Laval’s quick 3rd-period blitz dooms Amerks

By KEVIN OKLOBZIJA

On Friday night, Laval Rocket winger Florian Xhekaj was the goat, and not in a Tom Brady kind of way.

His foolish goaltender interference penalty led to the winning goal, enabling the Rochester Americans to win Game 2 and even the best-of-five Calder Cup North Division finals.

On Wednesday night, Xhekaj was one of the heroes for the Rocket. His first playoff goal broke a 1-1 tie early in the third period – barely two minutes after Lukas Rousek had finally tied the score for the Amerks – and powered Laval to a 4-1 victory in Game 3 at Place Bell in suburban Montreal.

The victory means it’s now do-or-summertime for the Amerks. They must win Game 4 on Friday and then Game 5 on Sunday if they are to advance to the AHL’s Eastern Conference finals for a second time in three years. Both games are in Laval.

“The focus right now is just Friday,” captain Mason Jobst said. “We’re not worried about winning two on the road, we just gotta win Friday. That’s where we’re at.”

They face the must-win situation even though they were probably the better team on Wednesday. The Amerks outshot Laval 33-20, including 22-15 through 44 minutes. Yet they lost, largely because Rocket goalie Cayden Primeau was terrific and because they gave up three goals in just over five minutes in the third period. Goalie Devon Levi was solid but not spectacular.

“I really liked our game,” Amerks coach Michael Leone said. “Credit to them, they made a few more plays.”

One of those plays came just 15 seconds after the opening faceoff. Luke Tuch, brother of Buffalo Sabres winger Alex Tuch, redirected a David Reinbacher shot and the Rocket had an instant lead.

“It’s a little bit deflating to give one up that quick,” Amerks defenseman Jack Rathbone said.

The Amerks recovered, however, and carried the play for the final half of the period and then for much of the second period. Yet the score remained 1-0, and Primeau was the reason.

Jobst was alone with a rebound at the top of the crease with just 18 seconds remaining in the first period but Primeau smothered his shot that was headed for the five-hole.

Then in the second period he made high-quality saves on Josh Dunne’s shot from the deep slot at 8:35, on a Konsta Helenius shot through traffic from the left circle at 14:31 and again on Dunne from the left of the slot at 15:35.

Primeau clearly made a statement. Laval coach Pascal Vincent has given just-out-of-college newcomer Jack Fowler a chance to shine in the playoff spotlight, starting him in four of the first seven games, but this is Primeau’s team. The Rocket won the North Division in the regular season largely because he went 21-2-2 with a 1.96 goals-against average and .927 save percentage.

“We controlled it a lot in the O-zone and really generated some good looks,” Jobst said. “We probably could get some more traffic. They’ve obviously got a good goaltender back there and we need to take his eyes away a little bit more.”

Those were just the Grade-A chances that Primeau needed to stop. Others missed the net or were blocked.

“The ones in the slot, they have to go under the bar,” Leone said, referring to shots that sailed high, including one from bulls-eye range by Helenius. “(Zach) Metsa hit a post, (Tyson) Kozak hit a post. We did a lot of really good things, it just didn’t go in the back of the net.”

The Amerks finally broke through 2:46 into the third period when Rousek, the guy who never shoots, roofed a perfect shot short side from the right circle off a pass from Rathbone. Rousek played all 72 regular season games, yet finished with only 40 shots on goal.

“Obviously ‘Roos’ isn’t really known as a shooter but he’s been lights-out these last two games,” Jobst said. “That was big time, big moment.”

The Rocket, however, produced their own big moment, needing just over two minutes to regain the lead.

Xhekaj motored in on right wing, speeding wide around Dunne and then avoiding the stick of defenseman Nikita Novikov before lifting a backhander past Levi on the short side and just under the cross bar at 4:57.

“That one, that’s just a momentum killer,” Leone said.

Just 1:05 later, Dauphin converted a pass from William Trudeau at the goal mouth to give Laval a 3-1 lead, and when Roy scored at 10:11, the Rocket were rolling.

And now just like that the Amerks face elimination.

“Obviously next game the season’s on the line,” Jobst said. “This group loves each other, really enjoys spending time together. I think when there’s a threat that this potentially could end, you all give a little bit extra. We all want to continue to play together.”

Notes: Kale Clague’s goals streak came to an end. In the Game 2 victory on Friday he had become the first AHL defenseman to score goals in five consecutive playoff games since 2008, when Joel Kwiatkowski found the net in seven straight games for the Chicago Wolves. … Laval had the AHL’s second-best home record during the regular season (24-9-2-1) while the Amerks had the second-best road record (23-9-2-2).