The Belleville Senators returned home to welcome the Syracuse Crunch and Cleveland Monsters to CAA Arena this past week. It was a combination of a forward, a defender, and the goaltenders that boosted Belleville in securing two wins against North Division competition this week.
Belleville Wins Two of Three
On Wednesday, it was Maxence Guénette and Mads Søgaard that led Belleville to a 3-2 shootout victory against Syracuse. After surrendering the first goal of the game halfway through the first, Angus Crookshank found Guénette for a power play marker, his first goal of the year.
Interestingly, the two teams later exchanged a pair of shorthanded goals to bring this game beyond regulation. After five minutes of three-on-three action, it was the Senators who came out on top in the shootout. Søgaard posted a solid .939 SV% through 65 minutes of play.
On Friday, the Senators began their weekend series with the Cleveland Monsters with an unfortunate 4-2 loss. This was a game where, from the very start, the Senators did not appear overly ready to play. Just over three minutes in, Cleveland scored one of their two first period tallies. The next two goals (coming in the second and early in the third) were also in favour of the Monsters. With a 4-0 deficit, Belleville started to crawl back with goals from Cole Reinhardt and Josh Currie, but it was too little too late for the home team.
After a much needed day off to rest and reset, Belleville came out Sunday with vengeance on the brain and were successful in bringing home another two points. The game started in an eerily similar way, with Cleveland scoring early, but Egor Sokolov wanted the crowd to know that he wasn’t letting his team go into the locker room trailing again.
Sokolov contributed a goal, an assist, and six shots on net in Sunday’s win.
Just as it was on Wednesday, extra time was required for this one, but Crookshank wasn’t letting them go to the shootout for the second time this week. Taking a pass perfectly off his skate, Crookshank buried the game winner just a minute in for his third goal of the season.
After just one point in his first five games, Crookshank now has two goals and five assists in his last six.
Leevi Meriläinen was quite busy in this one, stopping 37 of the 38 shots he faced for a sterling .974 SV%.
Looking Ahead
Looking at the standings, it could be seen as disappointing to see Belleville still sitting in fifth place in the North. It’s worth noting that, while they’re four spots out of first, they’re just three points away with a game in hand. Suffice to say, another strong week like this and Belleville could see a sizeable shift in the standings.
Belleville will be making a quick trip up the highway to Laval on Wednesday before welcoming the Manitoba Moose to the Bay of Quinte on Friday night. With Søgaard joining Ottawa as an emergency goaltending option on their trip to Sweden, expect Meriläinen to be holding down the fort for both matchups this week. The Finnish netminder has an impressive .941 SV% to his name through three starts this season.
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