The Belleville Senators had their long awaited homecoming regular season game in front of a full crowd for the first time since February of 2020 Saturday night, and they didn’t disappoint.
The B-Sens played host to the Laval Rocket in their second regular season game of the season 24 hours after losing to Laval 6-2 on the road.
Belleville scored early and often, with new acquisition and former Rocket Jake Luccini opening the score just under four minutes into the game with a goal assisted by Kole Sherwood.
Luccini scored his second of the game just six minutes later to bring the score to 2-0 for Belleville.
Before the first period was up Belleville further added to the lead when Matthew Wedman potted his second of the young season and just two minutes later Lassi Thomson capitalized on a Danick Martel tripping penalty to extend the lead to 4-0 with a power play marker.
Despite firing 11 shots on net in the second period the B-Sens were unable to get another past Rocket goaltender Michael McNiven and the score remained at 4-0 for Belleville.
Laval pushed back in the third period and finally managed to solve B-Sens goalie Mads Sogaard, playing his second game in as many nights, when Laval centre Laurent Dauphin scored.
With just over three minutes to go, Pontus Aberg added an empty netter to seal the game for Belleville.
Dauphin added another goal late but the deficit proved to be too great and the Senators cruised to a 5-2 win.
Sogaard bounced back nicely after a shaky outing in the first game in which he was pulled after allowing five goals on 17 shots.
He posted a cool 24 saves on 26 shots for the night to add another win to his total while Belleville shot the puck on net 30 times.
Belleville spread the offence around with Luccini leading the way with two goals and Kole Sherwood chipped in two assists.
The win brings Belleville to 1-1 on the season and made for an exciting homecoming after playing the previous shortened season in Ottawa without fans in attendance.
Next up on the docket for the B-Sens are the Cleveland Monsters, who come to town to play two games this coming Friday and Saturday at CAA arena.
The puck drops Friday at 7 p.m.
