The Belleville Senators were left frustrated in a 4-1 loss to the Cleveland Monsters on Saturday night.
Hosting the Teddy Bear Toss for the Belleville Professional Firefighters Association Toy Drive, the Sens were held to 21 shots and couldn’t find much momentum against a stingy Cleveland unit.
The Monsters jumped ahead by a pair in the first on markers from Jack Williams and Corson Ceulemans to put Belleville behind the eight-ball again.
The Sens got the bears flying courtesy of a powerplay one-timer off the potent stick of Arthur Kaliyev at 6:50 from Carter Yakemchuk and Wyatt Bongiovanni, his 16th of the year.
The deficit was cut only briefly, as Jordan Dumais dove out and knocked a backdoor pass into a gaping Belleville cage about a minute later after a break to reinstate the two-goal lead and grab control.
Cleveland continued to employ its strong defensive stance in the middle frame, keeping the Sens largely to the outside on the chances they found.
Belleville warded off a Monsters barrage of chances in the final minute of the second and jumped into the third with some decent pressure in the offensive zone early on.
However, it was Cleveland who packed on some insurance on a deflection goal by Hudson Fasching at the 12-minute mark of the period to send the Monsters away to victory.
The Sens have now dropped six of their last seven games and fall to 11-14-2-0 on the season, as Cleveland pulls into a tie in points with 24.
Belleville has a chance to come right back on Sunday afternoon, welcoming the Bridgeport Islanders to CAA Arena for a 3 p.m. start.
