FINAL | North Division Semifinal – Game 2 | Saturday, May 7, 2022

Best-of-five series tied 1-1

Rocket Lineup

Rafael Harvey-Pinard – Jean-Sebastien Dea – Alex Belzile

Brandon Gignac – Cedric Paquette – Jesse Ylonen

Gabriel Bourque – Nate Schnarr – Joel Teasdale

Danick Martel – Mattias Norlinder (7th defenseman) – Devante Smith-Pelly

Xavier Ouellet – Louie Belpedio

Sami Niku – Tory Dello

Corey Schueneman – Tobie Paquette-Bisson

Cayden Primeau – Kevin Poulin

Olivier Galipeau, Peter Abbandonato, Terrance Amorosa, Nicolas Mattinen, Owen Savory, Cameron Hillis, Gabriel Mollott-Hill, Lucas Condotta, Kevin Roy, Alexandre Fortin, Emil Heineman, Justin Ducharme, Max Kaufman, Jean-Christophe Beaudin

Gianni Fairbrother (undisclosed), Lukas Vejdemo (lower body)

Game Report

Game Report written by Amy Johnson

In a best-of-five playoff series, a single loss is exponentially more dangerous for a team to take. The Rocket, despite scoring three goals and getting some decent goaltending, couldn’t get a win in the first game of their postseason series against the Syracuse Crunch on Friday night. 

That meant for the next matchup, played once again in Syracuse, the Rocket would need to get a win, or else face elimination when the series goes to Quebec for game three.

Jean-Francois Houle elected to switch up his goaltenders and give young Cayden Primeau the first playoff start of his pro career, and Mattias Norlinder also drew into the lineup for his first AHL postseason game.

First Period

This game seemed to pick up right where Friday night’s game left off in the physicality department and the teams wasted no time making sure each other’s presence was known.

Syracuse, however, lit the lamp first just over five minutes into the game when they won an offensive zone faceoff. Ryan Jones blasted the puck from the point and Simon Ryfors redirected it from in close to the crease.

More of the rough stuff continued throughout the period, and boiled over with close to five minutes left in the frame with an all-out scrum behind the net with just about every guy on the ice involved. Just a couple of offsetting roughing minors came out of it, though, and the game continued.

A late power play for Laval paid off when Jesse Ylonen teed up a one-time from the circle that beat Max Lagace cleanly to tie the game at 1-1.

Second Period

The second period brought a relatively measured 20 minutes of hockey to the ice, as the teams seemed to settle in a bit. Tensions still flared occasionally, but nothing like in the opening frame.

Each side played tight hockey, and possession was balanced throughout. Only one puck crossed a goal line in this period, and it was off the stick of Alex Belzile as he intercepted a pass in the offensive zone and backhanded the puck past Lagace.

Third Period

Things got very intense in the latter half of this period when Cedric Paquette caused a turnover at the Laval blue line, allowing Gabriel Fortier to take the puck up the ice. Fortier went down as he got a shot off, Primeau made an initial save, but Paquette didn’t catch a trailing Daniel Walcott who buried the rebound. The game was tied again, now at 2-2.

As the clock ticked down, it looked more and more as if the game might go to extra minutes, but Ylonen made an incredible play at the blue line with less than two minutes in regulation to get the puck back toward the crease. Brandon Gignac managed to get to the puck and restore the Laval lead, which would remain until the final horn.

What’s Next?

Plus / Minus

▲ Jesse Ylonen, Cayden Primeau, Brandon Gignac

▼ Cedric Paquette, Danick Martel