The Belleville Sens “never quit” attitude was front and centre again in Toronto on Friday night, but a string of bad luck led to Belleville dropping a 4-3 overtime decision, tying their best-of-three, first-round Calder Cup Playoff series with the Toronto Marlies at a game a piece.
While Toronto’s veterans were silent on Wednesday they made their presence felt immediately on Friday, opening the scoring about a minute into the game. Joseph Blandisi got a friendly bounce past Mads Sogaard to make it 1-0 Toronto. Belleville would hit a post later on, from a Nikolas Matinpalo point shot, but couldn’t get even before the end of the frame. It was one of at least five goalposts the Senators would hit throughout the night. Toronto outshot Belleville 12-7 in the period.
Belleville got burned by another bad bounce early in the second period. Toronto dumped the puck in and it pinballed off the end boards, past Mads Sogaard who had come out to make a play, and Kyle Clifford tapped it in to make it 2-0 Marlies. The Senators answered just under seven minutes later when Donovan Sebrango snapped his first Calder Cup Playoff goal past Dennis Hildeby. Toronto reinstated the two-goal lead on an odd play at 16:24. A shot looked to deflect up and over the glass, but play continued and Marshall Rifai ended up scoring his second goal in as many games. Belleville hit a couple more posts, one of which was reviewed off a laser shot from Rourke Chartier, and eventually got back within one on a five-minute major power play. With Toronto’s Kyle Clifford ejected after a hit from behind on Belleville’s Tyler Kleven, Jacob Larsson took a hard point shot that was tipped home by Garrett Pilon to make it 3-2 Toronto after two periods. Belleville had a 12-10 shot advantage in the frame.
The Senators would get even late in the third and it was Pilon finding the net for the second time, on a shot from the high slot, again on the power play, with just 20 seconds left. However, Toronto would get a fortunate bounce less than a minute into overtime, with Dylan Gambrell knocking the puck between Sogaard’s legs to end the game.
The B-Sens and Marlies will meet again in Belleville on Sunday for a deciding third game of the series, with the winner moving on to face the Cleveland Monsters in the North Division Semi-Finals.
Fast Facts:
- #4 Jacob Larsson picked up two assists and had five shots on goal.
- #5 Wyatt Bongiovsnni collected two assists.
- #6 Donovan Sebrango scored his…
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