Binghamton Breaks Out Of Scoring Slump Winning 6-2 Over Bridgeport

The B-Sens get back on track and into the win column beating Bridgeport 6-2 at the Arena in downtown Binghamton. The victory increases their lead to three in the East as W/B-Scranton lost in Providence by a score of 5-1. Andrew Hammond played a great game in stopping 30 shots for his 1oth win while the Senators break out of their offensive slump.

Senators Mark Borowiecki, wearing the protective cage, chases down Bridgeport’s Alan Quine in action from Friday night’s 6-2 win. Photo courtesy of Alicia Strauch.

GAME RECAP

Senators go on the early penalty kill with Jim O’Brien in the box for holding as Derek Grant goes to work feeding Jean-Gabriel Pageau on a shorthanded break with Kenny Reiter stopping  Pageau’s attempted tip in. The Sound Tigers don’t produce on that man advantage but do on the next one as Anders Lee scores his 16th of the season from a hard dish by Mike Halmo from the corner and beats Hammond for a 1-0 lead. Hammond makes a nice glove save on Ryan Strome on the following play.

Senators creating some turnovers at the blue line as Bridgeport is buzzing. Mike Hoffman carries in from center ice and turns on the burners skating in from the side boards and into Reiter’s front office and is denied. Reiter juggles Chris Wideman‘s shot from the blue line as the Senators are getting their legs going and putting the pressure on Reiter. Finally, Andre Petersson gets a good read on Reiter and rifles a wrist shot from the slot that finds the back of the net for the equalizer as we are tied up. Hammond closes the period after a bad Fredrik Claesson turnover by blocking the shot off of Pierre-Marc Bouchard shot up close and from the attempted wrap around from the rookie forward.

1-1 game entering the second with Aaron Ness in the sin bin while Hoffman scoring his 17th on his infamous hard wrister from the top of the circle for the power play goal. Nice set up by Stephane Da Costa on that one. Daniel New rings one off the post from his slapper that had the far corner tagged. Petersson scores his second of the game putting the Sens up 3-1 with a beauty of a wrist shot that Reiter had no chance saving as Andre used Marc Cantin as an effective shield screening Rieter.

As the period rolls on and the Sens having momentum. Hammond stops Mike Halmo in front and then including the wrap around attempt by Halmo to keep it a two goal game. However, Halmo would nail his 13th from a pass by Strome beating Hammond cleanly with a snapshot down low stick side to cut the lead by one. Senators immediately would answer back when Da Costa strips by a stickless Mike Keenan and sees Cole Schneider streaking in and flipping the puck cross ice to Cole and dekes Reiter with an upper backhander to regain the two goal lead 4-2. That’s Schneider’s 14th of the season.

Onto the third when we have a goalie change as Parker Milner relieves Reiter’s bad night. Senators would go on two five on three-man advantages as Bridgeport is called for four consecutive penalties to start the period. Binghamton  would then increase the lead when Da Costa’s soft cross ice pass found Matt Puempel alone on the side and buries it in past Milner for the easy tally and a 5-2 Sens lead and Matt’s 13th of the season.

Mike Sdao and Brett Gallant go at it and the two heavies make it a beauty of a fight as both land some good punches with Gallant being the aggressor as he receives the extra two for instigating. Sens don’t cash in but do get one more towards the end of the period with Hoffman’s second of the game with his backhander off of Cantin and in by Milner making it a 6-2 game. Grant and Boro are all high fives as the team skates off the ice with the two the last to go off.

NOTES & OBSERVATIONS

•  Da Costa puts an end of his five game pointless streak adding four assists tonight. He looked like his old self again and created some space to set up some nice scoring opportunities that produced.
• Reiter didn’t look good in warmups and quite frankly, I felt their was some friction amongst the players. Can’t explain it but I pick up on the little things and the team seems to lack some chemistry.
• Strome ended up with two assists to Hoff’s three points and Star of the Game honors between the two AHL All-Stars.
• Reiter had let in 4 goals on 22 shots in two periods of play but the Sound Tigers defense wasn’t very effective against the talented forwards of the B-Sens.
• No radio broadcast from the Sound Tigers tonight, really strange.
• There was some good puck movements from the trio of Hoffman, Da Costa and Wideman manning the point on the power plays in the third as the specialty team was two for eight for the contest. Not great but getting back on track as they were previously 1 for 25.
• Borowiecki wore the helmet cage as protecting his front teeth that needed some repairs as he took a stick on his check in the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton game a couple of weeks ago.

3 STARS OF THE GAME

• #1 Hoffman (2g 1a)
• #2 Petersson (2g)
• #3 Da Costa (4a)

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HIGHLIGHTS

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