Oskar Pettersen had goals in back-to-back games this weekend. (Jason Parks/Gazette Staff)
The Belleville Senators came close to playing in the 2025 Calder Cup playoffs. Real close.
But not quite close enough.
The Sens came within two points of claiming the final North Division playoff spot. They shaded the Rocket in Laval 2-1 on Wednesday to keep their postseason hopes alive but a decisive 5-1 loss on Friday to the host Rocket Friday ended any dream of slipping into the playoffs.
The club rounded out the regular season campaign with a thrilling 5-4 overtime loss at home against Laval on Saturday.
The Cleveland Monsters march on into the American Hockey League post season. The Senators are going home-save those handful of players looking to join the big league Senators and their black aces squad as the parent club plays in the Battle of Ontario.
After being eliminated in Laval Friday, Senators bench boss David Bell gave his squad all the credit they were due after nearly qualifying for the Calder Cup playoffs. This team has been playing take-no-prisoners playoff style hockey for the last six weeks.
“I think we ran out of gas. They’ve pushed hard for a long time; we had some guys dressed that shouldn’t have dressed, quite frankly, and they gave it more than they needed to give. There were three guys that shouldn’t have dressed at all,” Mr. Bell said after Friday’s game. “The guys fought right to the end.”
“I’ve been extremely proud of them,” he added. “They’ve been hit with a lot of adversity this year, a lot of different things out of their control, and they always come to the rink, practice day or game day, and they work; that’s all I can ask.”
Gaining at least four of a possible six points against league leading Laval while hoping the Monsters lost out was always a risky gambit however the Sens stayed plucky. In the first game of a three game set, the Sens received standout goaltending from Leevi Merilainen. The Finlander came up big time and again, making 22 stops for his 18th win of the year.
After a scoreless first period, Belleville got on the board at the 12:15 mark of the second when Keenan Washkaruk recovered a loose puck in the corner and hit Oskar Pettersson in the slot. The Halmstad, Sweden product scored four goals in his final eight AHL games and certainly gives the Ottawa brain trust something to mull over this off season.
The Rocket finally solved Mr. Merilainen at 9:33 of the third when Will Dinnen, son of former NHLer Kevin Dinneen, took a Luke Tuch pass and tickled the twine for his first AHL goal.
Tied at 1-1, the Sens pushed back and on the next shift, Xaiver Bourgalt made a deft high zone tip on a Jeremy Davies volley from the point at 11:42 to push Belleville ahead to stay 2-1.
On Friday, The Sens got off to a rocky start and couldn’t recover, giving up a pair of Rocket goals in the first five minutes of the game.
Down 4-0 late, Mr. Pettersen broke up the shutout bid of Cayden Primeau, snapping his ninth of the year off a nice Garret Pilon drop pass at 8:49 to make it a 4-1 score. Laval’s Alex Barré-Boulet fired home his 22nd into a vacated Belleville net to make it a 5-1 final.
Back at home at CAA Arena on Saturday for Fan Appreciation Night, the Sens mounted a late two goal comeback to force overtime only to lose to the Rocket in Overtime 5-4.
After setting up a pair of Senators goals in the second period, Stephen Holliday came up big for the home side inside the final three minutes of the game. Down 4-2, Mr. Halliday fired a power play goal off the half wall, picking the high glove side on Jacob Fowler with just under 90 seconds left to make it 4-3.
With Belleville starter Malcolm Subban on the bench for an extra attacker, Mr. Halliday would once again score from distance, picking the glove side on Mr. Fowler with 52 seconds left. A capacity crowd cheered lustily as the Senators refused to go down without a fight.
Wyatt Bongiovanni came the closest to sending the home side fans home happy, receiving a slot-area pass from Mr. Halliday and nearly beating Mr. Fowler on a backhand.
The game ended when Florian Xhekaj took a feed inside the Sens blue line and picked the short side corner on Mr. Subban with 3:08 left in the extra session.
The Belleville Senators will be developing new ticket packages and promotions in the off season. Season Seat Memberships are now on sale and up for renewal for the 2025-26 season. Visit www.bellevillesens.ca for more information.
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