After putting together four wins on their five-game road trip, including two dominant victories over Cleveland last week, the Laval Rocket returned home for the first of three games at Place Bell this week. Their opponent? The North Division leaders: the Belleville Senators.

There was a mix of good news and bad news prior to puck drop, however, as it was announced that Noah Juulsen would finally return to the lineup after missing most of the season due to injury. Also in the positive column was the return of Lukas Vejdemo to Laval after being sent down from Montreal on Tuesday night after a game in which he potted his first NHL goal. The bad news? The Rocket announced that Jesperi Kotkaniemi will miss the remainder of the season as he recovers from the spleen injury he sustained against the Monsters last week.

The opening period was all Laval, right from the opening puck drop, as they looked to put a strong forecheck on Belleville and control the game from the beginning. They managed to outshoot the Senators 14-5 in the frame, and also scored the only goal when Nikita Jevpalovs was alone in front of Filip Gustavsson and deked around him to put the puck over the goal line.

In the middle frame, the home team kept Belleville even farther from Cayden Primeau, allowing only four shots on net in the entire 20 minutes of play. The penalties started to pile up a bit, however, as tensions between the teams started to simmer. Hubert Labrie and Michael Pezzetta dropped the gloves early in the period, with Pezzetta heading to the penalty box trying to pump up the Place Bell crowd.

It seemed as though the teams would head to intermission still locked in a 1-0 game, until Jake Lucchini took a clean pass from Laurent Dauphin in the corner and put the puck past Gustavsson with just 40 seconds left on the clock.

Laval continued their assertive play in the third period, holding the Sens to just six shots on goal in the frame, for a total of just 15 shots against the Rocket in total. Joe Blandisi finished the game off with an empty-netter, and a shutout for Primeau.

With news of the NBA suspending its season after a player tested positive for coronavirus, we now wait to see what the NHL and AHL plan to do in coming days. Laval is scheduled to host the Binghamton Devils on Friday night.