Belleville Senators gain valuable experience by winning series

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BELLEVILLE — To build a good house you need to start with a solid foundation.

The Ottawa Senators don’t have as many prospects as they did in the past with their American Hockey League affiliate in Belleville, but there are enough players on that roster who will be able to gain valuable experience after the club advances to the second round. round on Sunday. evening.

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And the club’s first playoff series win since moving here seven years ago couldn’t have come against a better opponent than the archrival Toronto Marlies to close out the Battle of Ontario in dramatic fashion after the overtime winner of Garett Pilon will secure a 4-3. victory at CAA Arena.

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Prospects like Zack Ostapchuk, Stephen Halliday, Tyler Kleven, Max Guenette and Mads Sogaard all have a chance to play in Ottawa one day, so getting a chance to play meaningful games in May can only help.

Head coach David Bell, who was an assistant on Troy Mann’s staff for three years, took over the top job last February and knows what it means to the players to have a chance to advance to Round 2 against the Cleveland Monsters on Wednesday. at night at 7 pm

“When you move, the pressure or the moment just gets bigger,” Bell said. “That’s what the guys expect us to do. As an organization, we look to evaluate these guys in big moments because nothing is bigger than the NHL playoffs.

“That’s ultimately where we want to raise these guys to contribute in the NHL playoffs for the Ottawa Senators. I’ve been here five years and now we can send guys to Ottawa that have playoff experience. We haven’t been able to do that in the past.

“As good as guys like (Drake) Batherson were when they were here, unfortunately we didn’t make the playoffs those years. Now, those guys go up there and they’ve felt the playoffs, winning in the playoffs as a pro and that can be a big part of their development.”

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The series against the Marlies was not without adversity.

After scoring a 3-1 victory in Game 1 at home last Wednesday, the Senators were ready to close the deal on the Marlies in Toronto on Friday night, but were unable to close the deal. Sogaard looked shaky on former Ottawa center Dylan Gambrell’s game-winning goal and that set up the deciding game.

The Senators took a 3-1 lead thanks to goals from Rourke Chartier and Josh Currie in the span of a minute in the second. Slowly but surely, the Marlies fought back and Matteo Pietraniro tied it 3-3 with 6:41 left in the third period.

That prepared Pilón’s triumph. He won a Calder Cup with the AHL’s Hershey Bears last season and knows what it takes to win at this level. That’s why associate general manager Ryan Bowness hired him because he knew this club needed experience like that.

“This is a great living and learning experience for them, which I think is fantastic,” Pilon said. “It’s a great experience and they all stepped up as well. Halliday did a great job on that goal (setting up the winning goal). (Ostapchuk) also had a good game.

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“They’re learning to play solid hockey and you really learn how one little mistake can be your downfall.”

The message in the locker room after 60 minutes was to stay calm and continue doing what has made you successful all season.

“We just wanted to stick to our game plan, stick to our identity and just control our emotions,” said sturdy forward Boko Imama, who opened the scoring early in the first. I thought in Game 2 we probably gave them too much attention. “This time we just focused on our team.”

When you don’t have much playoff experience, it can be difficult to keep your emotions under control in games where everything is on the line.

This is a big step for Sogaard. He has a chance to fight for a spot in Ottawa next year and needs these types of games to learn what it takes.

“This is huge. “These are games I haven’t really played in much in my professional career,” Sogaard said. “It’s exciting. I liked parts of my game throughout this series, but I also know I can be much better.

“That’s the exciting thing: We’ll get back to work (Tuesday) and we’ll be able to focus on Cleveland.”

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It’s well documented that Ottawa has missed the playoffs for seven straight years and that’s a trend Steve Staios, the club’s president of hockey operations and general manager, desperately wants to change.

Succeeding at the AHL level doesn’t guarantee the Senators will make the NHL playoffs next spring, but it may help some of the players who will be living in Ottawa next season understand what it takes.

“It’s huge. I’m super happy for the boys. That’s a difficult task and our modus operandi throughout the year has been to not give up and nothing has been easy.”

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If you have questions, Postmedia hockey columnists Bruce Garrioch and Tim Baines are more than willing to answer them.

We’ll be posting columns in the mailbag from time to time during the offseason just to keep the good people of Ottawa and Senators fans around the world informed of what’s going on.

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