The Belleville Senators put up a hefty challenge against a good Rochester Americans at the end of a busy weekend but ultimately came up short in a comeback effort.
Rochester put Belleville away 6-5 on Sunday afternoon, leaving the Sens with three points out of a six in three games this weekend.
The Americans opened the scoring early on James Reimer, making his B-Sens debut, when Riley Fiddler-Schultz banged home a loose puck in the Belleville crease after a net drive from Jagger Joshua.
The Sens showed their fightback with a bullet one-timer courtesy of Wyatt Bongiovanni off a cross-ice setup from Stephen Halliday at 8:33 for his 10th of the year.
Olle Lycksell added the second assist on the tying goal.
Belleville managed to be strong defensively, holding a high-powered Rochester offence to seven shots in the frame.
The physicality increased in the second period as the Sens and Amerks engaged in a tight battle.
Rochester eventually got a crack through Reimer when Ryan Johnson deposited a huge rebound off Reimer’s right pad to go back ahead again 2-1.
A couple of shifts later, Brendan Warren came off the right wing boards and beat Reimer through the blocking arm to propel the Amerks further ahead.
Rochester held onto its two-goal advantage going into the third and packed on some more in the final frame, with Redmond Savage banking a puck off the back of Reimer’s leg from behind the goal line at 2:47.
A Sens powerplay was good enough to cut the deficit in half, with Lassi Thomson blasting a Wyatt Bongiovanni tee-up off the crossbar and in behind Ratzlaff at 9:29.
Dennis Gilbert contributed his third assist in two games on the goal as well.
The same play developed for the Sens moments later, with Bongiovanni hitting Thomson in the high slot for another one-timer that the Finnish defenceman didn’t miss on.
The marker, also helped by Stephen Halliday, is Thomson’s ninth of the year to put him into a tie for most goals by a defenceman in the AHL.
Unfortunately for Belleville, the Americans weren’t about to play passively, as Carson Meyer knocked home an airborne puck through Reimer to increase the visitors’ lead back to two.
The Sens never showed any quit though, fighting back to within one on Arthur Kaliyev’s 24th of the year on another rocket from Scott Harrington and Phil Daoust, setting the stage for a thrilling finish to regulation.
The crowd was sent into a frenzy on Daoust’s equalizer, when the Barrie, Ont. product fished the puck off the end boards and clanked one off Ratzlaff and in with less than two to play.
Kaliyev and Borgault added the assists to give Belleville the much needed point.
Rochester avoided the complete collapse, with a rapid-fire conclusion authored by Jack Rathbone.
The Amerks defenceman drove into the Belleville zone and wired a high and hard shot off the bar and in to nestle away the extra point and the win.
Final shots favoured Belleville 30-28, with Reimer stopping 22 in his B-Sens debut.
The two teams meet again next Friday at 7 p.m. at CAA Arena, but not before Belleville gets set to hit the road and play the Laval Rocket at 7 on Wednesday.
