Belleville Sens outshoot Griffins in weekend-opening loss

The Belleville Senators controlled a lot of the play and were arguably the better team for some stretches of Friday night’s game in Grand Rapids, but ran into a hot goalie and couldn’t find the net, falling 3-0 to the Griffins.

Both goaltenders were perfect through the opening frame with Belleville’s Leevi Merilainen and Grand Rapids Ville Husso each stopping eight shots. Husso was loaned to Grand Rapids on a conditioning stint by their NHL parent club, the Detroit Red Wings.

There would be no score through the second stanza either, with Belleville outshooting Grand Rapids 9-5 in the period. Both teams were 0/3 on the power play through two periods.

Jonatan Berggren and Carter Mazur would both score for Grand Rapids in the third, with Berggren also adding an empty-netter and the Senators never were able to beat Husso at the other end. The Sens will get a chance at some payback tomorrow night, when they meet again for their season series finale.

Fast Facts:

• #13 Egor Sokolov led the Senators with four shots on goal
• #31 Leevi Merilainen stopped 20/22 shots he faced
• The Senators were 0/3 on the power play and 4/5 on the ViewTech Window and Door Penalty Kill
• Belleville outshot Grand Rapids 25-23

Highlights:

Sound Bytes:

Belleville Sens Head Coach Dave Bell on the result:

“I thought we played really well. Five-on-five I thought we were really good and I thought the penalty kill was really good. With two early power plays we could have got something going, so we’ve got to fix that. At the start of a game you can really take momentum away from another team in their building if you score one of those.”

Media Availabilities:

Up Next:

• Saturday January 27, 2024 @ Grand Rapid Griffins (Detroit Red Wings) – 7:00 p.m. ET
• Friday February 2, 2024 @ Syracuse Crunch (Tampa Bay Lightning) – 7:00 p.m. ET
• Saturday February 3, 2024 @ Syracuse Crunch (Tampa Bay Lightning) – 7:00 p.m. ET