Alex Formenton buried the overtime winner as the Belleville Senators completed its four-game road trip with a 5-4 win in Laval.
Max Veronneau, Josh Norris, Vitaly Abramov and Drake Batherson also scored for Belleville while Marcus Hogberg made 33 saves. Laval’s Charles Hudon had a hat-trick while Kevin Lynch also scored. Cayden Primeau turned aside 20 shots.
Tied at 2-2 heading into the third period, Belleville grabbed its first lead of the night through an absolutely beautiful goal by Abramov who toe-dragged around a sliding defender before going bar down on Primeau for his fourth of the year at 3:44.
Hudon made it 3-3 with seven minutes to play before Batherson restored Belleville’s lead with 5:39 left as after Primeau lost track of his initial shot, the puck fell to Norris behind the net who sent it out front to Batherson who grabbed his sixth of the year.
Laval tied the game with 1:05 to play in regulation after Hudon completed his hat-trick from the slot after his shot found its way through traffic.
But Formenton would end the game 27 seconds into overtime as from the blue line he skated right to pass two Laval defencemen before beating Primeau down low for his first career OT winner.
It was a tale of special teams for the Rocket in the first period as they jumped out to a 1-0 lead 3:34 in on a shorthanded goal by Lynch as he beat Hogberg up-high in-tight for his second of the year.
The Rocket then added a power play goal at 10:56 through Hudon who fired home a wrister from the right faceoff circle as Drake Batherson had been penalized for hooking.
Belleville came flying out of the gates to start the second period scoring twice inside the opening 1:10.
Veronneau got the Sens on the board just 11 seconds into the period as he was on-hand to bang in Alex Formenton’s back door pass after he had held onto the puck behind the net before sending it out front.
It was 2-2 as on the power play, Norris let a wrister fly from the right faceoff circle that flew past Primeau for his fifth of his rookie campaign just 59 seconds later.
Laval nearly had the lead after 40 as Lukas Vejdemo earned himself a penalty shot off of shorthanded breakaway after Michael Carcone was penalized but Hogberg came up with his biggest save of the evening to keep the game tied at 2-2.
Belleville returns to action Friday as they host Bridgeport for the first and only time this season.
Sports Director Jack Miller with his thoughts.
