Anthony Richard collected a goal and assist, Hugo Alnefelt stopped 23 shots in relief to Maxime Lagacé and the Syracuse Crunch beat Laval Rocket 3-0, Saturday, at Place Bell, in the fourth game of their series semi-final of North Section.
The final game of the series now tied at 2-2 will be shown Tuesday in Syracuse.
Rocket had a chance to be the Montreal Canadiens ’first school club version to win a series since 2011. However, it struggled to develop an attack during the game.
Cayden Primeau made 34 net saves for the Rockets.
Cole Koepke and Remi Elie also hit the target for Crunch. Lagacé was stopped by four shots before having to leave the game after 10:13 with what appeared to be an injury to his left leg.
Alnefelt was perfect then, but he wasn’t overly threatened.
Crunch took advantage of one of its two opportunities in power play. Rocket shut down in two attempts.
Rocket has not made any changes to its construction. On the Crunch side, forwards Pierre-Cédric Labrie and Gemel Smith gave way to advance Otto Somppi and defender Alex Green.
Both teams therefore rely on formations with 11 attackers and 7 defenders.
The closed door
The Crunch have bottled Rocket into their territory from the start of the game and the trend has remained the same for a long time.
The visitors quickly took advantage of this advantage by opening the scoring after 5:35 of play. Anthony Richard rolled the net and saw Koepke, late alone on the other side. Koepke only had to shoot into a gaping cage.
The Crunch lost Lagacé’s services when Gabriel Dumont knocked down Rocket forward Alex Belzile to his goalie.
Alnefelt entered the fight when Crunch was passed, as Dumont was punished for his gesture.
The Rockets beat Alnefelt twice in power play, but both times the puck hit the post in shots by Jean-Sebastien Dea and Jesse Ylonen.
The game tightened in the second period and the Rockets struggled to attack Alnefelt’s net.
Meanwhile, at the other end of the rink, Primeau keeps his men in the game. He was also lucky when Somppi hit the pole after Gage Goncalves stole the puck from Sami Niku.
Disciplined until then, the Rockets finally shot themselves in the foot when Cédric Paquette had enough on Daniel Walcott early in the third period.
Paquette was the only player penalized in the sequence and Crunch scored on power play in 2:13. Elie was able to shoot into an open net after Primeau was overrun into position after contacting Dumont.
Rocket seemed to increase the pressure on Crunch when Richard made a blow to the hopeful home side. He defeated Primeau with a low shot from the edge of the shield in 6:24 of the final third.
Alnefelt made one of his best saves with less than 90 seconds left, when an extra striker replaced Primeau. The Swedish goalkeeper stretched his left leg at the last moment to frustrate Gabriel Bourque.
Source: Radio-Canada
