Wolf Pack lose to Sens in OT

Chase Balisy scored with 48 seconds left in overtime Saturday night at the XL Center, to give the Belleville Senators 3-2 win over the Wolf Pack.

The Wolf Pack had leads of 1-0 and 2-1, on power-play goals by Gabriel Fontaine and Tim Gettinger, but Jordan Murray tied the score on a Senator man advantage with just over five minutes remaining in the third period.Pack Fall to Senators in OT, 3-2

“The difference maker in the game was in the second period,” Wolf Pack head coach Keith McCambridge said.  “I didn’t feel we had the puck very much, which game them some momentum, but we got ourselves in some penalty trouble in the third.”

The Wolf Pack scored on the game’s first power play for the only goal of the first period.

With Joseph LaBate off for high-sticking, Fontaine scored his tenth goal of the season at 8:24.  Fontaine worked a give-and-go with Ryan Dmowski, and Fontaine moved to the middle from the left side before firing a close-in shot past Senator goaltender Marcus Hogberg (26 saves).

Belleville tied the score at 5:31 of the second period, on the first goal in a Senator uniform for Austin Fyten.  A shot from the left side by Erik Burgdoerfer was blocked wide of the Wolf Pack net by Josh Wesley, but the puck caromed off the end boards to the right side, and Fyten was able to backhand it past the short side of Hartford netminder Adam Huska (31 saves).

The Wolf Pack power play struck again to regain the lead, with only 45.6 seconds left in the period.  After Murray was called for delay-of-game at 19:04, Gettinger deflected a shot by Sean Day past Hogberg on the stick side.

“We hadn’t seen Belleville in a long time,” said McCambridge, “so we made some adjustments to our power play on how we felt we could create some opportunities.”

It was the Senators who spent much of the third frame on the power play, though, as the Wolf Pack would be shorthanded four times.

Hartford killed the first three, including a two-man advantage of 1:19, after Brandon Crawley was called for cross-checking at 5:50 and Nick Jones for tripping at 6:31.

Belleville finally capitalized at 14:55, though, after Fontaine was sent off for high-sticking at 13:52.  Drake Batherson fed the puck from the left-wing boards to Murray at the top of the slot, and he slung a wrist shot that went through a screen set by Vitaly Abramov and eluded Huska.

“Adam’s game was strong,” McCambridge said of Huska.  “The 5-on-3 kill was really good for us. He came up with some key saves for us during the game, and that’s all you can ask your goaltender to do.”

The Senators controlled the overtime session, however, outshooting the Wolf Pack 6-0.  Huska held the visitors off until former Wolf Pack Adam Tambellini deflected the rebound of a Stefan Elliott try to Balisy, and he easily buried the puck from the left side of the slot.