The Belleville Senators are back and appear primed to take the next step in Head Coach Dave Bell‘s first full season behind the bench. With familiar faces Egor Sokolov, Roby Järventie, Dillon Heatherington, and Mads Søgaard back with the team, there is plenty to like about this B-Sens roster.
The AHL didn’t do the club any favours scheduling their season opener in Hershey against the defending Calder Cup Champions, but the Senators didn’t blink twice when facing down that challenge. Ahead of the game, one of Belleville’s new additions Garrett Pilon had the opportunity to step in with his former team, celebrate last year’s victory, and receive his Calder Cup ring in a classy move by the Bears.
What a moment 🙌
With the #BellevilleSens facing off vs the defending Calder Cup Champion @TheHersheyBears tonight, Garrett Pilon was able to celebrate with his former team and receive his Calder Cup ring!
Congrats Garrett, let’s get you another one 😏 pic.twitter.com/13FFlnhuoJ
— Belleville Senators (@BellevilleSens) October 15, 2023
Once the puck dropped, Pilon was back in his Senators uniform and ready to bring home a win for his new club. And they delivered.
While it was fantastic to see big names like Järventie, Reinhardt, Lassi Thomson, and Angus Crookshank getting on the scoresheet (with goals for the former pair and assists for the latter), the highlight of the game was seeing Nikolas Matinpalo — fresh off a new contract, playing in a new league in a new country — grab his first AHL goal in his debut.
A goal in his AHL debut, Matinpalo just did that 👏#ForTheB https://t.co/tep2JVybby pic.twitter.com/CuANooDcdZ
— Belleville Senators (@BellevilleSens) October 15, 2023
The other highlight was Søgaard’s performance as he stood tall — both figuratively and literally — stopping all thirty shots he faced for his first career shutout.
On Sunday, Belleville made a quick drive down the I-78 East for a date with Victor Mete and the Lehigh Valley Phantoms. After a stellar performance Saturday, the Senators continued that momentum early in the game, establishing a 2-0 lead early on. Unfortunately, the Phantoms were able to get four pucks past Kevin Mandolese in just over 20 minutes. Following the fourth goal, Coach Bell opted to make a goalie change, substituting Søgaard back in after his shutout performance on Saturday.
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Søgaard performed valiantly in helping his team stay in this game, as he stopped all 22 shots he faced in relief of Mandolese. Through roughly 90 minutes of playing time this weekend, the Danish netminder stopped all 52 shots on net. Coach Bell had high praise for Søgaard.
“He’s proving a point, he’s making some noise. That’s what prospects are supposed to do […]. The preparation by him has been outstanding.”
Following the loss, the story from Coach Bell was all about special teams. The Senators allowed Lehigh Valley to score on three powerplays early on, taking the Phantoms from down by two to up by one. At that point, while Belleville played well, the team wasn’t able to come back.
Looking ahead, the team has an opportunity to get comfortable as they prepare for their home opener and a four-game homestand. They’ll be at CAA Arena to take on Laval on Saturday. Three of the four games of this homestand are against North Division teams, with Laval (one game) and Toronto (two games) in town over the coming weeks.
While it’s early in the season, it’s never too early to lay importance on divisional matchups in a league like the AHL.
Missed this weekend’s games? You can catch the highlights and post game availability on Belleville’s YouTube channel.
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