Senators show resilience in wild game two overtime loss in Toronto

The Belleville Sens “never quit” attitude was front and centre again in Toronto on Friday night, but a string of bad luck led to Belleville dropping a 4-3 overtime decision, tying their best-of-three, first-round Calder Cup Playoff series with the Toronto Marlies at a game a piece.

While Toronto’s veterans were silent on Wednesday they made their presence felt immediately on Friday, opening the scoring about a minute into the game. Joseph Blandisi got a friendly bounce past Mads Sogaard to make it 1-0 Toronto. Belleville would hit a post later on, from a Nikolas Matinpalo point shot, but couldn’t get even before the end of the frame. It was one of at least five goalposts the Senators would hit throughout the night. Toronto outshot Belleville 12-7 in the period.

Belleville got burned by another bad bounce early in the second period. Toronto dumped the puck in and it pinballed off the end boards, past Mads Sogaard who had come out to make a play, and Kyle Clifford tapped it in to make it 2-0 Marlies. The Senators answered just under seven minutes later when Donovan Sebrango snapped his first Calder Cup Playoff goal past Dennis Hildeby. Toronto reinstated the two-goal lead on an odd play at 16:24. A shot looked to deflect up and over the glass, but play continued and Marshall Rifai ended up scoring his second goal in as many games. Belleville hit a couple more posts, one of which was reviewed off a laser shot from Rourke Chartier, and eventually got back within one on a five-minute major power play. With Toronto’s Kyle Clifford ejected after a hit from behind on Belleville’s Tyler Kleven, Jacob Larsson took a hard point shot that was tipped home by Garrett Pilon to make it 3-2 Toronto after two periods. Belleville had a 12-10 shot advantage in the frame.

The Senators would get even late in the third and it was Pilon finding the net for the second time, on a shot from the high slot, again on the power play, with just 20 seconds left. However, Toronto would get a fortunate bounce less than a minute into overtime, with Dylan Gambrell knocking the puck between Sogaard’s legs to end the game.

The B-Sens and Marlies will meet again in Belleville on Sunday for a deciding third game of the series, with the winner moving on to face the Cleveland Monsters in the North Division Semi-Finals.

Fast Facts:

• #4 Jacob Larsson picked up two assists and had five shots on goal.
• #5 Wyatt Bongiovsnni collected two assists.
• #6 Donovan Sebrango scored his first career Calder Cup Playoff goal and his first goal for the Senators.
• #9 Angus Crookshank recorded six shots on net.
• #18 Josh Currie had three shots on net.
• #22 Garrett Pilon scored twice and had five shots on goal.
• #39 Jiri Smejkal recorded four shots on goal.
• #40 Mads Sogaard stopped 24 of 28 shots he faced.
• #46 Ryan MacKinnon picked up an assist.
• Belleville was 2/4 on the power play and 3/3 on the ViewTech Window and Door Penalty Kill.
• The Senators outshot the Marlies 34-28.

Highlights:

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Belleville Sens Head Coach Dave Bell on the loss:

“Hockey’s an emotional game and there was a lot of emotion in that game. I thought at times, we let it  get the best of us and put us in some bad situations and then at other times, it propelled us to do some pretty good things. We’ve got to find that balance with our emotion and make sure we keep it on the right side of the line.”

Belleville Sens Head Coach Dave Bell on his team’s resilience:

“It’s the leadership group on the bench. They say the right things, they tell guys to check back in and think about the right things and I thought, for the most part, we did that. But there were some times during play when we lost some composure and we need to tighten that up for Sunday.”

Belleville Sens Head Coach Dave Bell on the chances generated:

“We know how we need to generate chances against these guys. We’ve talked about it many times this year where, some nights those go in, some nights they don’t. Tonight, they didn’t go in. I commend the guys for their resilience after two really funny goals that they got. Obviously, it could have been a different story, but it wasn’t. So we’ll park this one and start to prepare right now, for Sunday.”

Belleville Sens Head Coach Dave Bell on getting ready for Sunday:

“The way we played in the third and the way we played the first game, you just look at those things and you pound those things back home, that you have to do that for 60 minutes on home ice, and try to get a result.”

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Up Next:

• Calder Cup Playoffs First Round Game 3: Sunday, April 28, 2024 – Belleville vs Toronto (3:00 p.m. ET – CAA Arena)