frame) was able to just get enough of his skate on the shot to send it wide and ultimately send the game to overtime.

10) Overtime has been kind to Laval lately and this game was no exception.  Just before the two-minute mark, Cleveland’s forwards couldn’t cash on a rush play and were caught up the ice, springing Laval on a three-on-one.  Xhekaj got the puck to Blais who went cross-ice to Marc Del Gaizo (yes, the defenceman drove the net) and he tipped it home for the winner.  It was certainly a pretty passing play, one we don’t always see in overtime, especially in the AHL when the play is slower.

HW Rocket 3 Stars

1st Star: Marc Del Gaizo – Defensively, he had a decent game, but nothing to write home about.  But he had a hand in Beck’s tying goal and scored the winner which counts for a lot.  For the success he has had in the minors in Nashville’s system, we should be seeing this more often from Del Gaizo.

Stats: 1 goal, 1 assist, +1 rating, 3 shots

2nd Star: Filip Mesar –  Mesar didn’t get much of a mention in the game writeup but this was one of his best games of the year.  He set up the first goal with the well-timed pass, added a power play assist, and generated several scoring chances that weren’t cashed.  He even got involved a bit physically.  If Mesar could find a way to bottle this effort and bring that consistently moving forward, he’d really help his cause on the prospect depth chart.

Stats: 2 assists, -1 rating, 4 shots

3rd Star: Joshua Roy – Honestly, I thought Roy had a relatively quiet game.  Not bad, but quiet considering that he should be a standout player at this level.  But he did score twice, once on a strong shot and once on a net drive that we don’t see often enough from him.  He’s someone who can really impact the game and he did for Laval in this one.

Stats: 2 goals, even rating, 3 shots