(Senators defenceman Andreas Englund)
The Belleville Senators won’t have to look far to see what went wrong in Laval last night.
An ineffective power play that not only went 0 for 6 but also yielded two short handed goals gave the Rocket a 3-2 win over the visiting B-Sens.
Belleville had goals from Jack Rodewald (7th) and Gabriel Gagne (16th) while Danny Taylor made 24 saves. Jeremy Gregoire, Kyle Baun and Daniel Audette scored for the Rocket with Charlie Lindgren turning aside 25 shots.
The Sens struck first with 4:01 left in the opening frame on Rodewald’s seventh of the year — on his 24th birthday — as he tipped in Jordan Murray’s point shot from the blueline. With Belleville on the power play, they conceded their seventh short-handed goal of the season as Gregoire broke in 2-on-1 and beat Taylor with just 39.6 seconds left in the first period to make it 1-1.
In the second period the Rocket struck through Baun’s fourth of the season as he converted a give-and-go with Antoine Waked at 3:05 before the hosts extended its lead at 9:39 as Audette scored the Rocket’s second shorty of the night on an odd man rush. But Belleville got back within one with 2:10 left in the second as Gagne benefited from Max Reinhart hard work as he forced a turnover behind the net with the puck squirting out front to Gagne who turned and fired past Lindgren. However Belleville was unable to find the equalizer.
Rodewald, who missed the previous 4 games with an upper body injury says despite the 2 short handed goals, Belleville was still in a position to win.
B-Sens coach Kurt Kleinendorst says his team wasn’t prepared to play.
The Senators return home for 3 games beginning Friday night against the Toronto Marlies (7:05.) The Hershey Bears make their only appearance at the Yardmen on Saturday night. The Utica Comets make their first stop at the Yardmen on Family Day at 3pm. All games can be heard on CJBQ and cjbq.com.
