Photo: Belleville Senators
The following article was written by Matt Tidcombe.
Gabriel Gagne had the game-winner for the second straight game as the Belleville Senators beat the Hartford Wolf Pack 5-1 Friday night.
Gagne, who had the winner last Saturday in the Sens’ historic first franchise win, redirected Andreas Englund’s point shot past Hartford (3-2-0-0) goaltender Chris Nell with 7:54 to play in the second.
Belleville (2-3-0-0) also got goals from Jack Rodewald, Christian Jaros, Max Reinhart and Tyler Randell while Danny Taylor made 32 saves. Nell stopped 23 shots while the Wolf Pack got its lone goal from Cole Schneider.
Jaros grabbed his first professional North American goal as he wired a slap shot pass Nell 6:36 of the second with the man advantage. Max Lajoie was credited with an assist on the goal, giving the Calgary native his first professional point.
The Senators pushed its lead to 4-1 at 7:44 of the third as Reinhart gathered a loose puck after Daniel Ciampini forced a turnover and the BC native went top shelf to get his first goal of the season.
Belleville opened the scoring for only the second time all season as Rodewald buried a loose puck moments after Nick Paul had been denied on a breakaway at 4:29 of the first period. However, it took the hosts only 48 seconds to tie it up as Schneider found himself all alone in front of goal before beating Taylor with a backhander.
Randell completed the scoring with an empty-netter with 1:27 to play off of a Francis Perron pass.
Belleville went a perfect 6-for-6 on the penalty kill while converting one of their six opportunities with the man advantage.
Both captain Mike Blunden and defenceman Erik Burgdoerfer left the game with injuries and did not return.
The Senators return to action Saturday night as they face the Providence Bruins at 7:05pm. Saturday’s match-up can be seen live on www.theahl.com through their AHL Live application (subscription required) or at Shoeless Joe’s in Belleville. The radio broadcast on CJBQ 800 begins at 6:50pm with Jack Miller on the call.
