Rocket 3 – Crunch 2 | Primeau’s smile

(Syracuse, NY) On paper, it’s just a win. In reality, it is much more than that.

Simon Olivier Lorange
The Press

After allowing the Laval Rocket to defeat the Syracuse Crunch by a score of 3-2 on Saturday, Cayden Primeau seemed unable to stop smiling.

Answering questions from journalists dispatched to the Upstate Medical University Arena (!), the goalkeeper displayed his usual phlegm. Short answers, never to talk about him, always to pay tribute to his teammates. But that smirk, he wasn’t lying.

This victory is of course infinitely important for the Rocket. In a short three-of-five series, going home tied at 1-1 is mission accomplished. It is even more so for Primeau. Because she confirms that he is indeed back.

The storm blew so hard this season at the Canadian that it took the young man with it. Naturally so calm in front of his net, Primeau was no longer a shadow of himself. Of the nine starts entrusted to him, from November to February, he finished the game only four times. His confidence was shattered. But we kept him in Montreal, for lack of other options.

When the Habs finally sent him back to Laval, he breathed a sigh of relief. “I was no longer the same goalkeeper,” he explained in February. In Laval, he wanted to “build” his game. Rebuild it, we should say.

And that’s what he did. However, his statistics in the second half of the season were not flamboyant. An 8-6-2 record. Just over three goals allowed per game. At the end of the season, he went to warm up the end of the bench again in Montreal, which inevitably broke his rhythm.

big star

It was therefore no surprise that veteran Kevin Poulin was given the net for the first game of the series on Friday night. He was the one who had stood guard for most of the campaign. And as coach Jean-François Houle explained, we favored victory over development – ​​Poulin, 30, has an American League contract only, while Primeau, 22, is a prospect for the Canadiens.

As the Rocket lost at the curtain raiser and the second game was played the next day, Houle surprised no one by turning to Primeau. His guardian agreed with him.

With an Olympian calm, despite a few hasty gestures in the first half of the game, Primeau was the big star of his team, blocking 37 pucks. He certainly would have preferred to look better on the Crunch’s second goal, which tied the game at 2-2. But the way he had pulled his team out of trouble, notably thanks to an almost miraculous save with the pad at the end of the second period and by taking out the mitt against Cole Koepke, who had escaped in the third, no one can blame him. will be strict.

“He was really confident and he played a great game. I’m happy for him,” added forward Gabriel Bourque.

Primeau, as we have said, does not like to pour out his own successes. He bragged about his teammates blocking shots and talked about Brandon Gignac’s “huge” goal late in the game.

His smile was still seen when a journalist pointed out that the battle against Syracuse would now continue in Laval and that Place Bell would experience its playoff baptism next Thursday, in the Rocket’s fifth year of existence.

“The fans supported us all season when they could,” he recalled. We feel their energy, we feed on it. Giving them a playoff game will be amazing. »

There is no guarantee that Primeau will be the masked man in action that evening. But in the grand scheme of things, that doesn’t matter. His most important victory of the season, he has already won.

In short

Jesse Ylönen scored the Rocket’s first goal with an absolutely blistering shot. Canadian fans had a taste of it during the few games he played this season with the big club, but the shot he served to goalkeeper Maxime Lagacé from the right face-off circle in the first period , was great art. An NHL shot, no doubt about it. And a good one.

Brandon Gignac played the heroes with less than two minutes to go, breaking the tie 2-2. The native of Repentigny was forgotten behind the local defense and, after receiving a puck sent by Ylönen, he took it twice to thwart Lagacé with a backhand shot. “He’s been scoring big goals for a couple of weeks,” noted Jean-François Houle. It’s a very important goal, I hope it will give him confidence. “At first, I was afraid that he would stop her! laughed the author of the winning goal. After the return, I had to go to the skylight. I am really happy ! »

The series is only two games old, but the level of intensity is already very, very high. On Saturday, hard-hitting checks were selling out a dime a dozen. A sequence early in the third period was a perfect illustration of this, as Devante Smith-Pelly of the Rocket hit Frank Hora hard, seconds after Daniel Walcott of the Crunch had done the same at the place of Nate Schnarr. “All season, Syracuse gave us playoff hockey,” Cayden Primeau said. It’s that kind of team. It’s fun! »