Senators stay hot and beat Marlies 5-4 in shootout

The game got off to a quick start with the Marlies getting on the board first. William Villeneuve opened the scoring with a seeing-eye shot from the point off a pass from Blake Smith and Ryan Tverberg to make it 1–0. Not long after, the Marlies struck again courtesy of Bo Groulx. Alex Nylander and David Kämpf helped set up the play with a cross-crease pass to extend the lead to 2–0.

The second period saw the Senators respond early. Arthur Kaliyev, with some help from Xavier Bourgault and Jorian Donovan, cut the lead to one with a quick spin shot that caught Dennis Hildeby off guard. Nearly seven minutes later, the Senators struck again to tie the game at two. Tyler Boucher evened things up, batting the puck out of midair off a Lassi Thomson shot. Belleville kept the pressure on and added another to take the lead. Stephen Halliday beat Hildeby from the low circle after a slick passing play from linemates Kaliyev and Bourgault to make it 3–2.

Toronto, however, wasn’t done. Just two minutes later, a Reese Johnson slapshot from the point bounced out to Cédric Paré, who buried his first of the season to tie the game 3–3.

The Marlies struck first in the third period on the power play. Jacob Quillan finished off a close-range pass from Borya Valis, beating Senators goaltender Hunter Shepard to put Toronto ahead 4–3. The power-play goals continued late in the period, this time for Belleville. Wyatt Bongiovanni tied the game 4–4 with a shot from the top of the circles, assisted by Halliday and Carter Yakemchuk.

Overtime couldn’t settle things, sending the game to a shootout. Stephen Halliday scored the first and only goal of the shootout, lifting the Senators to a 5–4 win over the Marlies.

The Senators will meet the Marlies again on November 19th at CAA Arena for their fourth matchup of the season. Belleville is back in action Wednesday night when they host the Rochester Americans (AHL affiliate of the Buffalo Sabres) for a 7:00 p.m. puck drop at CAA Arena.