Senators break Marlies hearts on Valentine’s Day

The Belleville Senators have won back to back games and four straight at CAA Arena, after hanging on to beat the rival Toronto Marlies (AHL affiliate of the Toronto Maple Leafs) 5-3 on Friday night.

Four different Senators found the net, and Leevi Merilainen picked up a win in his fourth consecutive start. The Senators collected their 20th victory of the season, improving their record to 20-16-2-4. Belleville still sits five points behind the Syracuse Crunch, who also won Friday, for the final playoff spot in the North Division.

In a reversal of the trend that’s plagued Belleville most of the season, the Senators have been making a habit of scoring first lately. They did it again on Friday night via captain Garrett Pilon, who found the puck out front and lifted a backhand shot into the roof of the net, over Dennis Hildeby. Sam Gagner picked up an assist on the play, along with Wyatt Bongiovanni, after all three Sens players had at least a point on Wednesday as well. The Senators were outshot 15-8 despite taking a 1-0 lead to the dressing room after 20 minutes.

The Senators brought more energy into the second and clamped down their defence, putting nine shots on net compared to Toronto’s 10 and also extended the lead to 2-0 inside the final minute of the frame. Cole Reinhardt carried the puck into the offensive zone with speed and fired it across to Stephen Halliday, who redirected in his 14th goal of the season and third in the last two games.

The teams traded goals to start the third period, with Wyatt Bongiovanni beating Hildeby in close at 4:10, and Toronto’s Roni Hirvonen breaking the Merilainen shutout bid one minute later. Angus Crookshank put one past Hildeby from the far circle about 10 minutes after that to make it 4-1 Senators, but Jacob Quillan scored for Toronto a little over a minute after that, and then Joseph Blandisi counted with the extra attacker out and the Marlie’s net empty, making it a one-goal game.

But, the Senators would hang on and get some insurance, via Donovan Sebrango scored for the third consecutive game, depositing a long-distance empty net goal, and extending the lead back to 5-3, and

The two teams will meet again on Saturday afternoon at Coca-Cola Coliseum.

See the game highlights here.

You can see the complete box score by clicking here.

Fast Facts:

#5 Wyatt Bongiovanni scored and had an assist. He was named the game’s second star and is tied for the Senators goal scoring lead with Angus Crookshank (17).
#6 Donovan Sebrango scored his sixth goal of the season and has now scored in three straight games.He also had a team-high four shots on goal.
#9 Angus Crookshank scored his 17th goal of the season and is tied for the team goal scoring lead with Wyatt Bongiovanni.
#21 Max Guenette had an assist, giving him points in back-to-back games.
#22 Garrett Pilon scored his sixth goal of the season and registered his 26th assist. He also had two shots on goal and was named the game’s first star.
#23 Cole Reinhardt notched his 11th assist and had a team-high four shots on goal.
#34 Stephen Halliday scored his 14th goal of the season. The rookie forward leads the Senators in points (34 – 14 G + 20 A).
#35 Leevi Merilainen went a stretch of 105:09 without allowing a goal, between Wednesday‘s shutout victory and the third period of tonight‘s game. He stopped 34/37 shots to earn his ninth win of the season and was named the game’s third star.
#48 Filip Roos registered his 10th assist and has points in back-to-back games (two assists).
#89 Sam Gagner had his second consecutive two-assist game. The Senators are 5-0-0-0 when Gagner has a point.