The Belleville Senators future showed off in the present to brighten the spirits of the home crowd in their final game of 2025-26 at CAA Arena.
Hoyt Stanley and Blake Montgomery both notched their first AHL goals and Kevin Riedler made 24 saves for his maiden professional victory in a 6-4 win over the Syracuse Crunch on Friday night.
Prior to the contest, the Sens handed out their annual awards as part of the team’s Fan Appreciation Night (see below).
The Sens were outshot early but found a way to stay in the game thanks to the strong goaltending of and clawed back with chances of their own late in the first frame.
The game entered the second deadlocked at zeroes, but it wouldn’t be long before the Sens found some success on the offensive side.
As a Sens powerplay expired, the Crunch failed to clear a puck out of their zone and the Sens took advantage, with Graeme Clarke knocking it down and setting up Hoyt Stanley for a one-timer upstairs on Brandon Halverson at the 6:06 juncture of the middle period.
That goal broke a more than 150-minute-long scoreless streak at home and was Stanley’s first career AHL marker after a college career at Cornell University.
Belleville couldn’t capitalize on a four-minute double minor powerplay, but continued to build danger in the Syracuse zone.
Riedler was stellar, making no less than three or four brilliant glove saves to protect the slim margin of advantage for Belleville.
That margin was widened a bit by Blake Montgomery, with the former Wisconsin Badger pulling away from a backchecking Crunch defender and tucking a backhand shot under the glove of Halverson for his first AHL tally, assisted by Clarke and Scott Harrington.
That kicked off a third frame that featured a bucketful of goals on each side
Not along after, the Sens expanded the lead by one more notch through Arthur Kaliyev’s team and league leading 40th of the campaign, cleaning up a shot from Carter Yakemchuk that squeezed through Halverson’s pads.
Credited with the second helper on the faceoff win was Xavier Bourgault.
Syracuse managed to spoil the shutout bid of Riedler on an Ethan Samson shot after the puck pinballed off a couple Belleville players, but the three-goal lead was swiftly restored on Bourgault’s 24th of the year just 25 seconds later.
Not going away quietly, the Crunch pulled back to within one in 19 seconds on successive markers from Gabriel Szturc and Samson, but Yakemchuk and Bourgault managed to team up on a rush to keep the Sens above water with a 5-3 lead.
Clarke added his third helper of the night on the goal.
Szturc swept home Syracuse’s fourth goal of the year with just under three minutes to play in regulation, but the persistent Crunch couldn’t fight all the way back.
Keean Washkurak put the game away with an empty-netter with 1:20 to go, giving Belleville a win in its final home contest of the AHL campaign.
One last road trip is in store for the Sens to Syracuse to round out the regular season at 7 p.m. Saturday.
2025-26 Belleville Senators Team Awards
Rookie of the Year- Carter Yakemchuk
Defenceman of the Year- Lassi Thomson
Fan’s Choice- Garrett Pilon
Coaches’ Choice- Phillippe Daoust
Players’ Choice- Scott Harrington
Team MVP/1st Team All-Star- Arthur Kaliyev
Man of the Year- Jorian Donovan
