A lot of things had to happen for Leevi Merilainen to get this chance, but until further notice, the Ottawa Senators net belongs to him. For many years, the Ottawa Senators PA announcer was longtime radio personality “Stuntman” Stu Schwartz. One of his signatures was drawing out the name of the Senator player who had just scored. The more exciting the goal, the longer the name was drawn out. Can you imagine what Stu might have done with the name "Bongiovanni" if the player had scored a game-winning goal with two seconds left to complete his second hat trick in his past three games? The announcement might have gone on for days. That's exactly what Belleville's Wyatt Bongiovanni accomplished in the AHL on Sunday against the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins, sealing a 4-3 victory at CAA Arena. It was a nice bit of payback after the Penguins had beaten the B-Sens 6-1 on Friday. Bongiovanni says a lot of different aspects to go into having a run like this, and some of them he has no control over. "When you play more minutes because guys are called up or injured or whatever it is, I think that you take on the responsibility of putting the puck in the net," Bongiovanni told the Belleville Sens Entertainment Network [https://www.youtube.com/@BellevilleSens]. "So, the more time you're out there and more opportunities you get, it's on you to take advantage of that. I'm lucky, I had some good playmakers too." The Senators acquired the undrafted forward from the Winnipeg Jets [https://puckpedia.com/team/winnipeg-jets] last March after playing a couple of years with the Manitoba Moose. Prior to that, he played for four years at Quinnipiac University. Entering the season, he probably wasn't seen as someone who's on the Sens' NHL radar. But at 25, he's still young. So, who knows? After a while, guys putting up multiple hat tricks can be tough to ignore. Former London Knight Michael Simpson got his first AHL start and made the most of it with 25 saves. Stephen Halliday [https://puckpedia.com/player/stephen-halliday] had three points and now has 18 points in his last 17 games. The B-Sens now have a three-game tour of Pennsylvania next week with games against Lehigh Valley, Hershey, and then Wilkes-Barre/Scranton again. But for Wyatt Bongiovanni [https://puckpedia.com/player/wyatt-bongiovanni], this week will be one he'll never forget. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- This story comes from The Hockey News Ottawa [http://thn.com/ottawa] website. For more Senators coverage all season long, check out THN Ottawa [http://thn.com/ottawa]. Recommended articles include:
