The Belleville Senators struggles continued, as they conceded two more points to a North Division rival.
Three third period markers broke a 2-2 tie and gave the Laval Rocket a 5-2 victory over the B-Sens on Friday night at CAA Arena, Belleville’s fifth loss in a row.
Celebrating Community Heroes Night, the Sens again found themselves down fairly early when Florian Xhekaj got a piece of a blueline wrister from Adam Engstrom at the 5:12 mark of the first period.
Belleville grinded away with Mads Sogaard making some large stops to take away some quality opportunities from the pressing Rocket.
Laval eventually upgraded to a 2-0 lead when Josh Roy one-timed a Sammy Blais feed through a sliding Sogaard’s legs exactly 10 minutes after the opening goal.
Belleville continued to show good resolve and came up with some decent chances in the late stages of the frame but were still stuck by two going into the intermission.
The Sens matched Laval’s intensity in the second and managed to get back into the game.
Not long after killing a penalty, the Sens got on the board courtesy of Arthur Kaliyev, as the red-hot forward caught a Keean Washkurak pass on the rush and buried a snapshot over Jacob Fowler’s right shoulder for his team-leading 15th of the year.
The second assist came on a long outlet feed from Lassi Thomson at the 12:09 mark, as the marker gave Kaliyev goals in his last four games in a row.
A Belleville powerplay paid dividends in a tying goal, as a cycle play started by Olle Lycksell and Xavier Bourgault was finished by Phil Daoust on a shot that squeezed through the pads of Fowler at 16:05.
The Barrie, Ontario native’s fifth of the year kept the Sens tied going into the third period.
After not seeing any offensive action in the early goings of the third, the Rocket eventually took advantage of their first good opportunity of the period through an Alex Belzile strike to jump back ahead by one at 8:44.
Florian Xhekaj and Sean Farrell iced it with back-to-back empty-netters to put Laval up 5-2 and round out the night.
Laval outshot Belleville 36-20 as the Sens fell to 10-12-2-0 on the season.
The Sens have a chance to hit back Saturday at 7 p.m. when they rematch with the Rocket.
