A tough start put the Belleville Senators behind the eight-ball and despite a valiant comeback effort, the club still fell just short.

The Syracuse Crunch jumped out to a 4-0 lead and held on to edge Belleville 5-4 on Hockey Fights Cancer night at CAA Arena.

The Crunch slipped home back-to-back goals in the first half of period one, one from Ilya Usau just after the end of a powerplay, and the other from Jack Finley.

Trevor Carrick unloaded on a setup by former Wellington Duke Declan Carlile to make it 3-0 on a man advantage, then Shawn Element jammed the puck through Logan Flodell at 9:03 to chase the Sens goalie from the net after allowing four goals on 10 shots.

Antoine Bibeau replaced Flodell and was pressed into action almost right away, stopping Carrick on a penalty shot to keep the Senators afloat.

Cole Reinhardt got one back late in the opening frame, taking a centering pass from Phillippe Daoust and depositing it in the top shelf over Hugo Alnefelt’s right shoulder.

Rourke Chartier took advantage of a five-on-three powerplay carried over from the first, taking a feed from Egor Sokolov and sliding the puck under Alnefelt for his team-leading ninth of the year.

Daniel Walcott chipped in a short range shot on a scramble near the Belleville net to reinstate the Crunch’s three-goal lead at 6:19

Brennan Saulnier got a fortunate break on a bounce off the end boards and blasted a shot top shelf over Alnefelt’s left shoulder to cut into Syracuse’s lead once again.

In the final minute of the second, Egor Sokolov ripped home a powerplay marker to add a two-point night.

Despite a hard push, and a Lassi Thomson crossbar, the Sens fell short as the Crunch were able to ice them out for the victory.

Even with the slumbering start, Belleville head coach Troy Mann assessed his team as being good for 50 minutes and was happy to see the group earn four out of a possible six points this week.

“I felt in the second half of the first period, we started getting our legs and getting our forecheck going,” he said.

“We were right there, we easily could have had a point. It's unfortunate really that the first 10 minutes cost us the game.”

Mann had some positive words for 400-game NHL veteran Nikita Zaitsev, who made his B-Sens debut Saturday night.

“It's always difficult when you haven't played the American League. I thought he got better as we progressed through the game,” Mann noted.

“I think he can help the PK (penalty kill) once we get into some practices.”

Belleville's record is now 7-7-1-0 with 15 points in the North Division.

The B-Sens wore lavender jerseys and socks in recognition of all those who have fought and are still fighting cancer.

The team is on the road at 7 p.m. Wednesday in Utica, N.Y. versus the Comets.