FINAL | North Division Semifinal – Game 3 | Thursday, May 12, 2022

Laval leads best-of-five series 2-1

Rocket Lineup

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

Gabriel Bourque – Nate Schnarr – Joel Teasdale

Brandon Gignac – Cedric Paquette – Jesse Ylonen

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

With the North Division semifinal tied at one win apiece between the Syracuse Crunch and Laval Rocket, the scenery changed for the third game of the series when the teams met on Quebec ice at Place Bell Thursday night. Laval came up with a big road win on Saturday night, giving them good momentum to bring home.

Now with home-ice advantage to close out the best-of-five series, the Rocket would look to use the energy from their own crowd for the first time in the playoffs to try to take the series in four games.

Jean-Francois Houle returned to Cayden Primeau as his starter in net, and Max Lagace returned to the Syracuse net for the third time in the series.

First Period

The Rocket were gifted an early power play, just over a minute into the game, when the Crunch were found guilty of a high-sticking penalty. Danick Martel took full advantage and ripped the puck past Max Lagace from the circle, after a clean cross-ice pass from Sami Niku.

The two teams exchanged trips to the penalty boxes numerous times in the frame, with the Crunch giving Laval four man-advantage chances, but Martel’s goal was the only scoring play of the period.

Second Period

Third Period

Laval’s captain, Xavier Ouellet, celebrated scoring a go-ahead goal in the first half of the third period, but the officials immediately waived it off as no-goal due to contact with the goaltender in the crease. The officials upheld that decision, and Rocket fans were so displeased that a handful of beer cans were thrown onto the ice in protest.

That seemed to ignite some emotion in Syracuse, as they began to pour on the pressure and pepper Primeau with shots left and right. Another big scrum erupted a few minutes later to put the Rocket on the power play for the seventh time tonight. Cedric Paquette deflected Jean-Sebastien Dea‘s point shot on the man-advantage to finally restore Laval’s lead.

Two empty-net goals, by Dea and Louie Belpedio, helped to secure Laval’s first-ever home playoff win in franchise history and the fans rewarded them with an outstanding ovation.

What’s Next?

With the Rocket now leading the series 2-1, the Crunch face elimination on Saturday afternoon for the fourth game of the series. Can Laval come up with a third consecutive win and advance to the Division Final?

Be sure to scroll down to hear audio from post-game interviews with Ouellet, Dea, Paquette, and head coach Houle, conducted by our AHL Report team and other members of the media.

Plus / Minus

▲ Cedric Paquette, Xavier Ouellet, Louie Belpedio, Jean-Sebastien Dea

▼ Rafael Harvey-Pinard, Alex Belzile, Joel Teasdale