Laval Rocket/Montreal Canadiens forward Florian Xhekaj (63) skates during warm-up before a game against the Ottawa Senators at Bell Centre in Montreal, QC. (Source: David Kirouac-Imagn Images)The Laval Rocket beat the Toronto Marlies 3-1 in Game One of the North Division Semifinals of the 2026 Calder Cup Playoffs.
Both teams were at a stalemate for the first two periods: Toronto went 0-for-2 in the man-advantage in the first period despite having a 5v3 advantage for about 53 seconds. Rocket's forward Florian Xhekaj was only able to score after an erroneous giveaway in the left faceoff zone by Marlies' Michael Pezzetta, setting up a point-blank shot on the Marlies' goal to which goalie Dennis Hildeby stood no chance of defending.
In the second period, Laval and Toronto exchanged nine shots each while going a combined 0-for-3 on the power play (0-for-2 for Rocket, 0-for-1 for Marlies), maintaining the stalemate.
It was in the third period where Laval took total control, shutting out Toronto in shots for the first 13:53 of the frame while putting up six of their own. The fourth one resulted in the Rocket's second goal after yet another giveaway, this time by Toronto's Easton Cowan to Laval forward Sean Farrell in the Marlies' zone who passed to Joshua Roy who pocketed the game-winning goal, going up 2-0.
Toronto would not back down and get a goal back late in the frame after the puck deflected and took a funny hop off forward Cedric Pare's stick into the goal following a shot by forward Luke Haymes, cutting the lead to 2-1.
That would be as close as the Marlies would get and an empty-netter by Laval's Samuel Blais would seal the game win for the Rocket.
Laval goalie Kaapo Kahkonen made 20 saves off 21 shots to register a save percentage of 0.952 in the win.
Marlies goalie Hildeby made 23 saves off 25 shots for a save percentage of 0.920.