Defenceman Donovan Sebrango and goaltender Leevi Meriläinen were big parts of Belleville’s five point weekend. Mr. Sebrango scored goals in wins over Rochester and Springfield while Mr. Meriläinen allowed just two goals in each of those contests. (Jason Parks/Gazette Staff)
Thanks to a nearly perfect weekend on the road, the Belleville Senators enter the final week of the American Hockey League very much in contention for the 2025 Calder Cup playoffs.
The Senators managed five out of a possible six points on a road swing that took them through Rochester, NY, Springfield MA, and Providence, RI.
Heading into Wednesday night’s affair in Laval, QC, the Sens are four points back of the final North Division playoff spot with three games left on the regular season slate. Belleville plays the Rocket on the road again on Friday and then welcomes the Montreal Canadiens affiliate on Saturday night at CAA for the final home game of 2024-25. The last home stand of the regular season serves as Belleville Senators Fan Appreciation Night and features a range of exciting activities, special giveaways at the gates courtesy of CAA, giveaways and in-game prizes courtesy of the Bay of Quinte Regional Marketing Board.
The Senators remain four points behind Toronto and five points behind Cleveland. Two of the three clubs will make the postseason and all have six points available to gain. All three teams play Wednesday, Friday and Saturday, so the Sens will need to continue to collect at least four points in their trio of games against Laval and hope the Monsters and/or the Marlies stumble in their final matchups.
Belleville kicked off their road trip at Rochester’s Blue Cross Arena on Wednesday and the locals played comeback on the Americans, erasing a 2-0 in the third period by erupting for four unanswered goals in the final stanza and stunning the Amerks 4-2.
After two periods of perfect goaltending by Devon Levi, Belleville hit the score sheet just 73 seconds into the frame as Sens Captain Garrett Pilon found blueliner Donovan Sebrango cruising to the high slot. The Ottawa, ON native beat Mr. Levi low for his sixth goal of the campaign.
Belleville tied the contest at 2-2 midway through the third thanks to a power play tally. Mr. Pilon popped his 10th of the year from the slot area at the 9:08 mark.
The Sens had a couple of close calls in tight to the Amerks net as they peppered Rochester’s mesh mansion with 14 volleys.
Finally, in the final minute of play, the Sens broke through for their first lead of the game.
Mr. Sebrango delivered a puck to the front of the Rochester net that bounced off forward Stephen Holliday and across the Americans goal line with 65 seconds left on the clock. Mr. Holliday’s 17th of the season was the game breaker for Belleville. Sens forward Keean Washkurak would add his 10th of the campaign into a yawning Rochester cage with five seconds left to make it a 4-2 final in favour of the visitors.
On Friday, the Sens skated into Springfield and accomplished a little bit of history as the captured their first ever win at the MassMutual Center. A couple of nights after being forced to play comeback on the Amerks, Belleville opened the scoring in the first period and never trailed the affiliates of the St. Louis Blues.
Once again, Mr. Sebrango lit the Sens offensive fire, picking the short side just a couple of strides inside the blue line. Cole Reinhardt found his teammate with a nice seam pass at the 15:02 mark.
The Senators turned their fortunes over to goalie Leevi Meriläinen for a second straight game and the Oulu, Finland native had to be sharp early to keep the Thunderbirds off the scoreboard. The hosts finally broke through with exactly two minutes left when former Pembroke Lumber King Matthew Peca. Mr. Peca pounced on a turnover in front of the Belleville net and knifed home his 31st of the year.
Belleville forged back ahead in the second as newcomer Tristen Robbins finished off 2-on-1 rush with Jameson Rees at 7:05.
Springfield and Calen Addison squared the affair at 2-2 just over two minutes later but the Sens powerplay unit would steer this game home.
With just over three minutes left in the second, Xavier Bourgault would skate unmolested from the corner and fire a bullet past Springfield netminder Vadim Zherenko to push the visitors ahead to stay.
Midway through the third, Mr. Bourgault earned himself first star honours thanks to his man advantage setup of Philippe Daoust’s sixth of the season at 8:15.
Mr. Meriläinen turned in a 25 save effort for his 17th win of the year.
In Providence on Saturday night, the Sens didn’t get much help from the officiating crew as they were whistled for nine minor penalties on which the Baby Bruins scored three of their four goals on. Still, the Sens hung tough and took a valuable road point of Rhode Island, keeping their playoff push alive for another week.
Down 2-0 into the second period, Jan Jenik picked a hole in the paraphernalia of Bruins starter Michael DiPietro from the goal line at the 4:07 mark to carve Providence’s lead in half.
Midway through the second stanza, Mr. Halliday found Wyatt Bongiovanni on the power play at the 10:23 to make it a 2-2 game.
Providence’s Jeff Viel capitalized on a goalmouth scramble at 2:20, pushing the hosts ahead 3-2 but Mr. Bongiovanni doubled down from distance 64 seconds later to tie the game up at 3-3.
The scoring opened with Bruins 5-on-3 goal in the first and that was the situation at the end of the five minute overtime as Belleville was ordered to the sin bin twice. After Mr. Jenik and several other Sens laid down into oncoming Providence fire, B’s forward Dans Ločmelis beat Malcolm Subban with 14 seconds left in the contest to send the Bruins fans home happy.
The former Belleville Bull appreciated the effort in front of him in the dying moments of overtime. “We had some unbelievable blocks – Jan [Jenik], that was amazing, when you see that as a goaltender it gives you lots of momentum. I can’t say enough about how hard we battled back, playing a back-to-back too, and with how well we played, it’s tough to lose like that,” Mr. Subban added.
Reflecting on the tough road loss in Providence, Mr. Bongiovanni looked forward to the test Laval would present as the team tries to punch its post season ticket.
“It’s obviously an emotional game right now, so we’ll take the day to settle down, get home, get a good meal in us, regroup as a team, realize our efforts and realize what we did well,” the Birmingham, MI native said. “We’ll attack a couple of practices and it’s always good, hard-fought games against Laval, so we’re excited for that challenge.”
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