Belleville’s Lassi Thompson had the game winning tally in overtime over the host Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins. (AHL Supplied Photo)
Don’t look now but the Belleville Senators are rounding into shape and making a charge up the American Hockey League’s North Division standings.
Seemingly stuck in neutral for the first part of the 2025-26 campaign, Belleville has turned over a new leaf with the changing of the calendar. And life on the road seems to suit the locals just fine.
Since dropping their first two games of 2026, Belleville is 6-0-2 in their last eight contests. At 19-18-7, Belleville is suddenly within striking distance of Toronto, Syracuse and Rochester.
In the midst of a seven game road trek that will see them in Cleveland this weekend for a pair of four point games with the Monsters, Belleville has turned stingy. The Senators surrendered just four goals in three games over the weekend which translated into wins over Providence and Springfield and a regulation tie in Wilkes-Barre/Scranton.
“It was pretty chaotic at the end tonight but kudos to the guys for finding a way,” Sens interim head coach Andrew Campbell said following Belleville’s 1-0 win over the Falcons on Saturday night. “That’s five out of six points in three very hard barns to play in. It’s a great road trip for us.”
Playing in Springfield, MA for the only time this regular season, Belleville would get the only goal they needed midway through the opening stanza.
Captain Garret Pilon drove with the puck below the Springfield goal line and found Jan Jenik lurking in the slot. The second year Senator blasted his sixth of the season past Georigi Romanov at 11:17 to put Belleville up 1-0.
From there, it was a herculean effort by the Belleville defence corps. Blocked shots and team toughness in the Senators end were in great supply. Behind it all, Sens starter Leevi Meriläinen came up big for his club. None of Springfield’s 40 volleys broached the Belleville goal line. The Oulu, FN native’s fourth win of the season was also his first goose egg of the campaign.
The final four minutes inside MassMutual Center was electric. With the Belleville goal scorer off for a minor penalty and the Springfield netminder off for an extra attacker, Belleville denied the Falcons time and again. Defender Jorian Donovan had a vital shot block in the waning moments of the one goal contest.
“Unbelievable,” Me. Campbell said when appraising the effort of this netminder. “Pucks just stick to him. He’s never phased and he stays calm, cool and collected.”
A night earlier, Belleville received scintillating puck stopping from the ‘Great Dane’ Mads Søgaard who will be part of Denmark’s Olympic hockey team in Milano Cortina next month. Mr. Søgaard made 27 stops in Belleville’s 2-1 overtime loss to the Bruins.
Belleville got to work in the first, staking themselves to a 1-0 with just over four minutes left in the opening frame. On a faceoff in the offensive zone, Oskar Pettersson slid the disc back to Keean Washkurak, whose quick shot got through traffic put Belleville up 1-0. The Senators outshot the Bruins 10-3 in the first frame, continuing their trend of strong starts.
After a scoreless second, the Bruins finally got to Mr. Søgaard with just over five minutes left in the contest. Bruins forward Matthew Poitras went low glove side with 5:30 left to square the affair at 1-1.
In overtime, Sens leading goal getter Arthur Kaliyev had a chance to end it in the slot area but Providence goaltender Mike Di Pietro came up big with a pad stop.
With 50 seconds left in the extra session, a quick give-and-go at the Belleville blueline saw Dans Locmelis connect with Fabian Lysell, who scored his thirteenth of the season to give Providence a 2-1 win.
In Eastern Pennsylvania’s Electric City to kick off the road trip, the Senators capitalized from the speed of Xavier Bourgault. From a defensive zone faceoff, the L’Islet, QC native burst up the ice to a loose puck and beat Pens starter Joel Blomqvist five hole with 2:36 left in the first.
The hosts tied in the second and moved ahead early in the third.
Down 2-1 with less than five minutes left to play, Mark Duarte made a seeing eye pass through a maze of sticks to Landon Hookey in the slot and the Belleville rookie ripped his his fourth of the year past a bewildered Mr. Blomgvist to tie the game at 2-2.
In overtime, Mr. Bourgault and Lassi Thompson broke in on the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton net on a 2-on-1 rush. Mr. Bourgault saucered a feed to Mr. Thompson who in turn fired home his second OT winner in as many weeks for Belleville.
Mr. Meriläinen made 27 stops in the win.
After playing in Cleveland twice this weekend, the Sens are in Rochester February 4 and Syracuse February 6. They finally return home to face the Crunch on the backend of a home-and-home series February 7.
See it in the newspaper
-11° Sunny
