In his first game since being loaned to the Laval Rocket by the Montreal Canadiens, defenseman Mattias Norlinder hit the mark in a home-favorites 3-2 win over the Manitoba Moose on Wednesday night at the Place Bell.
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After circulating the puck well with Kevin Roy on the power play, the Swede fired a wrist shot that got the better of Mikhail Berdin. The late second-period goal, Norlinder’s first this season, put the Rocket back on track.
The Moose had taken advantage of one of the rare blunders in this Cayden Primeau game to level the score earlier in the second period. Greg Meireles’ shot slipped past the keeper and Jeff Malott jumped on the return.
Besides this little mishap, Primeau was solid with his 39 saves, allowing his team to beat the formation of Manitoba for a second time this season. At the end of the game, when the Moose withdrew his goalkeeper early enough in favor of a sixth skater, the American gave in to a perfect shot from David Gustafsson.
After helping Norlinder open his Laval counter, Roy himself threaded the needle in the third period. Brandon Gignac helped him a lot on the streak, coming very quickly to the cage before surprising Berdin with a quick throw-in to his teammate.
Alex Belzile was the other scorer for Jean-François Houle’s men. His 33rd career goal in the Rocket uniform is a historic high for the franchise. The Quebecer shared this record with his teammate Lukas Vejdemo and Chris Terry, the latter having scored his 32 goals in a single season, in 2017-2018.
The Habs school club will move to Rochester to cross swords with the Americans on Friday.