Laval Rocket banks on home-ice lift as playoff series hits Place Bell
The Rocket played all season to secure home-ice advantage. Now, back in Place Bell, Laval must win two of the next three games against the Rochester Americans.
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'You learn from history and we've been playing good in our building all year,' Rocket head coach Pascal Vincent said Tuesday at Place Bell. 'There's no reason for us to believe that we won't, but we're playing against a very good team. If we focus on ourselves, we can compete. It can be really hard to beat us in our building, with our fans, the noise and all the energy that comes from those guys.'
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After an unusual five-day layoff, the two teams will resume their best-of-five North Division final Wednesday (7 p.m., RDS) with the series tied 1-1. While the Rocket would have preferred to return home ahead 2-0, the team still has a bit of wiggle room.
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Laval was 24-9-3 this season at home and is 1-1 in the playoffs. The teams will play Game 4 Friday night, while Game 5, if necessary, would be played Sunday afternoon.
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Vincent wouldn't disclose his starting goaltender for Game 3, but he has been rotating Cayden Primeau and Jacob Fowler. Should that trend continue, it's Primeau's turn.
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Laval and Rochester were the top two teams in the division, and while the Rocket went 6-1-1 during the regular season against the Americans, two games went to overtime and two others were decided by one goal. Laval won the opening game 5-4 and lost 5-3 Friday, but the final goal was scored into an empty net. The visitors squandered a one-goal lead in the second period that night, allowing Rochester to score in the final minute of that frame and never recovered.
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Nine goals against in two games — albeit one into an empty net — is unusual for a team that allowed an AHL-low 178 in 72 games. But the Rocket also took a league-high 1,101 penalty minutes and has displayed a lack of discipline at times in this series. Rochester went 1-for-4 on the power play in Game 1 and was 2-for-4 on Friday. That included the winning goal in the third period when Florian Xhekaj was off for goaltender interference.
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Vincent said Rochester goalie Devon Levi did a good job of selling the contact to the officials.
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'They have a good power play and we have to stay more disciplined for sure,' defenceman Tyler Wotherspoon said. 'We can't give them that many opportunities. We also just need to clean some stuff up in our defensive zone. I'm excited for us to bounce back. We've been in close games all year and have learned to never give up.
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