Alton Outscored 4-1 In Final Period, Falls To Unbeaten Belleville
The Redbirds were without leading goalscorer Keller Jacobs.
EAST ALTON – The Alton Redbirds hosted one of the two remaining undefeated teams in the Mississippi Valley Club Hockey Association Monday night at East Alton Ice Arena.
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And the Belleville Hockey Club would remain that way after a 7-2 win, improving to 6-0 on the season. Alton slips to 3-5.
Alton had to play without the league’s leading goalscorer, Keller Jacobs (10 goals, five assists), who was serving a one-game suspension.
“We’re playing down. Not having Keller tonight obviously hurts us,” Alton head coach Brian Clark said.
“But, I’ve never known anybody in the history of hockey when you let up 57 shots, will you ever win a hockey game. Quite honestly, I don’t think our effort is good enough. We’re too weak in the D-zone. We’re facing some adversity right now, so we’ve got to try and buckle down.”
Alton was outshot 57-21 on a night that asked a lot of its netminder, Caiden Jockisch.
Belleville got on the board early, just 3:16 into the game, when Arthurs Zile scored, assisted by Gavin Welsh. Alton would have a chance to tie the game on a power play, but Belleville killed it off and then doubled the lead less than a minute later thanks to Rudy Altman.
Belleville outshot Alton 16-7 in the first period and led 2-0.
But the Redbirds did show a fight. Their other leading goalscorer, Caiden Clark, lit the lamp for the seventh time this season at 12:21 in the second period to cut the lead in half.
Unfortunately for him, Zile made it 3-1 just 22 seconds after that to regain a two-goal lead after two periods of play.
Max Eiskant scored 24 seconds into the third period, but Alton still breathed life when Landon Thompson scored to make it 4-2 with just under 10 minutes remaining.
Instead, Belleville scored three unanswered goals from Miles Brown, Carson Markwell, and Cooper Bilbruck, in that order. Belleville’s seven goals came from six different players. Altman had a goal and three assists.
Thompson assisted Clark's goal, and Clark and Ethan Taul assisted Thompson’s.
Belleville has now outscored its first six opponents 32-10 and previously beat Alton 4-1 back on November 13.
“They are a great hockey team,” Clark said. “We kicked them out of the playoffs last year, so I know they want a little revenge. They’ve got a pretty solid lineup throughout, and they’re playing some good hockey right now, so you’ve got to tip you cap to that.”
It was Alton’s only game this week thanks to the Thanksgiving holiday. And the break may not have come at a better time.
“We need a little reset,” Clark said. “We’ve got to clean some things up defensively; it’s just not good enough. And the effort, it’s not a skill, it’s just a will. We’re just getting outworked on the defense, and you’re not going to be successful when that happens.”
The Redbirds won’t play again until December 1 when they host Freeburg/Waterloo at the EAIA at 7:30 p.m.
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