AHL: The Laval Rocket defeated the Manitoba Moose, 5-2

There's nothing wrong with letting the best people guide you, but when everyone is involved, it makes things a lot easier.

The Laval Rocket followed that recipe and easily beat the Manitoba Moose 5-2 on Friday night at Place Belle.

Perfection is not of this world, but the Montreal Canadiens farm club has come close to it several times over the past month. He has at least a point in his sixth straight game (5-0-1) and has a 9-2-2 record in his last 13 games.

On Friday, defenseman Toby Beeson led the charge with a tough check and the Rocket scored twice in 68 seconds to force the Moose, who have lost their last five games, to play catch-up hockey.

“It was very important to achieve these first two goals,” said Jean-François Holly, the national team’s coach. When you host a struggling team like this, you have to come out with poise and you have to keep applying that pressure. This is what we did. Things were not perfect, we need to reduce the number of trades, but overall, our game is much better than it was three months ago. »

Lias Andersson, who had a mention, Jan Mysak, Emil Heineman, Logan Mailloux and Philippe Maillet on touched the screen for the Rocket (14-14-6), but this was a major affair pendant of this Meeting.

Despite injuries and call-ups to the NHL, each player seems to be giving it their all lately and the results are as follows.

“We've played a lot of good games lately and that reflects the team we have. We're very talented and when we work we see that we can have success against anyone. It's just us repeating that night after night,” said forward Joshua Roy, who was called up by the Canadian less than a year later. Last siren: “Everyone participated this evening and that is encouraging for the upcoming matches.”

The missile's successes also come thanks to the brilliance of its goalkeepers. Jacob Dubis had his say in the first minutes against the Moose and concluded the encounter with 30 saves. He has only suffered two losses in his last nine starts.

The defense came to Doubis's aid in the third period and gave the visitors almost nothing. Maillox, in particular, wanted to redeem himself after performing below expectations on Wednesday. He succeeded in his mission.

We talked about it with the coaches, not to play two games in a row like this. We knew we had to be better and it worked well tonight. “We knew what we had to do to maintain the lead in the third period and we did it,” said Maillox, who will represent the Rocket in the American Hockey League All-Star Game.

CJ Soos and Brad Lambert responded to the power play for the Moose (12-19-0). Oskari Salminen surrendered five hits on 36 shots.

The two teams will face each other on Saturday afternoon, once again at Bell Arena.

The attack strikes early

The least we can say is that the match had a very bad start. Both teams came close to opening the score, until the Rockets did so with 4:08 to play.

Mylox received the puck at that point and his shot snaked through traffic to beat Salminen. Just over a minute later, another shot from the point, this one by William Trudeau, was blocked by Misak to give Laval a two-goal lead.

The missile's numerical advantage had been going well for a few weeks, and was starting to work itself out before the end of the first period. Arber Xhekaj was patient and passed the puck to his right to Heineman who fired a precise shot into the top corner.

The home team maintained its rhythm in the second half, but without any change. His lack of discipline also opened the door for Moose, who didn't ask for much.

The visitors moved into enemy territory due to their numerical superiority, but Dobis saved two good opportunities. But the young goalkeeper could do nothing when the ball slowly slid behind him and Sos pushed it beyond the red line.

The Moose calmed the excitement of the Rocket fans just under five minutes later, again with another player. Lambert used his pace to get into the opposition box and fool Doubis' alertness with an excellent wrist shot.

“There was a bit of indiscipline and I think those were the only moments they had chances,” Holly said.

The Winnipeg Jets farm club's celebrations were short-lived, because just 20 seconds later, Brandon Gignac did everything he could to pave the way for Anderson, who scored his ninth goal of the season.

The Rockets were clinical lately to protect their lead and added a goal to close the books. Xavier Simoneau braked in Moose territory and spotted Maillet who was arriving at full speed. The veteran came to the slot and got the strings moving with a quick wrist shot.