The Belleville Senators have certainly developed a flair for the dramatic this month, as they went to overtime for the eighth time in March and eventually beat the Lehigh Valley Phantoms 3-2 in a shootout at CAA Arena, on Saturday night.
Belleville battled back from a two-goal deficit and killed off a penalty in overtime, en route to the victory, which gives them a 7-3-3-0 record for the month and keeps their shootout record perfect at 5-0 on the season.
Lehigh Valley opened the scoring at 13:19 of the first period, when Garrett Wilson beat Mads Sogaard on the power play. The Phantoms would also score about 3:30 into the second period, with Nick Lappin putting in a rebound to extend the lead. But Belleville would answer back with a pair of their own in the second. Parker Kelly stuffed in a pass from Jake Lucchini at at 8:48, his 5th of the season and Lucchini would bury his 17th of the season at 16:04 of the frame, putting a power play goal of his own past Pat Nagle.
In the shootout, Belleville’s Lucchini, Egor Sokolov, Zach Senyshyn and Roby Jarventie were all stopped, with Cole Reinhardt scoring the only goal. Sogaard would turn away all five shooters he faced, which included Adam Clendening, Tanner Laczynski, Wade Allison, Matt Strome and Brennan Menell.
