The Belleville Senators stayed true to their identity Saturday night at Adirondack Bank Center as they battled to a hard-fought 4-1 victory over the Eastern Conference-leading Utica Comets and stretched their winning streak to three straight.
After Utica opened the scoring at 15:49 of the first period, Belleville got on the board through rookie forward Viktor Lodin at 6:34 of the middle stanza and didn’t look back. Later in the second, Clark Bishop and captain Logan Shaw connected to find the back of the net with just 15 seconds remaining in the frame as the Senators took a 2-1 lead into the intermission. Belleville would tally twice more in the final frame as Scott Sabourin scored into an empty net at 19:14 before Mark Kastelic made no mistake finishing off an Egor Sokolov rebound with just seven seconds left in regulation time.
Sens On Special Teams
Power Play: 0/3 | Penalty Kill: 3/3
Fast Facts
- Mads Sogaard made 25 saves in the win.
- Belleville had a winning record of 3-2-1-0 in their six-game regular-season series with Utica.
- Viktor Lodin has tallied in back-to-back games and has points in three straight.
- Clark Bishop recorded his 50th career AHL assist.
- Andrew Agozzino and Clark Bishop both collected two assists on the night.
Sound Bytes
Head Coach Troy Mann:
“A lot of gutsy performances overall. Sogaard made some big saves along the way, and the penalty kill. Just a real good effort.”
“We talked prior to the game about trying to win the week, and this is a concept that we talked about on February 1, and my thoughts were if you could win all your weeks, you’re going to be in a playoff spot on April 30 so for us to split that would’ve been okay but for us to get six out of eight points guarantees us to be in a playoff position going into Monday and that’s what we wanted. I thought the guys really dug deep today and really can’t ask for much more.”
Playoff Push
With wins in three straight, Belleville continues to climb the North Divison standings and has moved into fourth place, 006 percentage points ahead of the Toronto Marlies.
Links
| Box Score | Highlights | Troy Mann Scrum | North Division Standings |
On the Schedule
The Belleville Senators are back in action Monday night when they host the Laval Rocket. You can hear the game on the Senators’ Official Broadcast Partner 800 AM CJBQ or see it on AHL TV. Coverage begins at 6:50 p.m. ET with Jack Miller and David Foot.
