Stanley, Montgomery score first AHL goals as Senators beat Belleville surge

Belleville got a double breakthrough from two of its newest additions, as Hoyt Stanley and Blake Montgomery each scored his first AHL goal in the same game. Stanley opened the scoring at 6:06, and Montgomery followed to make it 2-0 at 2:05, turning a developmental stop into a night the club could mark with more than just roster paperwork.

Stanley’s goal fit the profile of a player on the rise. The West Vancouver, British Columbia, native signed a three-year entry-level contract with Ottawa on March 30 and joined Belleville on an amateur tryout agreement a day later. He arrived after his third NCAA season at Cornell, where he set personal bests with three goals, 12 assists and 15 points and finished as one of the three finalists for the 2026 ECAC Hockey Best Defensive Defenceman award. Belleville lists him as No. 5 on defense, and his first AHL goal was a tidy reward for a season that already showed he could defend and create.

Montgomery’s route was even more compressed. Ottawa signed the left wing to a three-year entry-level deal on April 16, then sent him to Belleville on an ATO the same day. His freshman season at Wisconsin ended with 9 goals and 8 assists for 17 points in 37 games, plus 65 penalty minutes and 76 shots on goal, and he reached Belleville shortly after the Badgers fell 2-1 to Denver in the national championship final on April 11. Belleville lists him as No. 17 on left wing, and the first AHL goal gave the 20-year-old another clean step forward after a productive year that also included one season in the OHL with 50 points in 51 games for the London Knights.

For Belleville, the paired milestones landed in the middle of a late-season roster reshuffle that included ATOs and NHL loan returns in early April. The club has been wrapping its home schedule at CAA Arena while promoting recent signings and additions, and the Stanley-Montgomery tandem showed why those moves matter beyond the transaction log. Ottawa’s pipeline is not just filling space in the lineup; it is producing players who can arrive, adjust and contribute immediately.