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Laval ended the month of October on the road in Calgary for a pair of games.  The two teams don’t play each other often and evidently, they still don’t like each other very much as both games were chippy.  A pair of shorthanded markers in the second game helped earn the Rocket a split in the miniseries.

The Week That Was

Oct. 29: Wranglers 4, Rocket 2 – Laval came flying out of the gates in this one, peppering Arseni Sergeev with 21 shots in the opening period.  None of them went in, however, and a last-minute goal had the Rocket trailing.  Down two in the third, Laval got back to even with goals from Luke Mittelstadt and Xavier Simoneau but they weren’t able to maintain the tie for long, with Alex Nylander scoring the winner just 1:04 after Simoneau’s tying goal to take the opening game.

Oct. 31: Rocket 2, Wranglers 1 – This was a combination of a good defensive game from Laval and a poor one from Calgary.  And even then, it was far from an easy game.  After Nylander opened the scoring in the second, Jared Davidson potted his first goal of the season shorthanded to tie the game.  Simoneau added another shorthanded marker in the third to give Kevin Mandolese his third win in as many starts despite only making 10 saves.

StatPack

Skaters:

Goalies:

Team Leaders:

Goals: Sasha Pastujov (6)
Assists: Dauphin/Mittelstadt (11)
Points: Luke Mittelstadt (16)
+/-: Maksymilian Szuber (+8)
PIMS: Braden Hache (36)
Shots: Sasha Pastujov (38)

News and Notes

– Vincent Arseneau returned to the lineup after missing nearly four weeks due to injury.

– Reilly Walsh is one goal shy of matching his output from his last AHL season back in 2024-25 when he had six goals in 70 games with Ontario.

– Jared Davidson’s goal was his first in 22 games (including last year’s playoffs). 

Last Game’s Lines:

Pastujov – Belzile – Mesar
Berard – Dauphin – Nadeau
Simoneau – Bentley – Thorpe
Arseneau – McKown – Davidson

Mittelstadt – Reinbacher
Hache – Walsh
Szuber – Samson

The Week Ahead

Wednesday vs Lehigh Valley: The Phantoms aren’t off to a great start to the season but they’re one of the younger teams in the league and were hit with some frequent recalls to Philadelphia thanks to injuries.  Now that some of the Flyers have returned, Lehigh Valley’s lineup is as strong as it has been for a while.  Jacob Gaucher is off to a hot start to his season while Jett Luchanko sits third on the team in points in his first full professional season.

Friday/Saturday vs Cleveland – A rare team with more penalty minutes than the Rocket, the Monsters are off to a good start with six wins in their first ten games.  After being acquired as part of the Kirill Marchenko deal, veteran Steven Lorentz already has seven goals on the season while prospect Luca Pinelli is averaging a point per game out of the gate.  Former Laval winger Luke Tuch has three goals and an assist in his first season with Cleveland.

Final Thought

Minor league signings on the opening day of free agency tend not to draw much attention, even if Montreal hasn’t done much signing-wise on July 1st.  The Laval signings still tend to fly under the radar.

One of those pickups was Braden Hache.  After being non-tendered by San Jose, he signed a deal with the Rocket on the opening day of free agency but not many had him being a regular.  He’s someone I was familiar with from his time in junior and I had him pegged as a third-pairing player. 

But Hache has been more than that.  Most nights, he has lined up on the second pairing and is being tasked with being one of the more physical players on the blueline, taking some pressure off Owen Protz who is just getting his feet wet in the pros.  Meanwhile, he’s also logging some big penalty killing shifts and has really solidified his spot in the lineup.

As far as AHL signings go, this is one that is already paying dividends in terms of lengthening Laval’s back end.  And the best news?  He signed a two-year deal, so Hache will be around for a while yet.