Jared Davidson scored the only goal of the shootout and the Laval Rocket defeated the Syracuse Crunch by a score of 4-3 Friday night at the Upstate Medical University Arena.
This goal capped a prolific evening of work for Davidson, who revived the Rocket by scoring two goals in 32 seconds in the second period to allow his team to erase a 0-2 deficit.
Vincent Arseneau scored the Rocket’s other goal at the expense of goaltender Brandon Halverson, who was bombarded with 42 shots.
In regulation time, Jakub Dobes gave in to Logan Brown, Tobie Bisson, both in the second period, and Milo Roelens, early in the third period.
Bisson, a former Rocket, added an assist on Brown’s goal.
Dobes, making his third straight start, faced 30 pucks.
Above all, he was perfect in the shootout, successively blocking attempts from Jesse Ylonen, Conor Sheary and Brown.
The Laval team finished the game without Alex Barré-Boulet, victim of a lower body injury following a hit by Bisson early in the second period.
Barré-Boulet was present on the ice during the double power play which followed this penalty. This presence, however, was brief and Barré-Boulet returned to the bench without ever returning to the ice.
The Rocket will complete their five-game road trip on Saturday by visiting the Rochester Americans, a club they defeated 3-2 in overtime on Wednesday night.
Like in 3rd grade in Rochester
Faced with a goaltender who ranked first in the American League with his goals against average of 0.99 and his efficiency rate of .958, the Rocket players probably told themselves that they had to shoot often in the direction of Halverson to hope to overcome it.
This is what they did in the first twenty with a harvest of 13 shots, including eight during the first half of the engagement.
Nine different players tested the Crunch goalkeeper, who stopped everything.
In fact, Pascal Vincent’s players displayed the same dynamism as during the third period in Rochester on Wednesday, and dominated the game at even strength.
Of the nine shots he blocked in the first period, Dobes received four during two Rocket penalties in a 35-second span, including one to Dobes for handling the puck in the forbidden zone behind his net.
After this great first period, the Rocket players came out of the locker room and suddenly showed a little more disheveled play.
Unable to take advantage of a numerical advantage that began with 58 seconds left in the first period, the Rocket allowed the Crunch to get the first five shots of the middle period and the first two goals, those of Brown, at 1 :41 and Bisson, at 3:29.
Bisson, however, embarrassed his team when he was caught for giving Barré-Boulet a hard time only 10 seconds after a penalty to his teammate Kale Kessy.
The Crunch seemed destined to pull the chestnuts out of the fire until Davidson gave the Rocket a first goal at 5:44, with only 20 seconds remaining with a two-man advantage.
Just 32 seconds later, Davidson added a second goal to bring both clubs back to square one.
The Rocket even took the lead before the end of the period thanks to Arseneau, who took advantage of a loose puck in front of the net with 74 seconds left in the period.
Roelens, however, allowed the Crunch to tie the score at 4:57 when he beat Dobes from the mouth of the net.
Despite six shots in overtime, including several threatening ones, compared to none for their rival, the Rocket had to fight in a shootout.
