Ottawa Senators Prospect Update and Belleville Recap - April 3rd

Prospect Team of the Week

Forwards

One of just two forwards drafted by the Senators last summer and already a regular in this feature, Owen Beckner added another goal and assist in two games this past week for USHL Tri-City. The Storm have clinched a playoff spot and currently stand fourth in the USHL's Western Conference.

In Belleville, newcomer Oskar Pettersson scored the second goal of his young professional career against Laval on Saturday. Pettersson has also started shooting more consistently with shots in all of his five last games and multi-shot efforts in four of his last seven appearances.

Looking now at a couple of Belleville's elder statesman (and a couple individuals who will probably feel some heat should the BSens miss the postseason this year) Egor Sokolov and Cole Reinhardt each had a goal this week on ten and six shots respectively. Reinhardt has regressed somewhat this season from a production standpoint (possibly due to injury) and could finish the campaign with under ten goals--not great for someone in their fourth professional year. Sokolov still has time to regain the 20-goal threshold but it still seems very likely that he fails to match his point totals from the past two seasons due to some rotten shooting luck.

Defence

In the OHL playoffs, Jorian Donovan and the very stacked Saginaw Spirit have a commanding 3-0 series lead over Owen Sound with Donovan accumulating one assist and eight shots so far in the postseason. Matthew Andonovski and the Kitchener Rangers find themselves tied one game apiece in their 4-5 matchup against Erie.

Shoutouts go to Tyler Kleven who has not looked out of place in his most recent call-up to Ottawa (although this leaves a gaping hole in Belleville's blueline) and to Maxence Guenette who scored his seventh goal of the season against Laval on Saturday.

Goaltender

Kevin Mandolese had a slower start to his season including a very brief stint in the ECHL and some time lost to injury but has rebounded nicely of late and played well enough in his lone start this week (stopping 33 of 35 against Laval) to earn this weekly distinction. Honourable mention goes to newcomer and immediate fan favourite Vladimir Nikitin who won his one start of the week stopping 29 of 31 (getting that much closer to 90% on the season).

Belleville Update

In the seven seasons in which the Senators have lived in Belleville, I cannot recall a season that had the highs and lows of this one. It's been a tale of two teams, where it feels like every other week we're writing about a big streak or falling flat on their faces.

This week, it's the faces. They've fallen. Noses broken. Eyes blackened.

A few short weeks ago, the Senators were sitting in a playoff spot. Now they occupy the basement of the North. Now, as it has been for weeks and months, the jockeying in this division is insanely close. For example, the Senators currently have 68 points, good for 7th. Two wins, however, would bring them to 72 points, good for 4th and a playoff spot. Laval, sitting two points and two spots ahead of them, have also played two more games.

This is all to say, the BSens are in the basement but a quick set of wins brings them right back into it. It's far from over, but as we've seen over the course of the last few months, they really can't afford to lose too many games.

This past week, they split a back-to-back with Laval. Effectively catching up to the Rocket on Saturday only to fall right back behind them on Sunday. This is the kind of thing they simply can't afford. The Senators have eight games left on the schedule - seven of which are against divisional opponents in Syracuse (x2), Rochester (x2), Laval (x2) and Toronto.

When you look at the above standings, it becomes incredibly clear just how important five of these sevens games will be. Yes, it would be advantageous to beat Syracuse in both matchups down the stretch but the Sens effectively have their destiny entirely in their own hands with 10 points available against Rochester, Laval and Toronto.

Over the next 17 days, the Belleville Senators have the opportunity to return to the playoffs or fall short yet again - it's entirely up to the players and coaching staff to decide which fate they want.

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