Binghamton Senators Pre-Game Edition: Hershey Bears

Hershey returns for the second time in less than a week to face the B-Sens tonight at the Veterans Memorial Arena. The last game between the two rivals resulted in a 4-2 Bears win last Friday night. The Bears will look to earn their second win in a row just for the second time this season, as the Sens are riding a two season high four game losing streak and look to break that string as well. Binghamton is one point behind Wilkes-Barre/Scranton in the East and sits fifth in the Conference while the Bears are in 13th place in the same Conference.

(14-7-0-2) 30 pts

/?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter#sthash.eiDTkNPD.dpuf(8-4-0-0) 16 pts

2nd in East Division

VS.

(8-8-2-3) 21 pts

Last in East Division

B-Sens Projected Lineup

Forward Lines

Hoffman-DaCosta-Stone

Prince-O’Brien-Petersson

Dziurzynski-Grant-Schneider

Puempel-Pageau-Robinson

Defensemen

Borowiecki-Ceci

Sdao-Claesson

Blood-Wideman

Goaltenders

Lawson / Hammond

Scratches

Injured Reserve: Nathan Lawson, flu day to day.

Healthy: Tyler Eckford, Darren Kramer, Corey Cowick and Wacey Hamilton.

Notes & Observations

•  Casey Wellman, who got struck in the face by a puck on Friday from a shot by Chris Wideman, is wearing a face mask to protect his broken nose. The Washington Capitals reassigned rookie defenseman Patrick Wey as he made his NHL debut last weekend. Dmitry Orlov is still up with the Capitals.
• Lawson is banged up so Andrew Hammond will get the call. Local 19-year-old Scott Marean signed to an ATO, might back up Hammond if Lawson is not up to it.UPDATE: Binghamton have signed goaltender Rob Madore from the Cincinnati Cyclones to a player tryout contract.
• B-Sens have fallen to 8th place at 20.0% on the pp and the Bear’s register a 15.8%  for 19th place. Hershey sits on the pk in tied for 7th at 84.5% and Sens have fallen to 82.6% for 14th position but Derek Grant hopefully will help improve that.
• Binghamton is 7-3-0-2 at home while Hershey is 4-4-1-0 on the road. Bears have gone just 7-6-1-2 (.531) in games in which they’ve scored first while B-Sens are 10-2-0-1 (.808).
• This game needs to lean towards the Senators way as I hate losing like anybody else, but we have been playing in a funk lately by not keeping a lead, and in the process, kicking ourselves in the arse with costly penalties leading to opposing goals. Senators need to establish an early tempo and not let the opponent back in early on. Let’s not be sloppy with the passes, especially in the neutral zone, keep it out of our own zone which has been hard to overcome lately, and please stay out of the box and keep your trap shut on questionable calls, no matter how obscure the ref makes it out to be.
• On the power play, Stephane Da Costa needs to develop a different look as teams have now adjusted to his top circle one timer with a man planted on him. Work the puck down low and continue to set Matt Puempel up near the door ready to pounce on the rebound. Wideman has to add some finesse from his center blue line shot as well, just like Andre Benoit used to shoot from, feather that beauty in with traffic in front.
• UPDATE: The Ottawa Senators announced today they have re-assigned forward Mike Hoffman.

Three Cogs in the Machine

Hershey: Forwards Wellman (7g 6a 20gms) and Jeff Taffe (7g 6a 21gms), Defensman David Kolomatis (3g 8a 17gms).

Binghamton: Forwards Matt Puempel (7g 5a 23gms) and Mark Stone (4g 6a 12gms), Defensman Mark Borowiecki (Captain).

Head-to-Head Results

B-Sens and Hershey split their four games played with the Bears coming up on top 4-2 last Friday night.

B-Sens Tweet of the Day

Media Coverage

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