Belleville Senators goaltender Filip Gustavsson. (Photo: Jason Scourse / Belleville Senators)
The Syracuse Crunch collected a 4-1 win over the Belleville Senators in the teams final meeting of the season.
In his second North American start, Filip Gustavsson made 26 saves while Boston Leier scored for Belleville. Alexander Volkov (2), Mathieu Joseph and Kevin Lynch scored for the Crunch while Eddie Pasquale made 27 saves.
Leier grabbed the opening goal of the game just 3:19 in as he took a Nick Paul pass down low, skated out front and beat Pasquale with a forehand from in-close for his second goal in as many games.
Volkov tied the game at 5:57 as he beat Gustavsson five-hole on a 2-on-1 rush for his 20th of the year before the Sens netminder would make a remarkable glove save to deny Carter Verhaeghe to keep the game tied at 1-1 heading into the first intermission.
The lone goal of the second again came from the stick of Volkov as he fired a one-timer past Gustavsson from the slot at 10:08 after taking a pass from Joseph.
It would be Joseph making it 3-1 3:16 into the final period as he snapped a shot off of a faceoff for his 15th goal of his rookie campaign.
The Sens had a chance to cut the deficit to 3-2 but Nick Paul was denied by the right pad of Pasquale on a penalty shot after he had been tripped from behind as he couldn’t lift the puck after out-deking the Crunch goaltender.
Lynch’s 14th of the year with 3:48 left in regulation pushed the Crunch lead to 4-1.
The Sens came close on multiple occasions as Jim O’Brien, Gabriel Gagne and Paul all hit iron as the Sens could muster only one goal on Pasquale.
Belleville is back in action Saturday against the Lehigh Valley Phantoms before they return home Wednesday to host Springfield.
Courtesy: Matt Tidcombe
