The Belleville Senators snapped a three game losing streak Monday afternoon, grinding out a 3-1 win over the visiting Hershey Bears.

This moved the Sens back to within a game of the .500 mark as they try to chase down a 2026 Calder Cup playoff bid.

With a raucous crowd of 3,377 in attendance at CAA Arena, it was a Family Day celebration at the rink and the B-Sens followed suit with their 21^st win of the campaign.

With several mascots in the crowd including Belly, Spartcat, and Duke the Dog, Belleville’s Leevi Meriläinen came up big for his club, making 30 saves for his sixth win after the season.

“It was a really big win for us and a really good game for the entire team,” Mr. Meriläinen said.

The only blemish on the Oulu, Finland product’s outing came inside the final minute of the first. Hershey’s Louie Belpedio’s one timer deflected off a Sens blueliner and skipped past the Belleville netminder with 16 seconds left in the first.

The locals found equal footing late in the second. After a better period where they bombed the Hershey net time and again, the Senators finally solved Bears goaltender Mitch Gibson with 4:32 left in the middle frame. Olle Lycksell batted his 9^th of the year home from the slot to make it 1-1

Tied 1-1 after 40 minutes of play, Belleville pushed ahead for the first time in the game at the midway point of the third. Defender Wyatt Bongiovanni was the recipient of a smart Lassi Thompson feed and ‘Bonjo’ went high glove side for the game winning tally with 11:50 remaining.

Philippe Daoust tacked on an empty netter late to make the final 3-1.

Tough Start

In their first game back from a week-long break thanks to the American Hockey League All Star Break, Belleville sputtered in the first period of Saturday night’s game against the Bears in a 6-3 loss.

Hershey’s Graeme Clarke scored a pair of goals 36 seconds apart in the first period to break a 1-1 tie and the Cubs never looked back.

Scoring for Belleville were Jan Jenik, Messrs. Daoust and Lycksell.

With 21 games left in the schedule, it’s a race for points and the Senators will need a big effort at home against Syracuse on Wednesday.

“We have to recognize what we are competing for and know what we are in for in these divisional games,” Mr. Bongiovanni said. “It’s always a war against (The Crunch). We have to close the gaps in the neutral zone and stay close to them and I think we will be successful.”

After playing at home on Wednesday, Belleville makes a two game trek to Providence on Friday and Hartford on Saturday.