Photo: Belleville Senators
The Belleville Senators began the second half of their long road trip in Cleveland, taking on the Monsters for the first game of a back-to-back, falling 6-5.
The first period was a high-scoring affair, with the Monsters striking first. A breakout started by Hunter McKown and Zach Aston-Reese saw Corson Ceulemans cut in and squeak a tight-angle shot past through for a 1-0 lead.
Just over midway through the period, the Senators responded with a defender goal of their own.
A hard battle down low by Tyler Boucher allowed the puck to slip out to Philippe Daoust, who fed Jorian Donovan in front for his fourth of the season and a 1-1 tie. Cleveland quickly regained the edge with two goals in rapid succession.
Just 22 seconds after the Senators’ equalizer, Hudson Fasching sent Jack Williams into the offensive zone, where he buried a wraparound tally to make it 2-1.
Under two minutes later, sustained pressure in the Belleville zone resulted in a James Malatesta shot that produced a rebound for Caleb MacDonald, who scored his second of the year to give the Monsters a 3-1 lead.
Scoring did not slow down in the second frame, as Belleville cut into the deficit. Arthur Kaliyev snapped his pointless streak by potting his twenty-seventh of the season off a feed from Daoust and Boucher to make it 3-2.
The Monsters answered once again with two swift tallies. First, a point shot from Ceulemans was tipped in by Justin Pearson, restoring Cleveland’s two-goal cushion.
Just over a minute later, Williams fed Owen Sillinger from behind the net, extending Sillinger’s goal streak to four games and pushing the lead to 5-2. Belleville added one more before the end of the period.
Strong work down low by Carter Yakemchuk got the puck to Jamieson Rees, whose backhand on net created a rebound that Oskar Pettersson put away, sending the game into the final period with Cleveland ahead 5-3.
Just one minute and two seconds into the third, the Senators struck early. A pass from below the goal line by Garrett Pilon found Olle Lycksell, who buried his seventh of the year to make it 5-4.
Cleveland restored the two-goal lead just before the midway point of the period when Luca Pinelli set up the former Belleville Bull Brendan Gaunce, who streaked past a defender and beat Leevi Merilainen to make it 6-4.
Belleville pulled within one again as their power play expired. A hard one-timer from Lassi Thomson at the blue line kicked off the pad of Ivan Fedotov and right to Tyler Boucher, who trimmed the lead to 6-5.
The Senators mounted a formidable push in the final minutes but were unable to complete the comeback, falling 6-5.
The Senators will get right back at it tomorrow against these same Monsters inside Rocket Arena, with puck drop at 7 p.m.
