Thursday, May 12, 2022. 9:47 PM
(Update : Thursday, 12 May 2022. 23:20)
LAVAL – A large pre-game gathering, fans who aren’t afraid of ridicule, an arena that fills up faster than the “comments” section under an article about the Canadiens. There was a little something different in the air around Place Bell on Thursday night.
We had confirmation of this when the game between the Laval Rocket and the Syracuse Crunch took off shortly after 7 p.m. We were definitely in the playoffs.
It was a first in the young history of the Laval version of the Canadian club-school and its representatives offered a performance worthy of the importance of the meeting. A three-goal surge in the third period gave them a 4-1 win to take a 2-1 lead in a 3-of-5 series that could now come to an end on Saturday.
Paquette makes the Crunch pay in AN
A goal from Cédric Paquette, midway through the last third, ended an evening of futile efforts for the locals, who had capitalized on only one of their six power play advantages before being delivered by the Gaspésien.
A power play whose lack of opportunism could have cost dearly – striker Jean-Sébastien Dea candidly called it a “catastrophe for our unit” after the encounter – ultimately produced two goals in seven deployments for the winners, who closed the books by finding the bottom of an empty net twice at the end of the game.
“Lately we’ve been working on that, our strength of character, not to let adversity get you down. I think we showed strength of character, precisely, we continued to work hard, we did not sit on it. It’s fun to be rewarded when everyone works like that, ”commented Dea, accomplice of the decisive goal and author of the following one.
“We scored two goals [en avantage numérique], two important goals, added coach Jean-François Houle. We also hit two posts. It wasn’t perfect, but we were up against a good team that defended well, their goalkeeper made some good saves. But it ended well tonight. »
Excitement was a danger that awaited the protagonists of all allegiances before this first playoff game in the history of an amphitheater that was expected to be filled to capacity and noisy to perfection. It’s a bit of the trap into which the Crunch fell at the very beginning of the first period. After an exemplary initial presence of the trio pivoted by Gabriel Dumont, Gabriel Fortier slowed down the momentum of the visitors with a penalty in the offensive zone.
Paquette enjoys contributing to Laval
This misconduct was life-saving for the Rocket, who took the opportunity to breathe through his nose and, in the same breath, take the lead. On the power play, Danick Martel inherited a long cross pass from Sami Niku and made it work with a solid one-timer shot.
” You remember me ? “, may have wanted to blow the scorer to Crunch coach Benoît Groulx who, before the start of the series, had insisted that he had “no familiarity with anyone on the other side” even whether he led Martel two years ago.
The way forward was therefore drawn for the Rocket. In case of indiscipline in the opposing camp, drive the point home until nothing sticks out.
The opportunities to do so have been there. The Crunch received three more minor penalties before the end of the first period. Martel hit the post, Dea too. It just wouldn’t come in.
The inevitable happened. At the start of the second period, out of nowhere, a pass from Darren Raddysh sent Remi Elie on a partial breakaway. The Franco-Ontarian didn’t break his bicycle, opting for a slap shot that found the flaw in Cayden Primeau’s technique.
Nothing to give in to panic, at this time, for Laval residents. Halfway through the game, he had allowed just eight shots on target to pass on their goalkeepers. But the lack of opportunism continued to slow them down in the second half of the match, so much so that we began to fear that it would turn out to be the rope with which they were going to hang themselves.
At the end of the middle period, a penalty to “Mr. Crunch”, Daniel Walcott, remained without consequence. In the top of the third, a second effort from Martel prompted another five-man attack that was no more successful.
With 13 minutes to go, the bad luck took another form, that of a goal denied to Xavier Ouellet after a timid passage by Cédric Paquette in the semi-circle of goalkeeper Maxime Lagacé. But the crowd favorites kept their cool.
They finally scored the decisive goal soon after, when Paquette deflected a shot from Dea into the ropes.
Louie Belpedio was the other scorer for the winners.
Primeau hasn’t been as busy as his previous outing at Syracuse and he needed his lucky star on a few occasions, notably on the two posts hit by Alex Barré-Boulet. He nevertheless signed a second consecutive victory with a performance of 22 saves.
Martel kicks off hostilities in Game 3