The Belleville Senators were able to bite back at the defending Calder Cup Champions on Friday night, knocking off the Hershey Bears 4-3 in overtime at CAA Arena and returning the favour after a loss in Chocolatetown, Pennsylvania last week.
Despite Belleville looking like the stronger team out of the gate, Hershey would strike twice to start the scoring. Matt Strome netted his fourth goal of the season, beating Mark Sinclair at 5:48, followed by Nickey Leiverman’s first American Hockey League goal at 13:38.
Belleville would break the goose egg at 15:13 when Jamieson Rees walked out from behind the goal line and popped his second of the season over the shoulder of Clay Stevenson. That lead lasted about three and a half minutes until Mike Vecchione beat Sinclair five-hole for his 10th of the campaign. Oskar Pettersson would get one back for Belleville before the period ended, beating Stevenson high for his fourth goal of the year to make it 3-2 Bears after 20 minutes.
Angus Crookshank scored the only goal of the second, evening the game at three by finishing off a sweet passing play from Stephen Halliday and Sam Gagner on the power play at 16:31. Despite winning the period; the Senators were outshot 11-5 in the frame.
There was no scoring in the third period. The Bears outshot Belleville 7-6, sending the Senators to overtime for the ninth time this season.
The Senators would take just one minute and 40 seconds of the extra frame to seal the win. Halliday took a pass from Filip Roos, walked into the high slot and wired his ninth goal of the season home to give Belleville the victory.
The win improves Belleville’s record on the season to 16-13-1-4 and 7-7-1-2 on home ice. The Senators and Bears will tangle again tomorrow night at CAA Arena, with a 7:00 p.m. puck drop, for their third of four meetings this season.
