Zach Fucale racking up W's in the Halifax Mooseheads net has been as inevitable as death and taxes for the last three seasons, which can lead to ignoring that he is 18 years old and not impervious to human frailties.

The defending Memorial Cup champions climbing back into their Quebec League semifinal with with rookie Kevin Darveau in goal and Fucale on the bench is big news. The Montreal Canadiens prospect, who was the first goalie chosen in the 2013 NHL draft, came into the series with Val-d'Or with a chance to break Roberto Luongo's QMJHL record for career playoff wins by the end of the season. After a series-tying win on Wednesday where Darveau answered the call, Halifax coach Dominique Ducharme seemed to hint that the switch isn't based solely on performance or going with the 'hot hand.' He didn't say exactly why, but keep in mind that a young athlete, to a large extent, does have a greater entitlement to privacy than a NHLer.

Here's Ducharme, via Mooseheads play-by-play voice John Moore and the Halifax Chronicle-Herald:

"We were confident with the game [Darveau] had last night that he could come back with a good one tonight again. "Also, we just wanted to give Zach some time. He's been great for us. He's won so many big games. We just want him to go back and get back on his feet. Go back to the basics and give him some time on the ice working with [Mooseheads goalie coach] Eric [Raymond] and then come back. Come back when it's time to come back, when he's ready to go. I think he deserved that support. He's been so great for us over the last three years."

That probably raised more questions than it answered. So be it. There should be a different sensitivity with a teenager who, by the Canadian Hockey League's preferred definition, isn't an employee like a player in one of the four big ball-and-stick sports. This isn't equivalent to when then-Toronto Blue Jays GM J.P. Ricciardi infamously gave the media inaccurate information about injuries.

It wouldn't do to speculate beyond highlighting the rubric about high-performance teenage athletes competing too much and playing too much. Fucale, who in person always has an upbeat and chipper demeanor, has been far more of a volume goalie than anyone in the Q in recent years. He reached 100 regular-season wins in fewer than three seasons. That owed to playing a rookie-record 58 regular-season games as a 16-year-old in 2011-12, then playing 72 of Halifax's 89 regular- and post-season games during the run to the Memorial Cup. Then there was the distraction of the draft, summer development and September training camp with the Canadiens — as a Quebecois goalie, no pressure there — and commitments to Canada's national junior team, where he was the starter at the world junior in Sweden. This season, he played another 50 games for the Mooseheads prior to the playoffs, where Fucale was very sharp in the first two rounds.

Two years ago, one did wonder how he could keep up that pace, but that concern fell by the wayside as he continued to deliver. Taking that proficiency for granted is only human nature. Sometimes the machine needs a shutdown for maintenance. It looks like the Mooseheads re repaying Fucale's loyalty by realizing he's human.

Meantime, Darveau deserves some spotlight. The 19-year-old was able to deliver even though it had been more than two months since his last start. Either way, it creates some drama ahead of the critical Val-d'Or-Halifax Game 5 on Saturday at the Halifax Metro Centre.

"It's not an easy job being a backup," Darveau told the Chronicle-Herald. "You have to have a good attitude all the time, be positive. You play hockey to play games so to always practise, it's hard. But I just kept with it and I'm really happy right now."

Regardless of the rationale for giving Fucale lighter duties, there is a lesson here for managing a developing athlete's obligations.

Neate Sager is a writer for Yahoo! Canada Sports. Follow him on Twitter @neatebuzzthenet.