(Syracuse) The evening started badly for the Laval Rocket in Syracuse, but it ended very well.
Updated yesterday at 11:10 p.m.
Gabriel Bourque, rather discreet since the start of the series, took advantage of the right moment to score his first goal of this playoff series: in overtime, and in the fifth and last game of the series, just that.
Result: the Rocket eliminates the Crunch in five games, thanks to this 3-2 victory.
“It feels good to score a big goal like that,” said Bourque late in the evening. I’m proud of the guys; in the third, we didn’t give up, it’s a team victory and it’s deserved… On goal, I went back to the bench to make a change, but Danick Martel gave me a great pass …I hit the puck, and it ended up going in. »
This blow of desperation on the part of Bourque therefore comes to propel the Rocket to the next round – the rivals of Rochester or Utica will be the next on the way to the Laval club –, in addition to allowing the Canadian school club to win a first series since 2011 and the heyday of the Hamilton Bulldogs.
But it hasn’t been easy.
On leaving, the Rocket players had to deal with the peculiarities of the War Memorial arena, a barn built in the 1950s and which comes with its quirks, including an ice cream and bands that cause funny jumps of the washer.
Then, the Rocket had to recover from a very bad start; in the middle of the second period, it was 2-0 for the Crunch, and it didn’t smell very good, both for the Rocket and in the heights of the arena.
All the same, on the power play, Alex Belzile was able to deflect a shot behind goalkeeper Maxime Lagacé – surprise, he was back! – to make it 2-1 Crunch before the end of the second period.
It wasn’t over, and during the second intermission, Jean-François Houle didn’t have to make a Herb Brooks oratorical flight in 1980 to whip his troops.
“I didn’t have to do that because the guys understand the situation, explained the head coach of the Rocket. We have several veterans in this locker room, we just had to make sure we were ready, to give a push. »
We started to play with speed from the third period, as we often do… It’s the same way we have to play.
Jean-François Houle, head coach of the Rocket
It is from this third period, precisely, that the Rocket began to impose its rhythm. The club threw a total of 15 times during this period, and we felt the tide gradually turn… until Cédric Paquette’s equalizer, with only 38.7 seconds to go, while Cayden Primeau was on the bench in exchange for a sixth striker.
Paquette seemed to wait for the puck for five minutes in front of the net… and it finally got to him, by Rafaël Harvey-Pinard’s stick.
“Sometimes it’s like that, you’re alone in front of the net and you wait and you wait,” explained Paquette. I think the Crunch players forgot about me, they didn’t know I was there. I just had to deflect the puck…”
And then after all that, and after dramatic surges on both sides, hits and big saves, and a shorthanded overtime, the visitors did some magic. With 9:47 to go in overtime, it was Gabriel Bourque who came to settle the debate, with the winning goal. The 4,558 Crunch fans rose to their feet in silence, while the six or seven Rocket fans behind the net took care of the noise.
Of course it’s not over and of course the road is still long, but for one evening, at least, the players of the “little” Canadian were able to taste a kind of small triumph.
At last.
“Me, what I remember is our strength of character, we never let go, added Cédric Paquette. We found a way to get her… I say it, the guys here have character. We knew we could do it. »