B-Sens battle hard but fall in overtime to Monsters, North Semi-Final even at 1-1

It was yet another barn burner at the CAA Arena. Game two of the North Division Semi-Final was filled with about everything you’d expect in a playoff game. 

In front of a crowd of over 4000, the Senators had the fans on their feet quickly. Wyatt Bongiovanni ripped his first of the playoffs past the Monster’s starting goalie, Jet Greaves. Stephen Halliday and Josh Currie picked up points on the B-Sens first goal of the game. 

What was a first-period full of goals continued over five minutes later. Cleveland got on the board courtesy of Tyler Angle, who scored his first goal of the playoffs. 

The trend of players picking up their first goal of the playoffs would continue when Cole Reinhardt picked up a gift courtesy of Bokondji Imama. On a routine dump-in, Imama sped down the ice on a great fore-check, swiping the puck off the stick of Greaves, and the rest is history. 

Cleveland would tie the game at two with three minutes left in the opening frame. Jake Gaudet would put the garbage away after Mads Sogaard made the first save diving across the crease to get the big stick on the puck. Unfortunately, a failed clear from the Senators, and the puck was in the back of the net. 

The Senator and the Monsters would tighten up defensively in the second and third periods. The caveat was penalty troubles for both sides. Cleveland would take three minor penalties in the second period. The Senators would take two. Neither team would score on the ensuing power plays. 

The only goal of the second frame would come off the stick of Cleveland forward Josh Dunne. His second of the playoffs would give the Monsters a 3-2 lead after 40 minutes of regulation.

The Senators would get a power-play goal in the third period. Around the halfway mark in the period, Stephan Halliday would bury his first career pro goal, and it couldn’t have come at a better time. With the man advantage, the Monsters let Halliday walk his way into the middle of the circle and send a wrist shot past Greaves, tying the game at three after 60 minutes of play. 

That’s right, game two would need a little extra hockey to decide a winner. Unfortunately, the B-Sens would be on the wrong side of Lady Luck in overtime. A simple wrist shot off the stick of Cole Clayton would pinball off of multiple objects before landing behind Sogaard. 4-3, the final score from The CAA Arena. 

The North Division Semi-Final now turns south of the border for games three, four, and five at the Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse. 

Fast Facts:

• #4 Jacob Larsson continues to produce from the back end in the playoffs, recording an assist Friday night to extend his total 4 in the playoffs. 
• #5 Wyatt Bongiovanni got back on track with a goal on Friday after being held pointless in game one for the first time in the 2024 Calder Cup Playoffs.
• #13 Egor Sokolov now has points in three straight games after recording an assist on Friday. 
• #17 Stephen Halliday, who scored his first pro goal in game two, now has points in three straight games. 
• #18 Josh Currie extended his point streak to three games with an assist on Friday night. 

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Belleville Sens Head Coach Dave Bell on the overtime defeat:

“It’s two good teams, that’s why the games are tight. All the teams that made the playoffs are pretty darn good. I don’t know if I’d call it a lucky bounce,I thought we fell out of structure pretty badly on the overtime goal. It’s definitely not the result we wanted, but we move on.”

Belleville Sens Head Coach Dave Bell on regrouping for game three next week:

“These guys haven’t had a day off, they’ve been at the rink every day since the season ended with that quick turnaround at Toronto. So, we’ll take the day tomorrow, get away from the rink and turn the hockey brain off and then have a good work day on Sunday, and travel day on Monday. Tomorrow’s a reset day.”

Belleville Sens Head Coach Dave Bell’s thoughts on Stephen Halliday:

“His skill set is elite and he just gets better and better every game. I know everybody watches the goals and the passes, but he’s winning some face-offs in the d-zone, figuring out the d-zone coverage and winning stick battles that he wasn’t 10 or 12 games ago. He’s just getting better every day and learning the league, and when he learns the pace of the league, he’s going to be a very dangerous player.”

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