Calder Cup Playoffs – Binghamton Senators Vs. Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Preview

This coming weekend the Binghamton Senators will embark into the AHL Playoffs! They weren’t able to win their division falling just one point shy of tying the Syracuse Crunch. Bingo will now face the  Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins in the first round, in a best of five series. Bingo finished in 4th place to secure home ice advantage at least for the first round.

During the season bingo has had success playing versus the Penguins compiling a very solid record of 6-2-0-2. This long series has seen a little bit of everything as you would expect it to, seeing it was a ten game series. We seen a lot of tight games, some needed extra time and we also seen a couple lop sided scores. In this series the Senators should be able to walk away the winner but like we’ve seen our own team do not that long ago, upsets do happen! They do not possess the same type of goaltending that we seen at the beginning of the year in Robin Lehner and Ben Bishop, as both are now full time NHLers. But Nathan Lawson is a very solid AHL goaltender and has played on teams in the past that have had success in the playoffs, in the Hamilton bulldogs.

As for the Penguins, they have a lot of players at the top of their line-up that have quite a bit of AHL experience, such as: Chad Kolarik, Trevor Smith and Riley Holzapfel to name a few. Their team is built a little differently than the Senators, as they have a few high scoring centers and it kind of dips down after that, as for Bingo has a more balanced attack. This should be a good series as their are a lot of variables, someone might come out and steal the show. It is quite possible seeing as Bingo has a lot of newer young players trying to prove to the parent club that they deserve a shot at the NHL level, Luke Richardson has seen a couple of his players bust of of their shell and is hoping for more.

Due in large part to the NHL lockout the Penguins just like the Senators got quite of few of their players stripped from their team as the NHL made it’s return. Opposite to the B-Sens, Wilkes-Barre finished the season on a losing streak. To state the obvious, teams would prefer to start the playoffs on the right foot and that might give the B-Sens the edge they might need to wrap up this series fairly quickly! But then again as we know, anything can happen in the playoffs!

Game 1 – Sat., Apr. 27 – W-B/Scranton at Binghamton, 7:05
Game 2 – Sun., Apr. 28 – W-B/Scranton at Binghamton, 5:05
Game 3 – Thurs., May 2 – Binghamton at W-B/Scranton, 7:05
*Game 4 – Sat., May 4 – Binghamton at W-B/Scranton, 7:05
*Game 5 – Mon., May 6 – W-B/Scranton at Binghamton, 7:05

*If Necessary

Prediction: 3-1 Senators Series Victory