In his first game in front of the Rocket cage, Finnish goaltender Kasimir Kaskisuo stopped up to 36 shots and enabled Laval to win 3-2 against the Syracuse Crunch on Friday evening in front of a sold-out crowd of 10,219 at Place Bell.
However, Kaskisuo didn't have the start he was hoping for. He was greeted by striker Gabriel Fortier in the first period. During a power play, the Quebecer directed the puck behind the 30-year-old goalkeeper and gave Joël Bouchard's team the lead.
Kaskisuo played two seasons for the Leksands team in Sweden before joining the Rocket on December 18th.
Roy opens
The Rocket also benefited from numerical superiority at the end of the period. Joshua Roy and Arber Xhekaj were involved in Philippe Maillet's fifth goal of the season.
With just over two minutes left in the second period, Roy gave his team the lead by recovering Xhekaj's rebound to score his first goal in seven games.
In the third period, Xhekaj threw off the gloves against Victoriavillois Shawn Element before seeing Nathan Légaré go there with a beautiful maneuver at full speed and score the winning goal in the upper part against goalkeeper Hugo Alnefelt.
The Crunch responded with 31 seconds remaining, but the visitors ran out of time.
Jean-François Houle's team will play their third game in as many days on Saturday afternoon. Laval will be back in front of his fans to face the Syracuse Crunch once again.