Laval ended their three-game home stand on Saturday by hosting Toronto in front of a sellout crowd of 10,068 at Place Bell. There was one point separating the two in the standings, with the Marlies having three games in hand. Toronto has won three of the five games against Laval this season. 

Joel Bouchard was forced into making several changes to the lineup. Evan McEneny and Joseph Blandisi didn’t finish the game against the Moose due to injury and Karl Alzner was recalled by the Canadiens. 

Nathanael Halbert, Ryan Culkin, and Antoine Waked received the call to replace them. Halbert playing his second game since signing his professional tryout contract on Wednesday, Culkin playing his first game since being recalled from the ECHL, and Waked returning after being a healthy scratch the last two games. 

Cayden Primeau got the start for a second straight day. On Friday, he made 24 saves in the win against the Moose. 

There was no scoring in the opening period, with the home team outshooting their opponents. Both goalies made several key saves to prevent the puck from going into the net. 

Gustav Olofsson had an outstanding shift during Toronto’s first power play opportunity, blocking three shots and clearing the puck out of the zone to allow the second unit to hit the ice. 

Laval opened the scoring 1:55 into the second period as Lukas Vejdemo’s pass behind the net went to Cale Fleury at the blue line and he setup Alexandre Alain for a one-timer goal. It was Alain’s 10th goal of the season and his first in 16 games.

It took Toronto 50 seconds to tie the game as Hudson Elynuik passed the puck to Matt Read that was all alone in front of Primeau.

The Marlies nearly took a two-goal lead with 11:05 remaining as Primeau made a spectacular glove save against Scott Pooley as he went from right to left in his crease. 

Yannick Veilleux had Laval’s most dangerous scoring opportunity of the period as he was setup on a breakaway by Vejdemo, however Michael Hutchinson made the stop. 

Laval took the lead 5:03 into the third period on a power play when Laurent Dauphin picked up the rebound of his own shot and passed it to Veilleux who beat Hutchison glove side with a one-timer. It was the Rocket’s first power play goal in five games. 

The Rocket did a good job shutting down their opponents for the rest of the period, including a penalty kill with 4:32 remaining and Marlies attacking with the extra player for the last 2:30 of the game. 

Laval heads on the road for a five game road trip starting in Belleville on Wednesday at 7:00pm eastern time. Listen to full audio of player and coach post-game interviews in the player below.