It’s often been said that the Rocket was carried by its veteran players this spring. But when two veterans fell in battle, the younger elements were ready.
Updated yesterday at 9:33 p.m.
The offensive contribution of Jesse Ylönen and Rafaël Harvey-Pinard allowed the Laval Rocket to return to this final of the Eastern Conference of the American League. The Canadian school club won 4-2 over the Thunderbirds in Springfield on Sunday.
The series is tied 1-1 and moves to Laval, where the next three games will take place, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday.
Ylönen had a goal and two assists to double his points total since the start of the playoffs, while Harvey-Pinard, the Rocket’s season-leading scorer with 56 points, scored his first goal of the playoffs, in his 10e match.
Brandon Gignac and Alex Belzile threaded the other winners’ nets. But it was Harvey-Pinard’s net, and even more, his celebration, that we remembered after the match. The fiery number 11 pretended to remove the monkey he had on his back to throw it – the monkey is imaginary, you will understand, otherwise we would not have condoned the gesture – in the heights of the MassMutual Center.
This was a nod to an English expression, consecrated in particular by Aerosmith on the microgroove Pump.
“It felt good. I pulled the monkey as high as possible so as not to see him again! launched Harvey-Pinard to the colleagues on the spot, after the match. I will be more confident with my stick in the next games.
A goal like that will take the pressure off the first goal. Hockey does things funny. I may have played my worst game since the start of the playoffs.
Rafael Harvey-Pinard
Harvey-Pinard was not entirely silenced this spring. In his first nine games of the playoffs, he had amassed five assists and played with the intensity that we know him. To this end, the experience of the start of the season has undoubtedly helped him. While he finished the season with good production, he started it by being shut out in his first six games in October.
“During a season, you have ups and downs. I had some at the start of the season, but I had kept my identity, I was doing what I always do, I was going to the net, I was doing the little details, and it didn’t want to fit, recalled Harvey-Pinard . It was a bit the same thing since the start of the playoffs. This one will do good. »
His goal, Harvey-Pinard scored after an exchange with Ylönen, another young Rocket. “It was a good play from Ylönen, I just had to push the puck into the net,” said Harvey-Pinard.
The Finn skilfully set up another net, Gignac’s, in addition to scoring himself, although he took advantage of the kindness of Charlie Lindgren, who should not have given in on a shot from that angle.
Back home
The Rocket is now heading home and returning to a noisy amphitheater, because it seemed pretty quiet in Springfield, even though it was reported to have a crowd of some 6,000 spectators there.
“The atmosphere here is so-so, it was not big, confirmed defender Tobie Bisson. In Laval, it’s something else. Going for a victory here, and knowing that we have three games in Laval, we are very happy and we can’t wait for the next game. »
Speaking of the next match, there will be some issues to clear up by then. The fallen veterans mentioned at the beginning of this dissertation are Cédric Paquette and Gabriel Bourque.
Paquette is injured in the lower body and was declared absent at the start of the warm-up. Bourque was hit hard by the always intense Dakota Joshua in the first period and did not finish the game. Head coach Jean-François Houle mentioned an upper body injury.
This injury is a reminder that the toughness is at the expected level for playoffs. Joshua and former Canadian prospect William Bitten bothered Cayden Primeau in particular, while at the Rocket, Danick Martel was disturbing as he always knows how to be. However, it earned him three minor penalties, the kind of thing to avoid against Springfield, which has the best power play in the American League since the start of the playoffs.
Bisson certainly noticed Bitten’s gestures. “It’s a long series. He is going to have a long series, ”dropped the defender.