The Laval Rocket did not leave Cleveland with four points, but his performances showed that he could be part of the elite of the American League.
In a very tough North section, it would have been easy to relegate the Montreal Canadiens school club slightly to the background. The team is young, it still needs to gain experience in the American League and it had to adapt to the style of its new head coach, Pascal Vincent.
In turn, however, the sectional rivals learned that the Rocket was not just the little brother who was easy to push around. The Monsters realized this this weekend.
The Laval residents arrived in Ohio with the knife between their teeth for Friday’s match and they gave nothing to their opponents for 60 minutes. Their intensity and execution led to an easy 5-0 victory. In his second AHL start this season, Cayden Primeau took the opportunity to get the shutout.
The Rocket once again had a strong match at even strength in the second clash on Saturday, but indiscipline slowed their pace somewhat. Despite dominating, he lost 2-1 in overtime.
The disappointment of the defeat still left a little room for optimism after the match.
“On Friday we played one of our best games of the season. Today (Saturday) we also played really well. Three points out of four is still good, said striker Joshua Roy. In general, we come out of this weekend with our heads held high. »
And there is reason to hold your head high.
The Laval team is at the height of the race for first place in its section and in the Eastern Association as the mid-season arrives next week. In the section, it is only two points behind the Rochester Americans while in the association, it is only three points behind the Hershey Bears.
After signing two home victories against the Abbotsford Canucks last week, the Rocket wanted to rub shoulders with a good club like the Monsters to see where he is in his progress. The experience was conclusive in Vincent’s eyes.
“This is a team that made it to the Eastern finals last year and they added some veterans. I’m proud of my five-on-five team. We killed their transition game as much as we could. Obviously, they will still create things offensively, but I found that at equal strength, we were better than them in both games,” analyzed the head coach.
What is also impressive for the Laval residents is that they were in no way intimidated by the noisy crowd at Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse.
In front of more than 10,000 spectators on Friday and more than 15,000 on Saturday, Vincent’s men were able to impose themselves physically and keep the puck on the blade of their stick to create things.
“We are used to playing in front of loud and large crowds. It could intimidate some young players, but we experience it at Place Bell. At the same time, players hoping to play in the NHL will have to deal with hostile crowds overseas. We were aggressive in the way we played,” he said.
The Rocket will return to its noisy home on Wednesday, while the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins will be visiting Laval.
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