When head coach J.-F. Houle announced that veteran Kevin Poulin was going to start Game 1 for the Laval Rocket, there wasn’t much argument that it was a poor choice. Poulin posted a strong 18-8-3 record with a .920 save percentage and 2.34 goals-against average during the season. He was arguably the biggest reason that the Rocket were able to make the playoffs.
Houle had also made it clear he was going to split the back-to-back opening games of the series against the Syracuse Crunch. Poulin didn’t play poorly, but the Rocket dropped the first game 5-3, and in Game 2 the net was turned over to Cayden Primeau.