The Belleville Senators got close at points, but couldn’t overcome one of the top teams in the American Hockey League Saturday night.
The Providence Bruins beat the Sens 6-3 in the first of two games on Hockey Fights Cancer Weekend.
Against a team that had allowed the fewest number of goals in the AHL through almost 20 games, the Sens put up a good battle in the 1st period, but ended it trailing.
Providence’s leading scorer Patrick Brown managed to open the scoring when he snuck in behind the Belleville defence and slipped a loose puck through Mads Sogaard’s legs on the backhand at 6:45.
Two European defencemen teamed up for the tying marker, with Czech Tomas Hamara setting up Lassi Thomson of Finland for the latter’s fourth of the year, a sharp shot over the left shoulder of Bruins goalie Michael DiPietro at 10:57.
Arthur Kaliyev continued his torrid season to this point with a secondary assist.
Belleville was less than a minute away from escaping the opening frame with a deadlock, until Providence went on the powerplay and scored on a rebound from Jacob Perreault after a brilliant initial save by Sogaard.
Hockey Fights Cancer Warmup Jerseys worn Saturday and Sunday to be auctioned off online. PHOTO: Belleville Senators
More than seven minutes into the second, Perreault smacked in his second of the game on a cross-crease pass from Dans Locmelis that materialized out of an intercepted cross crease pass to add to the Baby Bruins lead.
Matthew Poitras made it 4-1 in the dying seconds of the frame after a lengthy span of continuous play, whipping home a loose puck in front of Sogaard to boost Providence’s cause.
Belleville’s first two powerplays of the game turned out to be worth the wait, as Kaliyev and Xavier Bourgault both capitalized only 18 seconds apart on consecutive penalties.
Kaliyev got himself in the middle, took a Stephen Halliday pass and rifled a shot underneath the catching arm of DiPietro, then Bourgault buried a rebound off a Carter Yakemchuk shot to close the gap to one.
The brewing momentum was quickly dashed on a penalty from the ensuing centre ice faceoff, as Locmelis took full advantage by ripping a shot top shelf, knocking the cap off Sogaard’s water bottle behind his net.
Providence iced the game with an empty netter from Jake Schmaltz with a shade under two minutes remaining in regulation and ran away with its 15th win in 18 games to start the season.
Madoc native and former Quinte Red Devil, Trenton Golden Hawk and Wellington Duke Dalton Bancroft made his return to the Quinte region for the first time as a professional and had a good physical showing.
It was quality over quantity in shots, with Providence besting Belleville by only a 25-19 count.
The loss drops the Sens to 10-9-2-0 on the year ahead of a second straight game versus Providence on shorter rest at 3 p.m. Sunday.
