The Laval Rocket visited the Belleville Senators on Friday night for their penultimate game of the season. Laval needed to win the game in regulation time to stay in the playoff picture.

After being dominated in terms of shots in the first period, it was Mitchell Stephens who opened the scoring.

Then it was Lias Andersson’s turn to score to give Laval a two-goal lead.

Despite this Rocket effort, the team let the Senators score two unanswered goals, forcing Jean-François Houle to pull his goalie late in the game. Igor Sokolov put an end to the Rocket’s hopes by scoring in the empty net to give his team a 3-2 victory.

The Rocket’s mission was thus a failure.

Amid all this action, let’s not forget that this was Luke Tuch’s first professional game. Let’s just say he impressed.

Let’s just say that Brandon Gignac’s absence hasn’t helped the Rocket in their playoff race, as he was the team’s top scorer this season with 55 points.

In other words, there will be no playoff hockey in either Montreal or Laval this season.

More details to follow.

In brief

– The Salt Lake City team seems to have settled in already.

– A big statement.

– They need to be paid for quickly in the long term.

– An excellent price.

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