The Belleville Senators display more overtime magic on Friday night in a thrilling game at CAA Arena.
Arthur Kaliyev tacked on one more notch to his belt with his AHL-leading 25th goal of the year to beat the Rochester Americans 5-4 in the bonus frame.
Both teams needed little time to test the waters, meeting for the second time in five days, with several quality chances turned aside at both ends in the opening frame.
Belleville kept pace with the Amerks until the late stages of the first, when Cam Crotty whistled a hard wrist shot through a Xavier Bourgault screen past Devon Levi to open the scoring with about a minute to go.
Phil Daoust and Jorian Donovan picked up the assists on Crotty’s third of the year.
That momentum carried forward into the second when Tyler Boucher scored on a shot on his off wing, using his right-handed shot from the left side to rip a shot through Levi’s pads for the 2-0 goal.
Jamieson Rees and Scott Harrington chipped in with helpers on Boucher’s 4th of the season.
The production kept coming for Belleville, with Arthur Kaliyev blasting a one-timer off the cross-seam feed from Stephen Halliday that was stopped by Levi, but the rebound was deposited home by Wyatt Bongiovanni for his 11th of the season to make it 3-0.
Rochester fought back to within one with an Isak Rosen rebound marker and a Jagger Joshua tally within about 30 seconds to try and shift momentum back to its side of the ledger.
Belleville quickly dashed that brewing danger to a degree by restoring a multi-goal lead 45 seconds into the third on a pinball-like goal from Keean Washkurak, his fourth of the season from Jan Jenik and Donovan.
The Amerks continued to hang around, as Nikita Novikov floated a shot through bodies in front of Hunter Shepard off a faceoff win and off Rosen to close the gap back to one.
A frantic third period then set in, with both teams bringing chances in waves.
After a wild scramble, the Amerks pulled out of it and set up a Rosen slapper for his hat trick tally to tie the game with less than 90 seconds left in regulation.
Much like their North Division rivals did on Sunday, the Sens hit fast in overtime, with Kaliyev dangling in and sliding a backhand shot through a sprawling Levi to fire up the CAA Arena crowd.
Shepard was outstanding, especially in the third period facing so many dangerous chances and finished with 26 stops.
The Sens will play their next game in their ‘home away from home’ at Canadian Tire Centre in Ottawa at 5 p.m. Sunday versus the Utica Comets.
