Senators arrange for sturdy second half

Patrick Williams, TheAHL.com Options Author

With factors in eight straight video games, the Belleville Senators are tightening the playoff race within the North Division.

Coming off a 20-game stretch by which they received simply 4 occasions (4-12-4-0), the Senators are 6-0-2-0 since Jan. 10. The group noticed a management change on Dec. 17 with Andrew Campbell taking up as interim head coach. The roster has seen 63 transactions this season – 21 of them coming in January alone. Solely three gamers – ahead Keean Washkurak and defensemen Cameron Crotty and Jorian Donovan – have dressed for all 44 video games this season. Goaltenders Mads Søgaard, Hunter Shepard and Leevi Meriläinen proceed to cycle between Belleville and Ottawa. Accidents and recollects have hampered the lineup.

And now the Senators are within the enamel of a seven-game highway journey that concludes with 4 key divisional matchups, at Cleveland this Friday and Saturday and in Rochester and Syracuse subsequent week.

But there they’re, proper within the coronary heart of a North Division playoff race that sees the highest six groups within the division separated by simply eight factors.

Final week, Belleville earned three of a attainable 4 factors from the highest two groups within the Jap Convention, using a third-period comeback to a 3-2 win at Wilkes-Barre/Scranton and amassing a hard-earned level in a 2-1 time beyond regulation loss in Windfall. Meriläinen then delivered a 40-save shutout to wrap up the primary leg of the highway stretch in Springfield.

“Kudos to the blokes for locating a approach,” Campbell mentioned after the 1-0 victory over the Thunderbirds.

Belleville has fewer video games remaining (28) than another group within the league, so each level is important from right here out. A productive weekend in opposition to sixth-place Cleveland might give the Sens some respiration room; sputter they usually’re again outdoors the playoff image.

All of that is acquainted floor for Belleville, a group that all the time appears to seek out itself in these second-half playoff chases. Final season they missed the postseason by all of two factors. In 2023-24, they received eight of their last 9 video games to lock down a playoff spot.

Offseason signing Arthur Kaliyev has had a terrific season, tying for the AHL lead in targets (26) and factors (46). Lassi Thomson, again within the Ottawa group after a one-year detour to the Swedish Hockey League, leads all AHL defensemen with 11 targets. Stephen Halliday has develop into an everyday in Ottawa after making his NHL debut in November. And Belleville’s particular groups have been sharp, together with an influence play that ranks fifth within the league general (23.1 %) and first on house ice (31.1 %).

It’s a bunch that’s blocking photographs, paying a bodily worth and profitable tight video games. And so they’re making their head coach proud.

“Guys discovered a approach,” Campbell added. “The hassle’s unbelievable. Actually pleased with the blokes.”

On the American Hockey League beat for twenty years, TheAHL.com options author Patrick Williams additionally at present covers the league for NHL.com and FloSports and is an everyday contributor on SiriusXM NHL Community Radio. He was the recipient of the AHL’s James H. Ellery Memorial Award for his excellent protection of the league in 2016.