Sitting just six points out of the final Eastern Conference playoff spot, the Laval Rocket were suddenly one of the AHL’s most stubborn opponents. Five straight games had gone outside of regulation, and despite a cobbled-together forward group, Joël Bouchard had the Rocket playing their best hockey of the year.
Against Springfield last week, a strong game from Michael McNiven and Cale Fleury set the stage for Xavier Ouellet to win the game on a beautiful end-to-end rush. Wednesday night saw them face one of the few teams trailing them in the standings for once; the prototypical “trap game.