The Belleville Senators will have to wait to clinch a Calder Cup Playoff berth as they fell 6-0 to the Syracuse Crunch on Friday night at Upstate Medical University Arena.
Syracuse would be paced offensively by Anthony Richard, Charles Hudon (2), Riley Nash, Gabriel Fortier and Gemel Smith, who all found the back of the net while netminder Max Lagace made 27 saves for his fourth shutout of the season.
Controlling the contest from the outset, Syracuse took an earlier 1-0 lead into the first intermission. The Crunch’s offensive production continued throughout the middle stanza as they scored three more unanswered goals to chase Mads Sogaard as Mitch Gilliam replaced him in net with 3:09 left to play in the middle stanza. In the final frame, Syracuse tallied twice more to extend their advantage to make it a 6-0 final.
Sens On Special Teams
Power Play: 0/3| Penalty Kill: 3/5
Fast Facts
- Mitch Gillam made his Belleville Senators debut turning aside 13 of 15 shots in relief.
- Belleville was outshot 40-27 on the night.
- The Senators’ five-game winning streak came to an end tonight.
Sound Bytes
Head Coach Troy Mann:
“I’m not worried about tonight’s game at all. Whether it was 4-0 or 6-0, we took Sogaard out for a reason. I pretty much knew the game was over. We just didn’t have it early, and the discipline got us down 4-0 and we weren’t coming back from 4-0 tonight. That could’ve turned into seven, eight or nine, and that’s the reason Sogaard came out because quite frankly I didn’t care what the score ended up. I’m not worried about that. I’m just focused on getting us ready for Sunday.”
Playoff Push
With tonight’s loss, Belleville has dropped in the standings and now sit in fourth place in the North Division trailing Syracuse by .014 percentage points.
Links
|Box Score | Highlights | Troy Mann Scrum | North Division Standings |
On the Schedule
The Belleville Senators are back in action Sunday afternoon when they visit the Toronto Marlies. You can hear the game on the Senators’ Official Broadcast Partner 800 AM CJBQ or see it on AHL TV. Coverage begins at 3:50 p.m. ET with David Foot.
