Down 2-0 in their playoff series against the Florida Panthers’ farm team, the Charlotte Checkers, the Montreal Canadiens’ farm team, the Laval Rocket, desperately needed a win. After losing the first two games 5-1 and 5-2 at home, Pascal Vincent’s men were hoping to turn over a new leaf on the road, but it didn’t happen.
After alternating his goaltenders in the last two rounds, Vincent had given the net to Cayden Primeau in the first two games, and while he didn’t exactly do well, surrendering eight goals on 49 shots for a .837 save percentage, the bench boss wanted to give him a chance to bounce back. The netminder didn’t rise to the occasion and was pulled for a second game in a row, after giving up four goals on 16 shots (.750 SV). There were only 25 minutes played when Jacob Fowler was sent in.
Since Laurent Dauphin wasn’t playing, Luke Tuch reintegrated the lineup and skated in just his seventh game of the playoffs. As a result of Dauphin’s absence, Vincent also had to change his lines, and Oliver Kapanen was elevated to the role of first-line center skating alongside Alex Barre-Boulet and Joshua Roy.
The Rocket didn’t start the game poorly; they kept possession of the puck in Charlotte’s zone early on. However, the Checkers were still the only team to score in the first frame, just before the halfway mark. After 20 minutes, the locals were leading 1-0 and had nine shots to the Rocket’s seven. It felt like Laval was still in the game.
That feeling quickly went away in the second period when John Leonard scored 53 seconds after puck drop. The play was deep in the Checkers' zone when the puck was sent toward the Rocket’s territory, and Primeau wasn’t sure if the puck was going to go behind his net for an icing. He elected not to touch the puck, hoping a faceoff at the other end would follow, but instead, the puck hit the post of the net, and he watched it bounce back in front of the net, setting Leonard up perfectly.
Vincent men seemed to be in a panic after that and just over a minute later, the five Rocket players were close around their net, all mesmerized by the puck carrier with no-one keeping an eye on their men, making it insanely easy for Riley Bezeau to get in space and score his second of the game.
Will Lockwood added a fourth goal for the Checkers just gone the five-minute mark, and that was a wrap on Primeau’s evening. While he didn’t play well and his hesitation on the second goal was probably the tipping point in the game, he wasn’t the sole culprit in the loss. The Rocket looks like a completely different team in this series; they have no answer for the Checkers and are being completely dominated.
Laval scored a single goal in the game, through Jared Davidson on the power play, but it was too little, too late. Fowler gave up a single goal on the 13 shots he faced, and it wasn’t a great one either; the puck went through him, just under his arm. Still, he stopped everything else and looked much more solid than Primeau did. Final score 5-1 Charlotte. So far, Laval has been outscored 15-4 in three games.
Speaking to the media post-game, Vincent confirmed that Fowler would get the start on Tuesday night. Now down 3-0 in the series, the rookie netminder will be hoping to keep Laval's slim hopes of making the final alive.
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