The Rocket Beat The Americans In OT

The star for Laval on Friday was backup goaltender Kaapo Kahkonen, who got the start over Jacob Fowler for the game as he made 27 saves on 29 shots throughout the night. He got the start despite many, including myself, thinking it would be Jacob Fowler, considering he was expected to play two of this weekend’s three games as the team’s starting netminder. However, the veteran Kahkonen proved to be the right choice, as he played a big role in helping the Rocket get back to their winning ways.

On Saturday it was announced that Jacob Fowler is sick and won’t play against the Utica Comets tonight either, which explains why that decision was made on Friday. Kahkonen will start again on Saturday night, while Hunter Jones has been called up to be his backup tonight. We will see on Sunday if Fowler will be good to go.

The Rocket would strike first thanks to defenseman Tobie Paquette-Bisson getting his 2nd goal of the season. His goal came from a beautiful cross-ice pass from Owen Beck before Paquette-Bisson sniped it past Devon Levi to give the Rocket a 1-0 lead at the 13:05 mark of the opening period.

It would take just a few minutes for the Americans to respond and tie the game up at 1 on the power play. Carson Meyers would beat Kahkonen with a seeing-eye shot from the point to even things up for the Americans.

The Rocket would not allow things to go into the first intermission tied up, as Luke Tuch would get on the board. Tuch would jump on a rebound from a Tyler Thorpe point shot and would get a prime chance, which was stopped at first by Levi. However, Tuch would get the puck again along the goal line and bounce the puck off Levi and in for the Rocket to regain the lead before the end of the first period.

During the middle frame there were no goals that counted, as the only time a goaltender was beaten was when Florian Xhekaj knocked the puck out of the air with his glove and it went into the net. It was a clear no-goal, as not only was it in with the glove, but it was above the crossbar too. Nobody argued that the goal should have counted, but the play led to Xhekaj getting into a wrestling match with Americans defenseman Mason Geertsen after the stoppage. Both players would get 2 minutes each for roughing on the play.

While the Rocket dominated the shots 21-10 during the period, they weren’t able to solve Levi, who was standing on his head throughout the frame. He even made a few huge saves on odd-man rushes that could have surely led to an insurance goal for the Rocket. Although Levi was very busy for the Americans, we shouldn’t discount Kahkonen’s work in that frame, who also had a big period where he made a few big saves that allowed the Rocket to maintain their 2-1 lead through 40 minutes of play.

Thanks to Levi’s 2nd-period brilliance, the Americans were able to tie the game in the 3rd period. The goal was scored by forward Isak Rosen, who got a cross-ice pass along the half-wall, where he blasted the puck past Kahkonen to make it a 2-2 game.

After that goal, the Americans had the best chance in regulation to take a 3-2 lead, but Kahkonen shut down a wraparound that helped force overtime.

In the extra frame, defenseman Marc Del Gaizo would pick up a puck from Kahkonen on a dump-in and then go end-to-end before he sniped a wrister blocker side top corner on Levi to give the Rocket the victory.

The Rocket star players may not have done much, but thanks to Kahkonen and the team’s depth, they were able to secure a victory as they move forward to play the next two days in Utica to take on the Comets. The game on Saturday starts at 6:00 pm ET, and you can catch the game on FloTV.