The Belleville Senators erased a three-goal deficit but ultimately fell 5-3 to the Syracuse Crunch Friday night.
Belleville’s Marcus Hogberg made 26 saves while Filip Chlapik, Jack Rodewald and Morgan Klimchuk scored. Carter Verhaeghe, Andy Andreoff, Ross Colton, Alex Volkov and Dennis Yan scored for the Crunch while Eddie Pasquale stopped 19 shots.
The Crunch took advantage of the Senators getting into penalty trouble early on as they scored two power play goals in less than three minutes. Verhaeghe made it 1-0 Syracuse just 1:03 in after Max McCormick was penalized for tripping only six seconds into the game before the hosts doubled its lead on a 5-on-3 goal as Andreoff potted a loose puck in the crease into an open net after Hogberg had made the initial save at 4:01.
Syracuse made it 3-0 at 4:29 of the second period as Colton redirected Nolan Valleau’s point shot that Hogberg saved but the rebound hit Stefan Elliott in the helmet and trickled over the goal line before Chlapik got Belleville on the board with his 10th of the year as fired a wrister through traffic on the man advantage at 6:34.
The Sens cut the deficit to a goal with 13.4 seconds left as Rodewald took Jordan Murray’s cross-ice feed before beating Pasquale high for his 15th of the season as Belleville trailed 3-2 after 40 minutes.
After Boris Katchouk rang the post in the opening minute of the third, Klimchuk tied the game at 6:07 on a wicked release off of Rodewald’s pass for his second goal in a Sens jersey.
Sens defenceman Andreas Englund saved a goal with an unbelievable play with his stick on Andreoff but on the same power play Volkov gave Syracuse the lead on a one-timer with 7:36 to play. Yan sealed the win with an empty-net goal with a minute left.
Belleville is back in action Saturday against Utica at 2pm after inclement weather moved the start time up from 7pm. The Senators return home Jan. 25 to host Toronto.
Matt Tidcombe/Belleville Senators
