After losing a heartbreaker in Toronto on Friday night, Ottawa's top farm club must win in Belleville on Sunday afternoon to keep their season alive.
In a heart-wrenching turn of events on Friday night, the Belleville Senators fell short in a Game 2 nail-biter against the Toronto Marlies. Dylan Gambrell, an Ottawa Senator for the past two seasons, stuck it to his old organization with the game-winning goal in a 4-3 overtime win.
With the AHL best-of-three first-round series now deadlocked at one, all eyes turn to Game 3 which will decide the series on Sunday afternoon in Belleville (3pm, AHLTV.com).
Gambrell's overtime goal in Game 2 was about as weird as it gets and it was very difficult to track the bouncing puck. After a long time spent looking at the video, here's our best attempt to describe what happened.
The goal came just 50 seconds into the extra frame after a strange bounce off the end boards. Former Ottawa 67 Joseph Blandisi took the initial shot, missing the right post. Everyone thought the puck was going to angle into the corner of the ice, but it bounced back toward the direction it came from.
Sogaard thought he had all the time and support in the world to get repositioned and when he realized he didn't, it was too late. Just as Blandisi had done moments earlier, Gambrell outdueled Tyler Kleven and swatted the puck into the open net.
Belleville seemed destined to win Game 2, clawing back from an early 2-0 deficit. Ottawa native Donovan Sebrango, one of the players brought over in the Alex DeBrincat trade with Detroit, scored his first AHL playoff goal to start the comeback
Toronto quickly restored their two goal advantage but near the end of the second period, Garrett Pilon got another one back for Belleville to the cut the lead to 3-2. It stayed the way until the dying moments of the game.
With Toronto still up 3-2, the B-Sens pulled their goalie and Blandisi missed an empty net in the final minute, probably distracted by a hard diving backcheck from Jacob Larsson.
Moments later, Pilon scored his second goal of the game to force overtime.
Despite the loss, Sogaard was excellent for Belleville, making 24 saves and keeping the Senators within striking distance.
The Senators now face a critical Game 3 on Sunday afternoon with their season on the line.