By Sean McIntosh [1]
BELLEVILLE – The Belleville Bulls [2] defeated the Mississauga Steelheads [3] 5-1 Wednesday night, without captain Jake Marchment.
Marchment was suspended by the league for 15 games [4] prior to the matchup with Mississauga for comments he made towards a woman on social media.
The Bulls offence without the captain was still dominant, putting up 56 shots to the Steelheads’ 22.
Steelheads goaltender Spencer Martin was able to fend off the Belleville offence until midway through the second period, when Bulls forward Nikki Petti broke open the scoring with his fifth goal of the season.
Shortly after, the Bulls’ Stephen Harper was sent in on a breakaway where he was able to put one past Martin for his third of the season.
The Steelheads weren’t able to stop the Bulls from scoring in the third period. Michael Cramarossa netted his fourth and Jordan Subban scored his ninth of the year, putting the Bulls up 4-0. Subban’s goal puts him in a tie for the top-scoring defenceman in the Ontario Hockey League.
Less than a minute after Subban’s goal, Mississauga defenceman Stephan Leblanc broke Bulls goalie Connor Hicks’s shutout.
Belleville scored one more time, in the last minute of the game, as rookie Matt Luff scored his third of the season.
Luff said there’s excitement getting the win after two straight loses at the hands of the Oshawa Generals, the best team in the OHL Eastern conference [5].
“This gets us back on the win train going into a big week against Sault (Ste. Marie Greyhounds) and Sudbury (Wolves), but we knew coming into this game it had to be a must win. They’re a great team with great goaltending,” he said.
Goaltender Hicks praised his team’s efforts in front of him.
“The guys played amazing today. They kept all the shots to the outside. It was a great team game,” he said. “It made my job easy.”
Belleville sitting second in the East with a record of 11-4-1, while the Steelheads are now 6-7-1.
The Bulls visit the Greyhounds in Sault Ste. Marie Friday.