Penguins Chill Senators 4-1 Ending Win Streak

The Senators seven game win streak ends in the hands of the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins 4-1 in this late afternoon’s match up. The Pens took advantage of a rare low offensive output by a highly explosive club and shut them down as the Senators appeared sluggish after Saturday night’s emotional win in overtime against Syracuse. The B-Sens see their first place lead dwindle down to one point in the East over these same Penguins team when the opportunity was there to increase the division lead to five.

GAME RECAP

Sens and Pens underway when Chris Wideman gets the rare holding the stick call and the Pens go on the power play. Nathan Lawson doesn’t get tested much as the Pens aren’t organized. Mike Carman strips the puck off of Tyler Eckford and in the zone but can’t pull the trigger on Lawson. Harry Zolnierczyk tries a wrap around that pulls Lawson out of position but doesn’t finish. W-B/Scranton slight edge in play half way through the first.

Anton Zlobin drives towards the net but Lawson is there with the glove. Senators have a power play of their own but manages little as Penguins are aggressive on the kill. After Pens kill it, Zlobin shoots into the open net from a cross ice feed from Zolnierczyk and scores his second of the season to make it a 1-0 game. Lawson had no chance on the play as the defense wasn’t there to prevent the goal.

Mark Borowiecki nails Tom Kuhnhackl into the boards but Boro lucks out with the non-boarding call much to the ire of the home fans. It was a borderline call but either way the period winds down with no further action.

Second period sees Lawson getting stunned on a shot but he shakes it off. Mike Sdao stops Tom Kostopoulos‘s shot with his hand and immediately skates to the dressing room giving W-B/Scranton the extra attacker briefly in the Binghamton zone. Pens take that advantage as Nick Drazenovic fired a shot into the twine by Lawson’s stick side for a 2-0 lead.

Borowiecki’s face gets in the way of Pierre-Luc Letourneau-Leblond‘s stick and draws blood. Letourneau-Leblond receives a four-minute high sticking call as the Senators go on their third power play of the game. Boro appears okay on the play. Senators get their first goal of the afternoon when Cole Schneider gets the water bottle goal as he was all alone on Eric Hartzell. Matt Puempel fed him from the corner as Cole went top shelf knocking the water bottle to the ice.

Penguins regain their two goal lead soon after when newly called up Zack Torquato shooting the puck at Lawson from deep in the corner as it goes off of Lawson and in for a 3-1 lead. Period ends with a scrum along the boards as Darren Kramer and Dominik Uher drawing penalties to start the third.

Third period starts with each team a man down but nothing transpires as the Senators appear spent. The period’s lone goal came off the stick of Barry Goers as he scores his first for the Penquins in five games from the high slot near the circle to cushion the lead. His wrister beats Lawson down low as Lawson doesn’t look sharp today and neither do the Senators. 4-1 game the rest of the way out to end the Senators win streak. Shots for the game favored Wilkes-Barre 29-24.

NOTES & OBSERVATIONS

• Sdao didn’t return after getting hit with the puck and it doesn’t look good with the way he went off the ice holding his arm.
• Binghamton’s high-powered offense held to one goal for the first time in their last 15 games. The last time was when the Sens were shutout 1-0 to this same Penguin team in W-B/Scranton on Nov. 29.
• So far this season the Senators have seen two seven game win streaks sandwiched with a seven game winless streak in-between. Let’s hope this doesn’t start another seven game losing streak the way this has patterned out.
• Both club’s finished off a three game in three days weekend and getting four out of a perfect six points.

3 STARS OF THE GAME

• #1 Torquato (1g 1a)
• #2 Goers (1g 1a)
• #3 Hartzell (23 saves)

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HIGHLIGHTS

NEXT GAME

Wednesday Night vs Rochester Americans