FROM THE BELLEVILLE SENATORS
The Belleville Senators made it 15 straight games with at least a point after a 5-3 win over the Rochester Americans.
The Senators’ Marcus Hogberg made 33 saves while Nick Paul (2), Darren Archibald (2) and Stefan Elliott scored. Rochester’s Sean Malone, Andrew Oglevie and Tyler Randell found the back of the net while Adam Wilcox turned away 20 shots.
After being unable to score on its first two power play chances the third opportunity resulted in an even worse outcome as the Amerks opened the scoring at 11:04 on a short-handed effort after Hogberg turned the puck over behind the net to CJ Smith who centered to Malone who buried his third of the year on an open net.
GAME HIGHLIGHTS AND MORE BELOW
Elliott tied the game at 1-1 5:12 into the second as he stepped inside a Rochester defenceman before beating Wilcox with a backhander on the blocker side as he grabbed his sixth goal of the year in a Belleville jersey and seventh of the season.
Rochester restored its lead at 9:44 of the second period through Oglevie but it took all of 20 seconds for the Sens to tie the game as Archibald buried one low on Wilcox from a tight angle off of the left boards.
Belleville had the lead at 14:16 as Paul redirected Andreas Englund’s point shot to notch his 10th of the year and give the Senators a 3-2 edge.
Hogberg denied Matt Tennyson with 6:50 left in the third on a huge save on a 2-on-1 Rochester effort and it proved to be a huge moment as Belleville pushed its lead to 4-2 with 5:08 left as Paul buried Boston Leier’s drop pass for his second of the night.
Archibald sealed the deal with an empty-netter with 2:30 to play from centre ice. Randell made it 5-3 with 9.3 seconds to play.
Vitaly Abramov made his Belleville debut while Max Lajoie, who had an assist, played in his first game after his reassignment by Ottawa.
Belleville returns to action Friday when they host the Manitoba Moose at CAA Arena.
POST GAME REACTION BELOW
