A Winning Wednesday was the elixir the Belleville Senators needed to get their 2025-26 American Hockey League season back on track.

After dropping their first four games to open the campaign, the B-Sens turned the tables on visiting Laval on Wednesday night, downing the Rocket 6-2. The game was Belleville’s first Winning Wednesday promo event, meaning everyone with a paid ticket attending the game gets in free when the Senators host the visiting Rochester Americans October 29.

Then, the Senators exacted a full dose of revenge on the weekend, dumping the host Toronto Marlies twice to improve their record to 3-3-1, which is good enough to be one point out of third place in the AHL’s North Division.

Reset

The Senators survived a strange one at the Coca Cola Centre on Sunday afternoon as the Marlies shot out to a 2-0 lead in the early going. But a fire alarm set off inside the arena cause a lengthy first period delay which allowed skipper Dave Bell to calm his troops and refocus on the task at hand.

“The delay was almost like a time out. (Coach Bell) came in and we were able to reset and get back on top,” Senators forward Stephen Halliday said afterwards.

The second period saw the Senators respond early. Arthur Kaliyev, with some help from Xavier Bourgault and Jorian Donovan, cut the lead to one 60 seconds in with a quick spin shot that caught Marlies goaltender Dennis Hildeby off guard. Nearly seven minutes later, the Senators struck again to tie the game at two. Tyler Boucher evened things up, batting the puck out of midair off a Lassi Thomson shot.

Belleville kept the pressure on and added another to take the lead. Mr. Halliday beat Mr. Hildeby at the midway point of the frame from the low circle to make it 3–2.

Cedric Pare’s first of the season tied things up late at 3-3 and the teams traded goals in the third. Jacob Quillan staked the hosts to a 4-3 lead early but Wyatt Bongiovanni forced the issue with this third of the campaign. Mr. Halliday picked up his seventh helper of the campaign when he teed the puck up for “Bonjo” who buried a power play goal with 4:36 in the third to make it 4-4.

After a scoreless overtime, the contest went to a shootout. Mr. Halliday scored in the first round. He beat Mr. Hildeby low to the blocker side and that’s all Belleville Senator goaltender Hunter Shepard needed. After coming on in the first period to relieve an injured Mads Sogaard, Mr. Shepard was scintillating in the Belleville net, stopping 24 Toronto tries.

Getting Ahead, Staying Ahead

A day prior, the Coleraine, MN native picked up his first win as a Senator, making 29 saves in Belleville’s 4-2 win.

“The first one with a new team is always a big one so it’s great to get it out of the way,” Mr. Shepard said. “The energy is good in the room after a big win on Wednesday so that’s great to see.”

The Senators built a 3-0 lead before Toronto were finally able to solve Mr. Shepard part way through the second stanza.

Rookie phenom Carter Yakemchuk was benefit of a happy bounce in front of Marlies net. His blast deflected past goaltender Artur Akhtyamov 8:13 into the opening frame.

Belleville doubled down at the 17:45 mark when Keean Washkaruk’s high zone tip went sailing past Mr. Akhtyamov to make it 2-0 Sentors.

The eventual game winner came when Phillipe D’Aoust found Oskar Pettersen in the slot and the Halmstad, Sweden product one-timed a laser beam into the Toronto net at 13:17.

Alex Nylander finally solved Mr. Shepard just over a minute later to make it 3-1 but Garrett Pilon’s nifty goal mouth back hand pass found the stick of Hayden Hodgson and the Windsor, ON native had a two foot tap in for this second of the season.

Mr. Nylander’s second of the game with under a minute remaining made it 4-2 but that was as close as Toronto would come on this night.

Mr. Shepard came up big for his team early in the contest and said it was key for him to feel the puck and not give up rebounds on Toronto’s high quality scoring chances.

“That’s usually a good sign when I’m doing that and the guys in front of me were able to clean things up pretty good the rest of the time,” he added.

The First One

Belleville’s win over visiting Laval felt like it might have been lost in the mail considering how long it was over due.

Despite the delay, the win was well received.

With the game tied 1-1 past its midway point, the Senators broke through with a pair of goals to push the hosts ahead to stay.

Mr. Halliday delivered the puck to Xavier Bourgault’s stick on the goal line at 13:14 for the L’Islet, QC native’s second of the game to make it 2-1 Belleville.

Just 34 seconds later, Mr. Hodgson’s first of the season came when he knifed a backhand past Laval starter Jacob Fowler for the game winner.

Mr. Pilon, Mr. Bongiovanni and Cam Crotty all had goals in Belleville’s first triumph of the season as the Senators won this contest going away. Leevi Meriläinen made 26 saves for his first win of the year.

After Belleville hosts Rochester Wednesday, the team travels to Syracuse on Saturday.