The Rocket has just scored a nice 6-2 victory this afternoon, thanks in particular to a five-goal surge without response in the third period and a five-point performance, including three goals, from Florian Xhekaj.
However, the team has only four wins since November 20 for a record of 4-6-2 through 12 games.
Thus, after a historic start of 12 victories in 14 games (12-2-0), the Laval Rocket is experiencing its first slump this season.
Although the Rocket have lost several close games (none of their defeats were by a margin of more than two goals), the team seems to have had trouble winning consistently in recent weeks.
During this period, the school club posted a performance of 34 goals scored against 39 goals allowed, for a differential of -5.
It’s not dramatic, but we see a drop in the team’s defensive performance while the goalkeeper duo is less dominant.
During his first 14 games, the Rocket had allowed only 31 goals for an excellent average of 2.21 goals allowed per game. Over the last twelve games, the team’s average is 3.35.
This is more than one goal allowed per match and this partly explains the decline that we have observed recently.
However, with this bad streak, Laval quickly descended in the standings, occupying third place in the northern division after having been at the top since the start of the season.
Additionally, the team is only five points ahead of securing a spot in the post-season series.
Return to normal or bad streak? Difficult to say, but the Rocket will have to quickly recover and win more often if they do not want to see their chances of participating in the Calder Cup series melt away like snow in the sun.
For the moment, I don’t think Rocket coach Pascal Vincent should press the panic button while his team is still well placed in the standings with seven games at the top of the .500 mark.
So if Laval’s players can maintain a performance of at least .500 until the end of the campaign, they should be well placed to play spring hockey.
However, the Rocket should not experience too many sequences like the one at the moment, especially since several of the teams behind in the standings have several games in hand on them.
Moreover, Laval was able to count on the arrival of reinforcements as Noel Hofenmayer, whom the Canadian acquired last week for Jacob Perreault, made his debut with the team today.
In burst
– It’s going to be expensive for Vlad!
– Another victory for the Chiefs.
– The Ravens too strong for the Giants.
– Ninth victory for the Texans.
– And for the Commanders.
– A nice hat-trick!
– Victory for Canada.
