BSens Split Weekend Series

The Belleville Senators were incredibly busy this weekend as they played on Friday, Saturday and Sunday.

On Friday, the good guys took on the Hershey Bears at CAA Arena. With the Great Dane™ between the pipes, the home team got to work early. Jonathan Aspirot scored his second of the year about halfway through the first to give Belleville the lead. It didn’t take much time for the Bears to answer back, however, as Mike Sgarbossa evened things up just three minutes later.

Early in the second, Hershey took their first lead of the game, putting Belleville on their heels for the first time in this one. Everyone’s favourite teddy bear Egor Sokolov buried his 15th of the season later in the frame to bring the two teams back to a deadlock.

With the third period seeing no action, extra time was required. Luckily for Belleville, Roby Järventie was up to the task.

Roby Jarventie records his 10th of the year in overtime for the @BellevilleSens in #HERvsBEL. pic.twitter.com/6e9UBUVrIO

— American Hockey League (@TheAHL) March 19, 2022

In the second game of the weekend, the Hartford Wolf Pack came to town for a dance with the Senators. With the busy schedule, Head Coach Troy Mann turned to newly signed Logan Flodell in net.

Unfortunately for Flodell, the BSens didn’t bring quite the same firepower that we’re used to seeing. Despite firing 29 shots on the Hartford net, Belleville was only able to bury a pair of goals in this one - compared to five for the Wolf Pack.

A fun, quirky little stat for you Belleville fans in the comments is that this game started eerily like Friday’s contest. On Friday, Aspirot gave Belleville the lead at the 10:27 mark of the first period. On Friday, Aspirot gave Belleville the lead at the 10:45 mark of the first period. Fun, right?

Unfortunately, as we know, the fun didn’t last. Cole Reinhardt did give Belleville a 2-1 lead early in the second but that was the last of it for the BSens as Hartford scored four unanswered following Reinhardt’s tally.

On Sunday, a tired BSens group took a quick road trip to Syracuse to face the Crunch. Unlike the first two games of the weekend, the opposition was the first to score as Gabriel Fortier buried his 12th of the year early in the first. Newly reassigned Parker Kelly got his club right back in the game, however, with his fourth of the season followed by this bullet by Maxence Guenette late in the opening frame.

what a ✨ 𝓼𝓷𝓲𝓹𝓮 ✨ pic.twitter.com/12UROLaWbQ

— Belleville Senators (@BellevilleSens) March 21, 2022

Halfway through the second, Clark Bishop buried his first of the season to give Belleville the 3-1 lead. Guenette tallied his second point of the night with a primary assist. Throughout the rest of the game, it was mostly Syracuse. The Crunch managed to have this one tied up by the time the early third period was upon us. Then Bishop tapped in his second of the season - and of the night - to regain the Belleville lead.

🥵🥵🥵 pic.twitter.com/ZEQDX4hDBO

— Belleville Senators (@BellevilleSens) March 21, 2022

Unfortunately, Belleville wasn’t able to hold the lead through the end of the game and dropped this one in extra time.

Belleville, for the second straight week, went 1-1-1 through three games. While they held onto the third spot in the North last week, they happened to drop to sixth this week. That’s how tight the division is. That being said, the two teams who have passed Belleville in the standings have played four and five more games than the Senators. The North sure is looking like it’ll be a photo finish at this point.

Weekly Notes

• It should come as no surprised based on this recap that Jonathan Aspirot is the first player mentioned here. Aspirot scored twice this week, opening the scoring in both Friday and Saturday’s contests. The 23 year old defender has now eclipsed last years point totals in just two more games - while being three points from beating his personal best.
• Mads Søgaard stoped 73 of the 80 shots he faced for a 0.913 SV% and a 1-0-1 record on the week.
• Not only were the BSens disciplined this week - giving their opponents just six opportunities with the man advantage through three games - but they were also excellent on the penalty kill, successful in 83% of their kills.
• After returning from a lengthy injury, it took Clark Bishop 17 AHL games to finally score a goal. I’m certain a weight is lifted off of Bishop’s shoulders as he netted a pair of goals and an assist this week.
• Offensively, Jacob Bernard Docker has had a relatively quiet season this year in Belleville but he compiled two assists this weekend while playing his usual steady game in his own zone.
• Maxence Guenette had a pair of points this week, as well, which is fantastic to see. The right shot defender now has 17 points through 40 games in his rookie year in the AHL./