After a lengthy break, Laval kicked off the North Division Final on Wednesday on the road in Rochester. Despite featuring two top goalies, this was a back-and-forth high-scoring affair but Oliver Kapanen’s first goal late in the third broke a 4-4 tie to give the Rocket the opening game.
After taking care of business in their first playoff series against Cleveland, Laval now turns its sights on coming out of the North Division as they get set for a best-of-five series against Rochester, Buffalo’s top affiliate.
After getting a bye in the first round, Laval didn’t show much rust as they put forth a solid performance to take their best-of-five series against Syracuse, setting up a battle of the top two teams in the Atlantic Division.
After a bye in the opening round of the playoffs, Laval will get their postseason officially underway on Wednesday as they begin a best-of-five series against Cleveland, the affiliate of Columbus.
Laval finished up their regular season with three games against Belleville, a division rival that they’ve struggled against at times. However, they were able to pick up a pair of victories to secure first overall while also eliminating the Senators from playoff contention.
Last month was a solid one for Laval as they propelled themselves toward clinching the top spot in the division. Meanwhile, some of Montreal’s lesser-known prospects had some strong performances to earn a mention here for the first time this season.
Laval’s two-week road trip came to an end last week with a pair of games against division rivals. They took care of business in both of them, securing themselves the North Division title in the process.
The NCAA’s transfer portal has been quite busy in recent weeks with 260 college players entering it. One of those is Habs prospect Jack Smith who has now transferred to Minnesota State (Mankato) for next season.
It was a decent on the road for Laval. They picked up a respectable five points in four games but saw their lead on first overall shrink while they also dealt with some more injury issues.
The ever-changing Ivan Demidov saga took another turn on Tuesday, this one a very positive one. He was released from SKA St. Petersburg and soon after, the Habs announced that they signed Demidov to a three-year, entry-level contract.