Montreal Canadiens Rocket Fire: Daniel Audette leads Laval to weekend revenge
The Laval Rocket had only two games this week to the Montreal Canadiens four where the latter had a much better result thanks to Daniel Audette.
Consistency is something teams, and individual players struggle with at various points of the season. The Montreal Canadiens, for example, haven’t been able to get a steady stream of production from their powerplay units which have cost them points in regulation. The Laval Rocket ironically have their own form of consistency, but it’s inconsistent at the same time.
The team has transitioned to a new pattern of results which initially started at the end of November after breaking a seven-game losing streak after defeating the Belleville Senators 2-1. Laval would lose two games and then get into the win column. Some of those wins were fairly impressive including their victory over the Toronto Marlies.
There’s a new pattern in place for the Laval: the despised rollercoaster. The Rocket took a 4-2 decision over the Charlotte Checkers to lose to them the next game 5-4 in overtime, and it continued on from there. Using the patter as a predictor for their two matches against the Manitoba Moose last week would’ve seen a loss on Thursday with a win on Saturday. And as the cards had it, that’s what took place.
Being in a rollercoaster isn’t good for any team regardless of their positioning in the standings. However, the Rocket did a good job in responding from a very disappointing game that saw them shutout and shut down by Manitoba.
With the playoffs far out of reach, each game will be a lesson for a team hoping to accomplish something down the line and grow future talent for the Montreal Canadiens. And an easy lesson is from this week is the importance of battling back despite what took place prior.
Game 38: 4-0 L to the Manitoba Moose
The last time Charlie Lindgren started in goal for the Laval Rocket was December 1st against the Utica Comets. Lindgren stopped 33 of 38 shots in the loss and unfortunately didn’t get a chance to bounce back from it as a lower-body injury would take him out of the lineup for weeks. However, the 25-year-old was cleared and in charge of guarding the net against Manitoba. There was a concern Lindgren reaggravated his injury at some point during the game, but he looked good enough to continue.
It was also a season debut for David Schlemko who had just been waived by the Montreal Canadiens. Schlemko spent time with the Laval Rocket last year as well on a pair of conditioning stints and would be reunited with Xavier Ouellet and Brett Lernout.
Daniel Audette – Jake Evans – Byron Froese
Nikita Jevpalovs – Lukas Vejdemo – Alexandre Grenier
Alex Belzile – Phelix Martineau – Alexandre Alain
Michael Pezzetta – Jake Verbeek – Antoine Waked
Daniel Sklenicka – Brett Lernout
Xavier Ouellet – Cale Fleury
David Schlemko – Maxim Lamarche
Charlie Lindgren
Connor LaCouvee
The game didn’t start the way Laval would’ve liked as Lindgren had an anti-Mario Lemieux moment. With offensive zone pressure, Peter Stoykewych bumped the puck to the left point for Cameron Schilling who fired a wrist shot at the net. Lindgren tried to swat the puck away with his blocker, but it instead ricocheted off and behind him. That was the first shot of the game.
Manitoba got another goal as a poor defensive coverage gave Alexis D’Aoust a clear window to score with both Schlemko and Lamarche caught down low. The game can’t solely go on those two as Martineau lost his man to the slot as well.
Then tensions started to rise. The game had a total of 50 penalty minutes between the two clubs. Pezzetta and Waked wound up having to drop the gloves with Skyler McKenzie. That scrum included a third man in infraction to Jimmy Oligny granted Laval a four-minute powerplay which hasn’t been as effective as their penalty kill.
Frustrations continued to pile on with a pair of Laval goals by Froese and Schlemko got waived off. Froese’s came at the end of the first nullified by a quick whistle from the ref while the same thing happened to Schlemko in the third after he made a nifty move to get around the Moose defencemen and fire a backhand shot on goaltender Eric Comrie. The first shot was stopped, but Schlemko followed up with it watching it trickle into the net, but the whistle counteracted all of it.
Lindgren would get a shining moment for himself at the beginning of the third stopping Jansen Harkins on the breakaway. The first of the final frame had Laval play hard for a goal, but they couldn’t manage to get a single goal past Comrie. Ouellet and Belzile would end up with the best chances in the game both finding the goalpost instead.
Game 39: 6-5 SOW over Manitoba Moose
Laval were in need of a response after a frustrating game at Bell MTS Place. Bouchard made very minor changes to the lineup slotting Alex Kile in for Martineau and having last year’s goaltending tandem come together again with Michael McNiven backing up Lindgren.
Daniel Audette – Jake Evans – Byron Froese
Nikita Jevpalovs – Lukas Vejdemo – Alexandre Grenier
Alex Belzile – Alex Kile – Alexandre Alain
Michael Pezzetta – Jake Verbeek – Antoine Waked
Daniel Sklenicka – Brett Lernout
Xavier Ouellet – Cale Fleury
David Schlemko – Maxim Lamarche
Charlie Lindgren
Michael McNiven
The Rocket gave up the first goal of the night 1:42 into the night. The players on the ice found themselves watching the puck allowing Logan Shaw to gain most of the attention. Brent Pedersen skated across to the slot and received the pass from behind the net beating Lindgren up high to make it 1-0.
It seemed like history would repeat itself until the team struck on the powerplay. Oligny went to the box for interference resulting in Belzile tying the game with a funny goal for his eighth of the season. Ouellet’s wrist shot from the point hit Belzile and then bounced off Stoykewych’s face and in. Given how well Comrie played on Thursday, it would’ve taken a funny one to get through and well, there you go.
The ping pong ball went the other way scoring on the man advantage after Verbeek took a two-minute slashing call. A minute and a half later, JC Lipon sat for roughing which got Audette on the board. Belzile found Evans on the right wall sending the perfect cross-ice pass to Audette for the easy tap in at the 19:46 mark of the first period.
Laval would then take their scoring to the penalty kill in the second. Vejdemo took off down the ice and made a set of good moves to beat Comrie but was still blocked by his stick. An unbelievable save for the Moose goaltender though mitigated by Waked who was there to pot the rebound in. 3-2 Rocket.
Manitoba wouldn’t back down though scoring another two goals to close out the second. The first came again on the powerplay via Michael Spacek and Logan Stanley in the final three minutes after a point shot got by Lindgren to give the Moose the lead heading into the final period.
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And guess what happened at the start? If your answer was ‘a goal’, then you are correct. Audette chose to mount a sniper scope on his stick after receiving the puck from Ouellet to tie the game up at four. Laval then continued to press with Jevpalos beating Comrie high off a faceoff win. But as this game showed us, no lead is safe.
The Rocket looked as if they were prepared to win this game 5-4 until Marko Dano tied it with less than four minutes to go. There wouldn’t be any more penalties or scoring left forcing the night to go overtime.
Manitoba had a clear opportunity to end it in the final minute. Froese skated with the puck along the left wall getting past the Moose defender, but a sliding body prevented a shot or a secondary opportunity for Evans. Then the danger sunk in as the Shaw and Spacek skated the other way with only Lernout back to defend it.
Spacek fed Shaw for the onetime, but Lindgren was there to stop it. The clock eventually hit zero, and it was time for the shootout. Audette was the only player to score starting in fast and then slowing down closer to the net beating Comrie high. It was then up to Lindgren to complete the stop on Harkins giving him his first win of 2019.
Audette lead the team with two goals and three assists while Lindgren stopped 29 of 34 shots for a .853 save percentage.
Next. Fixing the Powerplay. dark
The Laval Rocket are back on the ice Wednesday against Belleville leading to back-to-back Friday-Saturday games against Cleaveland. According to the pattern, Laval should lose, but hopefully they manage to break out of it and string some wins together.