The Syracuse Crunch had the first punch, but Laval had the last and the loudest in a 5-1 loss at Place Bell.
Syracuse’s lone goal came from Sam O’Reilly, who kept rolling with his second straight game on the scoresheet. That early edge didn’t last, and the Crunch finished their final visit to Place Bell this season with their second loss in three meetings against the Rocket.
O’Reilly’s goal came with 34 seconds left in the opening period, and it was a clean touch play off Brendan Furry’s one-timer from the right circle during a delayed penalty. That redirected shot sent Syracuse into the first intermission up 1-0.
From there, Laval took control. The Rocket tied it early in the second period when Filip Mešár found Riley Walsh for a shot from the slot during 4-on-4 play. Later in the period, Luke Mittelstadt kept the puck in at the blue line and moved it to Sasha Pastujov, who buried a power-play one-timer from the right faceoff dot to put Laval ahead 2-1 at 14:13.
The third period turned into Laval’s. Samuel Poulin picked up an assist on Walsh’s second goal at 6:16, stretching the margin further. Brett Berard then forced a turnover that turned into Owen Beck’s empty-net goal at 14:41, and David Reinbacher added the final dagger two minutes later on a breakaway during 4-on-4 play.
Mads Sogaard was busy all night for Syracuse, turning aside 32 of 36 shots. Kaapo Kähkönen had a much lighter workload in net for Laval, stopping 14 of 15.
The Crunch are now 3-4-0-0 on the season and 1-2-0-0 in the six-game series against the Rocket.
Jakob Pelletier also marked a milestone, skating in his 300th professional game.
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