GARRIOCH: Belleville’s third-period collapse is costly as Rochester pulls 4-3 OT win in Game 1

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ROCHESTER AMERICANS 4, BELLEVILLE SENATORS 3 (OT)

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The Belleville Senators let one slip away Wednesday night and it was costly.

Only one game into the first playoff series in franchise history, the Senators are already on the brink of elimination after they blew a 3-0 third-period lead and dropped a 4-3 overtime decision to the Rochester Americans in front of 6,044 at Blue Cross Sand.

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Rochester’s Arttu Ruotsalainen tipped a shot from the point through Belleville goaltender Filip Gustavsson’s five-hole to take a 1-0 lead in the best-of-three first-round Calder Cup playoff series.

The Senators had plenty of opportunities in overtime but Rochester goalie Aaron Dell shut the door to give the Amerks the win. Belleville worked hard to get home-ice advantage and wasn’t thrilled with starting the series in Rochester, but that’s no excuse.

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Senators’ prospect winger Egor Sokolov led the way with two assists while Cole Reinhardt, Dillon Heatherington and Rourke Chartier did the scoring as Rochester took an important 1-0 lead in the short series that will determine.

Game 2 of the series will be played Friday night at the CAA Arena in Belleville at 7 pm and if Game 3 is necessary it’s Sunday at 3 pm The atmosphere in Belleville should be wild because fans there have been waiting for playoff hockey since the franchise moved there.

The Senators knew the Amerks would be a tough challenge and they found that out in a big way in the third period. Rochester scored three goals in a span of 12:50 to send it to OT.

Rochester erased the Senators 3-0 lead at 16:03 and you could feel it coming because the Amerks were coming in waves and the Senators weren’t doing nearly enough to create opportunities.

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Defenseman Jimmy Schuldt scored at 13:19 of the third to cut the Senators lead to 3-2 when he went high glove side on Gustavsson.

Alone in front, winger Lukas Rousek got the Amerks on the board at 3:13 of the third to cut Belleville’s lead to 3-1 on the 21st shot Gustavsson faced. He really had no chance because Rousek had plenty of time to put it away.

Making his first playoff start, this is a great opportunity for Gustavsson to show he can play under this kind of pressure. He was solid through 40 minutes with the Senators outshot 19-13 and was a big part of the reason they were ahead 3-0 on the Amerks.

The Amerks pushed the pace by outshooting the Senators 14-8 in the second alone after the two clubs played a pretty tight-checking first.

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There was a scary moment with about three minutes left in the second when Gustavsson fell awkwardly after making a save. He was down in his crease with the Amerks putting on pressure on the Belleville zone and was fortunate the whistle went.

Gustavsson finished the period and had to make a big stop on a power play to maintain Belleville’s 3-0 advantage.

Chartier, 26, who suited up for 33 games with Belleville, scored a beauty to give the club a three-goal lead at 12:58 of the second. The puck deflected off his skate to his stick and then he dove across the crease to beat Dell on the stick side.

The shots were 5-5 after the first period but the Senators led where it counted with a 2-0 lead on the Amerks.

Though Heatherington scored only twice in 45 regular-season games, he couldn’t have picked a better time to get on the board. The 26-year-old blueliner buried his first playoff goal in his 37th career AHL post-season game with a minute left in the period.

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While the Senators were being outshot 4-0 at the first television timeout, it was Reinhardt that scored the first playoff goal in franchise history on the club’s first shot of the game. He took a pass from Sokolov and beat Dell on the blocker side at 7:26.

There as a scary moment in the first when Rochester’s Linus Weissbach had to be helped off the ice after a hit from Sokolov with no penalty on the play.

While the Senators were hoping to have goaltender Mads Sogaard available for Game 1, he didn’t make the trip to Rochester and Kevin Mandolese dressed as the back to Gustavsson. There’s a chance Sogaard may be ready for Game 2 but we’ll see where this goes.

“We were hoping Sogaard might be ready for the opening of the series. He’s just not quite ready,” said Belleville coach Troy Mann. “It’s Gus’ turn. He’s been with the organization for five years and he’s played some great hockey for us, especially when we’ve needed some wins.

“We’ll see where Sogaard goes as the week progresses.”

The Senators were without prospect winger Viktor Lodin. He made his NHL debut in Ottawa’s 4-3 win over the Philadelphia Flyers on the road, but had non-COVID flu and wasn’t able to make the trip to Rochester. I could return this weekend.

The winner of the series will face the Utica Comets in Round 2.

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Twitter: @sungarrioch