Last night at Place Bell in Laval, the Montreal Canadiens’ farm team, the Laval Rocket, took a 2-1 lead in its best-of-five series against the Buffalo Sabres’ farm team, the Rochester Americans. The locals scored on their first shot but were dominated most of the game. The result could have been very different if it had not been for Cayden Primeau’s sensational outing.

For a second game in a row, Pascal Vincent’s men struggled to get shots to Devon Levi’s net, barely reaching the 20-shot mark, a slight improvement from their 19-shot effort in game two. Thankfully for the Rocket, they could make their shots count and were opportunistic enough to get four pucks by the Americans’ goaltender, who hasn’t been his best self since the start of the third round. He even surrendered the first goal on the first shot of the game, just 15 seconds in, when Luke Tuch got the best of him with assists from David Reinbacher and Lucas Condotta.

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Neither had Primeau, but that changed last night. The netminder faced 33 shots and stopped them all but one. Better yet, he kept his team in the game as Rochester kept pummeling him with pucks. The visitors’ lone goal came early in the third frame when Lukas Rousek finally solved the Rocket’s netminder.

It could have been the turning point in the game, but Laval needed less than three minutes to regain the lead when Florian Xhekaj finally scored his first of the playoffs. The rugged forward, who scored 24 goals in the regular season, was still looking to open his account after six playoff games, and the goal must have come as a relief for the youngster.

Just over a minute later, Laurent Dauphin, fresh off signing a two-year extension with the team, scored his fifth of the playoffs to give the Rocket a two-goal cushion. The veteran has a seven-game point streak (five goals and four assists). Joshua Roy completed the score four minutes later when the Amerks could not clear the front of their net. It was Roy’s first tally of the postseason as well.

Even though they were dominated, each of the Rocket’s four lines managed to find the back of the net, which signifies a well-balanced attack. Game four of the series will take place on Friday night in Laval, and one has to wonder if Vincent will keep alternating his goaltenders after Primeau’s impressive display.

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