Jean-Sébastien Dea had been going through an uncharacteristic dry spell going into Game 4.
Dea had finished second on the Rocket with 52 points (including a team-leading 26 goals) in 70 regular-season games, and had seven points in eight games over Laval’s first two playoff series. But the Thunderbirds had kept him without a point in the first three games of the Eastern Conference Finals.
“You never come to work wanting to play bad,” Dea said. “I try to help the team as much as possible, but sometimes you have bad days at work. We’re all humans. But at the end of the day it’s how you respond and move forward.”
That points shortage changed in Game 4.
Dea’s power-play goal in the final second of the first period keyed Laval’s comeback from a 2-0 hole, and he led a highly disruptive line with Danick Martel and Alex Belzile that created havoc for Springfield. The line combined for 21 of Laval’s 51 shots on goal, 11 of them coming from Dea.
Dea said that head coach J-F Houle challenged him to step up.
“I know as a player that I could give a little bit more,” Dea said. “It’s good that he’s able to challenge me, and I love that he’s able to tell me the truth and give me a little boost to produce and help the team.
“I think I answered pretty good tonight.”
The Heat are sticking around.
“I think [Game 4] shows our relentlessness there,” said Glenn Gawdin, whose game-tying and game-winning goals gave Stockton a 4-3 overtime victory last night and extended their run in the Western Conference Finals.
Before Gawdin’s winning goal on an overtime power play, Stockton had been scoreless in its past 23 attempts, last scoring with the man advantage in Game 3 of the Pacific Division Finals against the Colorado Eagles. But the Heat had reason enough to remain optimistic.
“That was big for us, and everybody on the ice there did something to help that one go in,” Gawdin said. “I think just sticking with our systems, not overcomplicating things… We had a good power play all year.”
Despite going into Game 4 facing elimination and still in a difficult predicament with the Wolves holding a 3-1 series lead, Gawdin said that the Heat have remained positive, “keeping that belief that we can still find a way out of this.”
Gawdin continued, “It starts with one, and we got that, so now our focus shifts to [Game 5]. It’s a new day, and we’ve just got to have a better game. We know they’re going to have another push. We’ve got to be ready.”
The process, if not the result, left Springfield head coach Drew Bannister relatively nonplussed following last night’s Game 4 loss in Laval.
Bannister’s Thunderbirds had checked off several of his stated goals. They grabbed the opening goal for the first time in the series, and they peppered Cayden Primeau with 16 shots in the game’s opening 10 minutes.
Scoring first has been a key Bannister talking point. They even tacked on a second goal 3:41 later to take a 2-0 lead.
“I thought we played a really good road game,” Bannister said. “I’m not concerned at all. We’ll just continue to do what we do. We’ll get back here and be ready to play.”
But Bannister will continue to stress the need to wear down the Rocket defensively, as well as disrupting Primeau.
“Our strengths [are] our forecheck and our cycle game,” Bannister said, “and when we played that way, it made it difficult on them. I think there were times we kind of let them off the hook. We didn’t create enough chaos around that blue paint.
“Just be more patient with the puck and play to our strengths.”
― Patrick Williams
