The Belleville Senators went into Laval Friday night to take on the Rocket and left on a high note after blowing them out 6-2.
Heading into Friday’s matchup the divisional rivals were knotted in the season series so far with to wins apiece in four games against each other so far.
It was Laval who opened the scoring when Tobie Paquette-Bisson scored past Belleville goaltender Mads Sogaard eight minutes into the first to take a 1-0 lead.
After ten minutes of a Rocket lead, B-Sens leading scorer Jake Lucchini scored his team leading eight goal of the season to knot the game at one.
Despite three power play opportunities in the first the Senators were unable to capitalize and the game remained tied heading into the intermission.
In the second it was all Belleville as Cedric Pare, Egor Sokolov and Cole Reinhardt all scored to make it 4-1 Belleville.
The B-Sens had another trio of power play opportunities in the frame but only Pare was able to score on the man advantage.
Matthew Wedman widened the gap for Belleville just three-and-a-half minutes into the third period with his fourth goal of the season to make it 5-1 for Belleville.
A few minutes later Laval’s Corey Schueneman scored to cut it to 5-2 but recent addition Chris Wilkie scored his third goal in six games as a Senator to ice a 6-2 win for Belleville.
Leading the way on the score sheet for Belleville were Dillon Heatherington, who managed four assists in the winning effort, and Egor Sokolov who scored his third of the season and added two assists.
Mads Sogaard had another excellent night between the pipes for Belleville as he stopped 32 of 34 shots faced to collect his fifth win of the year and twelfth of his pro career.
After the game Heatherington, the night’s first star, said they expected Laval to come out strong.
“Absolutely. In their home building they come out so strong. We knew that they had a week of practice and we’re on the road so they’re going to come out hard and they did that. I thought we settled in and then we were lucky to get it tied up in the first and roll from there.”
After Pare’s second period power play goal opened the floodgates for Belleville Head Coach Troy Mann commented on how the power play has been able to help the team.
“The power play had its early struggles and, obviously, we had a lot of moving parts within the lineup but you see tonight, it’s up over 20 per cent and that’s where you like to see your power play. It’s a momentum changer for us. I know [Assistant Coach David Bell] was a little bit frustrated we didn’t score on the five-on-three but I did feel that it gave us really good momentum for the rest of the period.”
The win moves the B-Sens to 7-8-0 on the season.
Next on the docket for Belleville is a home game against the Rocket Saturday night at CAA Arena.
The puck drops at 7 p.m. and live coverage on 800 CJBQ begins at 6:50 p.m.
