Florian Xhekaj scored a goal and Kaapo Kähkönen made 20 saves as the Laval Rocket beat the Toronto Marlies 3-1 on Wednesday night at Place Bell. The win gives Laval a 1-0 lead in their best-of-five North Division semifinal series.
Joshua Roy scored the eventual game-winning goal and Samuel Blais scored into the empty net for the Rocket.
The Rocket were playing their first game of the playoffs, while the Marlies beat the Rochester Americans 2-1 in their three-game series to advance.
Laval could have had a much different start to the game. Just 5:21 into the first period, they had two players in the penalty box needing to kill a five-on-three for just under a minute. They succeeded and a few minutes later, Xhekaj got them on the board.
A loose puck landed on his stick in the slot, and he made no mistake to get the puck past Dennis Hildeby.
That goal would hold up as the only scoring until the third period. Both teams had chances, but the goaltenders both stood tall.
Despite holding a 1-0 lead, Laval outshot the Marlies 10-3 in the third period, controlling the final frame and not sitting on their lead.
They were rewarded 6:15 into the third when Joshua Roy fired a turn-around shot from the slot past Hildeby to make it a 2-0 game. Sean Farrell and Owen Beck got assists.
Toronto would get on the board on a truly lucky bounce. Luke Haynes threw a shot on net in traffic and it hit off of Cedric Pare (and possibly a Rocket defender as well) before landing behind Kähkönen. The goal set up a tighter final five minutes than Laval would have liked, but it did not cost them in the end.
Samuel Blais iced the game with the empty net goal with 1:27 remaining in the game.
The Rocket now take a 1-0 series lead into Game 2 of the series which will be played on Friday night at Place Bell, which will be a pretty crazy night of hockey in the Montreal area.
Rocket Lineup
Samuel Blais-Laurent Dauphin-Alex Belzile
Sean Farrell-Owen Beck-Joshua Roy
Jared Davidson-Lucas Condotta-Vinzenz Rohrer
Luke Tuch-Florian Xhekaj-Tyler Thorpe
Luke Mittelstadt-David Reinbacher
Tobie Bisson-Josiah Didier
William Trudeau-Marc Del Gaizo
Kaapo Kähkönen
Hunter Shepard
Full Highlights
