Belleville Senators score four in loss to Griffins

The Belleville Senators’ offence came alive in Grand Rapids on Saturday night, but four goals weren’t enough to help them get past the Grand Rapids Griffins, as they skated to a 6-4 loss.

The Griffins opened the scoring inside the first five minutes when William Wallinder beat Leevi Merilainen, who was starting on back-to-back nights. Albert Johansson made it 2-0 Grand Rapids before the end of the first before Tyler Spezia scored early in the second period to increase the lead.

But, around six minutes later, the Belleville offence came to life. Angus Crookshank buried his 12th goal of the season on the power play at 8:48 then Josh Currie counted his seventh, sliding the puck by Michael Hutchinson in front of the Grand Rapids net. Belleville tied the game 3-3 on a wrist shot by Matt Highmore at 17:25, his sixth goal of the season. Crookshank would score his second of the game to give Belleville the lead inside the final minute of the second period after Hutchinson came out to play the puck. It found its way right to Crookshank, who hammered it into the half-empty net.

Grand Rapids would tie it again at 5:30 of the third, by way of an Austin Czarnik marker and they’d take the lead through Elmer Soderblom at 8:22. Jonatan Berggren added an empty netter to round out the scoring. 

The Senators return to Belleville for a week of practice, before heading to Syracuse to wrap their five game road trip, with a pair of games against the Crunch next weekend.

Fast Facts:

• #4 Jacob Larsson recorded his ninth assist of the season
• #9 Angus Crookshank had two goals, one assist and four shots on net
• #15 Matt Highmore had a goal, two assists and three shots on net
• #18 Josh Currie tallied a goal on his only shot of the night
• #22 Garrett Pilon had an assist
• #31 Kevin Mandolese stopped 19/21 shots in relief, after entering the game in the second period
• The Senators were 1/5 on the power play and 3/4 on the ViewTech Window and Door penalty kill

Highlights:

Sound Bytes:

Belleville Sens Head Coach Dave Bell on his team’s push back after going down 3-0:

“It’s commendable that we fight back, but it’s getting tiresome and repetitive that we have to get back in games. If we start better and be ready on time, we wouldn’t have that problem. It’s hard on the body, it’s hard on the bench and we’ve just got to figure out a way to start better.”

Belleville Sens Head Coach Dave Bell on preparing for a trip to Syracuse next weekend:

“This caps off 11 games in 22 nights for us and a lot of travel, so we’re going to take a couple days to recharge the batteries and have three good days of practice. The last three months of the season we’ve got28 games in our division, so that’s a lot of points up for grabs and it starts Friday in Syracuse.”

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