The Belleville Senators fell 4-3 to the Rochester Americans last (Friday) night on a goal with two seconds left in regulation.
Filip Gustavsson stopped 27 shots while Jordan Murray, Joseph LaBate, Vitaly Abramov scored. Rochester’s Jonas Johansson made 33 saves as Zach Redmond, Eric Cornel, Lawrence Pilut and Taylor Leier had goals.
It took just 2:59 for Belleville to take a 1-0 lead as Murray scored his third of the year on a point shot using a screen to get the puck past Johansson.
Murray would find himself in the penalty box 1:13 later and the Sens were penalized as Redmond just about squeezed a one-timer through Gustavsson at 4:48 to tie the game at 1-1.
Rochester had its first lead at 4:14 of the second frame through Cornel as he finished off a 2-on-1 after burying Scott Wilson’s pass after Belleville had turned the puck over.
LaBate squared things up at 2-2 on a pure hustle goal as he outworked the Amerks defence to get a hold of Cole Cassels’ dump in before firing high over the left shoulder of Johansson at 13:51 for his third of the campaign.
The Sens re-took the lead at 18:05 as the Russian winger broke in down the left wing and tried to center to Drake Batherson but had his pass blocked only for the puck to fall back on his stick to deposit into the net for his 12th of the season.
Pilut’s fourth of the year came with 7:51 left in the third to make it a 3-3 game as he used a ton of traffic in front of Gustavsson to fire home the tying goal.
The hosts won the game with two seconds left as with Jack Dougherty in the penalty box, Leier tipped in a Pilut point shot for a 4-3 victory.
ABOVE ARTICLE BY MATT TIDCOMBE OF THE BELLEVILLE SENATORS
Belleville returns to the ice tonight (Saturday) to complete a 3-in-3 when they host Syracuse on Star Wars night at the CAA Arena. Puck drop is 7:05 and CJBQ’s broadcast begins at 6:50.
Below is Jack Miller’s interview with the Senators Head Coach Troy Mann.
