Hershey Ends Senators Win Streak At Seven
By Jeff Ulmer
The Senators seven game winning streak came to an abrupt end as the Hershey Bears played a solid, all around effort to shut down Bingo’s potent offense and win 5-2 in front of 10,100 at Giant Center. The Bears would go on and score three goals in a span of 97 seconds in the first to break open the contest. Hershey’s Peter LeBlanc had a goal and an assist and goaltender Phillipp Grubauer registered 29 saves to secure the Bears sixth victory of the season.
RECAP
Sens will play a period they would like to forget as Hershey scored three quick goals in a span of 97 seconds. First up Casey Wellman from the right circle that doesn’t get picked up by the Sens defense. Nathan Lawson seemed to be distracted as Nathan Walker was sitting at his door step untouched. Hershey gets on the board right afterwards with Dmitry Orlov shooting from the blue line beating Lawson cleanly as Chris Wideman looks to have screened Nathan.
Then LeBlanc whips one in that Lawson should have had as it beats him glove side. Three shots, three goals. Bingo looks sloppy and not sharp and the defense didn’t help Lawson out. Sens will end the first going on the power play late in the period. Shots end up close 13-12 Bears.
Binghamton starts the second on the power play as it looks to forget that ugly first period. Nothing resulting as Sens can’t even muster a shot. Shane Prince gets a high stick to the face to go back on the power play as Stephane Da Costa finally registers a shot. Bears playing a solid defensive game as Bingo cannot get their mojo rolling. Shortly after Senators would go on their fourth power play and tries again. Bears Brandon Segal drops Mike Sdao into the corner boards hard and Darren Kramer steps in to fight Segal and gets some nice shots in. Advantage Kramer.
Bingo gets sloppy in their own end and can’t move the puck out and turns it over twice as Hershey almost capitalizes on the freebies but Lawson is there for the saves. Meanwhile, Grubauer is having himself a good game as he isn’t giving any rebound chances up. Finally, Bingo gets on the board as Mark Stone wins the face off to Matt Puempel and he unleashes a bullet past Grubauer’s glove side to cut the lead to two. Shots are 13-8 Hershey.
Onto the third as Senators need to get organized and tidy up two messy periods. Bingo makes things interesting as Stone scores assisted by Puempel and Lawson to make it a 3-2 game. Mike Hoffman and Da Costa is called off sides as they were deep leading to a 2-1 break. Then the heart breaker as Segal restores the Bears two goal lead from the right circle as his wrist shot beats Lawson who went down too early on the play.
The wheels start to fall off the wagon as Binghamton gets careless and undisciplined. Puempel bumps into Grubauer and gets the call for Hershey to go up on the man advantage. Soon after Sdao gets a boarding call leading to a two-man advantage for the Bears. Then Jean-Gabriel-Pageau takes a frustrated swing of his stick and gets the penalty for another 5-3 Hershey advantage. Bears would score as Julien Brouillette‘s slapper beats Lawson to make it a 5-2 lead. Shots for the period 14-11 Bears and for the game 40-31.
NOTES
– Andre Petersson had a bad night as he got bumped off of the puck easily. Da Costa was invisible and Lawson needed some defensive help in the first but this wasn’t his best effort tonight. Perhaps the back to back games aren’t the best decision for Nate as Andrew Hammond will go Sunday afternoon.
– Sens lacked emotion and played tired. They had some chances but Hershey was ready and set the game’s tone in the first.
– Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins won tonight over St. John’s to re-take first place in the East by two points over the Senators but we have a game in hand.
– Bingo will get another crack at it on Sunday and look to even up the back to back game series.
– Look for forward Jim O’Brien playing Sunday for his first game back since injuring his hamstring.
3 STARS OF THE GAME
- #1 LeBlanc (1g 1a)
- #2 Derek Whitmore (2a)
- #3 Segal (1g)
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HIGHLIGHTS
NEXT GAME
Sunday Afternoon vs. Hershey Bears