Friday night brought the Laval Rocket back to the home ice of the Cleveland Monsters for their eighth and final matchup of the season. The Rocket had put on a dominating display the previous night, for a 5-2 victory over the Monsters, and were looking to duplicate that effort on this night.

The only change to the lineup came in goal as Michael McNiven got the start, in place of Cayden Primeau. Cale Fleury remained out of the lineup due to injury.

Much like Thursday night, the teams opened the game with 20 minutes of relatively uneventful hockey – and no scoring. Penalties were plentiful, however, with Laval finding themselves shorthanded three times and Cleveland twice.

Unfortunate news for Laval in the second period, as it was announced that Jesperi Kotkaniemi would not return to the game after taking a hard hit along the boards in the opening frame.

Despite that, the Rocket rallied and took a quick 2-0 lead thanks to a goal tipped in by Joe Cox off of Laurent Dauphin‘s centering pass and a one-timer by Yannick Veilleux from the circle.

But as in the previous night’s game, the Rocket gave up a late period goal with just seconds left before the buzzer, allowing Cleveland to make it a one-goal game heading into the third.

Cleveland came on hard in the final frame, outshooting the Rocket 14-7, but it was Laval finding the back of the net. Jacob Lucchini scored twice in the period and Cox tallied another goal, this time on the power play, to give the Rocket a total of 10 goals against the Monsters in both games this weekend.

The Rocket are now tied for fourth place in the division with the Binghamton Devils, who they’ll face at Place Bell twice next weekend. But first the Quebec team must face off against the foreboding Belleville Senators on Wednesday night.