BELLEVILLE - Belleville's boys' hockey team did get off to a good start taking the 3-0 lead, with Alton getting back into the game 3-2 after the second period in a playoff match on Thursday, Feb. 20, 2025, in Edwardsville. Alton ended up winning the match 5-4 on a last-minute Caden Clark goal.
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Belleville will try to avenge the loss, facing Alton at 7:30 p.m. Monday, Feb. 24, 2025, at the East Alton Ice Arena for the third and deciding game of the 1A Mississippi Valley Club Hockey Association Class 1A series. The winners play in the championship against either Columbia or Triad.
Grant Hubert is the leading goal scorer for Belleville on the season with 34 goals in stats dating back to Feb. 18. He is 10th in overall scoring in the hockey league.
“We jumped out early,” Belleville head coach Nick Harbenko said, “and we had our chances to put them away, but they just hung around. Some of those calls went against us in key situations, and we were shorthanded tonight. A couple of guys were out, one sick and one injured.
"Now, we have another injury we’re dealing with. So, we’re pretty thin. We don’t have a lot of depth, to begin with, so we needed this win to kind of give our guys some extra time to rest, but we’ll have to go back out at it on Monday night.”
When asked how confident he felt about game three on Monday, Harbenko had a simple answer.
”One hundred percent,” Harbenko said about winning the Monday matchup and advancing in the playoff series. “I expect to win. The way we’ve been playing all series long, carrying the play, winning face-offs, dominating in their zone, I think we’ll win."
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