The Laval Rocket played the second game of its best-of-five series against the Cleveland Monsters on Friday night and was victorious, just like in the first game. Pascal Vincent’s men were even more dominant in that game, with Jacob Fowler stopping the 20 shots he faced to backstop the Rocket to a 4-0 win.
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The young netminder got his first shutout in his fifth AHL game, his second in the playoffs. If Sean Farrell stole the show up front in game one, different players stepped up in game two. 22-year-old fourth-line winger Jared Davidson scored the game-winning goal just over two minutes into the first frame with an assist from Florian Xhekaj.
Experienced AHLers also made their mark on the game. Alex Barre-Boulet scored a goal just like Lucas Condotta and Gustav Lindstrom, while Laurent Dauphin was named the game's first star with a couple of assists. Barre-Boulet also added an assist on the last goal of the game.
The Rocket has won the first two games of the series in Cleveland and now heads to Laval, only needing one win to move on to the division final. Now that Cayden Primeau is back with the team, he should be taking back over the net, given how well he did with Laval in the regular season. At the first sign of weakness, however, Vincent knows that Fowler is waiting in the wings and ready to step up.
Should the Rocket win a third game, they would face the Rochester Americans in the division final. In the other division semi-final, the Amerks swept the Syracuse Crunch in three games.
The Montreal Canadiens' farm team faced the Americans seven times this season and won five of the seven duels. Laval still has a long way to go before reaching the Calder Cup final, but it’s the logical objective after winning the regular season championship.
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