It was another difficult night for the Belleville Senators Friday as they continued their four-game North Division road trip.
The Sens gave up five power play goals against en route to a 6-3 loss to the division-leading Rochester Americans (AHL affiliate of the Buffalo Sabres) at the Blue Cross Arena in Rochester, New York.
Sens Head Coach Dave Bell wasn’t happy with his team’s start on Wednesday night in Utica, and he wouldn’t have been again on Friday. Belleville took an early four-minute high-sticking penalty that led to Americans’ Captain Mason Jobst getting in alone on a breakaway and beating Malcolm Subban low to open the scoring about five minutes in. The Sens would get one back at 9:42 after the puck got poked away from Jan Jenik and landed on the stick of Angus Crookshank, who netted his team-leading 18th goal of the season past Michael Houser. However, penalty trouble would plague the Senators twice more, with Rochester’s Brett Murray and Josh Dunne scoring on the man advantage before the end of the period, sending Belleville to the dressing room down 3-1. Belleville was outshot 9-4 in the period.
Belleville would find its attacking form in the second period, outshooting Rochester 14-8 in the frame, but still weren’t able to beat Houser again. Meanwhile, the Amerks would end up counting again on a power play, this time from a Zachary Metsa wrist shot from the point, extending their lead to 4-1.
The Senators added two more goals in the third period, but they didn’t come inside until the final two minutes, and after Rochester had found the net twice more as well. The Amerks got goals from Ryan Johnson less than a minute into the period, followed up by another power play marker from Konsta Helenius 10 minutes later. Phil Daoust would pot his third of the season on the power play with a minute and a half to play, extending his point streak to three games, and Keean Washkurak tallied inside the final minute to cut the final difference to 6-3.
The Sens will look for their road legs again this weekend when they visit the Cleveland Monsters (noon Sunday) for the first time since last season’s Calder Cup Playoffs. They now trail the Syracuse Crunch by four points for the final playoff position in the North, after a Syracuse victory over Toronto on Friday night.
See game highlights here.
