The Belleville Senators returned to home ice Saturday night to finish off their home-and-home set versus the Comets, dropping a 5–1 finish.
The Comets opened the scoring early in the Friendly City. A long, screened shot from the point off the stick of Marc McLaughlin got through, off a pass from Nathan Legare, to put the Comets up 1-0 just over two minutes into the game.
The second period was a high-scoring affair, starting with the Senators tying it up. A pass from Hayden Hodgson found Carter Yakemchuk, who showed patience before picking a corner and scoring his eighth of the season to make it a 1-1 game. The Comets responded just over halfway through the period to regain the lead. Xavier Parent buried his eleventh, with help from Calen Addison and Matyas Melovsky, for a 2-1 game. Utica then struck for two quick goals. On the power play, Parent scored his second of the night from the high circle to extend the lead to 3-1. Nine seconds later, following a faceoff win, McLaughlin sent Jonathan Gruden in on a two-on-one, and he finished it to make it 4-1 for Utica. The Comets added another before the end of the period. A scramble in front, caused by Ryan Schmelzer, along with a pass from Topias Vilen, set up Parent for his hat-trick goal and a 5-1 contest.
In the third, Belleville outshot Utica 10- 4 and generated three power-play opportunities, but they were unable to cut into the deficit, resulting in a 5-1 final.
See the game highlights here.
Belleville will again have another good break before starting up another home-and-home series against the Utica Comets. The first contest will come on Friday March 6th, back at Adirondack Bank Center with the puck coming down at 7:00 p.m.
