That Binghamton potent offense was where tonight?
The Albany Devils comeback and scored two goals late in the third for their third straight win 2-1 over the Binghamton Senators. The tight checking game kept the highest ranked offense held to a single goal after scoring seven in their previous outing and prevented Binghamton from advancing on their game in hand over the two teams breathing down their necks in their division. The loss halted the three wins in a row as the Sens now are off to Norfolk where they play back to back games to start the weekend and travel back to Albany on Sunday for a 3:00 game. Who made that schedule anyways?
GAME RE-CAP
Andrew Hammond starting his fifth straight while Scott Wedgewood with his third as Shane Prince hits the far post as he looked to have the beat down on Wedgewood. Wacey Hamilton gets a hooking call on Mattias Tedenby on his first shift of the evening to give the Devils a man advantage. Albany only manages one shot on Hammond as the Senators stingy defense kills it. Dan Kelly nails Mark Stone along the boards drawing the ire of Mike Sdao as Binghamton goes on their first power play with Harri Pesonen in the box for slashing.
Senators get a few looks towards the end of the man advantage but don’t accomplish much. Both sides don’t mount any serious threats as the game is mostly playing non stop as that was one of the quickest periods ever taking only 29 minutes to play. Sens lead in shots 9-8 for the 0-0 tie.
Let’s hope the second has a little more action but the tight checking tempo is still running its course as we remain scoreless. Hammond with the glove save on Pesonen while Binghamton hasn’t had a shot midway through the second. Even with the man advantage they don’t have a shot on net as Binghamton is failing to apply any sustaining pressure on Wedgewood.
Raman Hrabarenka hooks Matt Puempel for the call but Pumps would get sweet revenge as he scores while being parked to Wedgewood’s right for the goal from behind the net on the ensuing power play. That would be Binghamton’s second shot on net for the period so far and breaks Wedgewood’s seven period shutout. Senators almost made it a two goal lead with Hamilton’s attempted pass out front to Buddy Robinson is not successful as the Sens just missed a golden opportunity.
1-0 game heading to the third as Binghamton starts off on a golden five on three opportunity with Reid Boucher and Larsson in the box, but don’t get too many on net as Puempel’s two one timers sail off past the cage and Derek Grant and David Dziurzynski missing as well as Albany escapes. Devils start to take over and gets a power play goal that ties it as Boucher scoring his 17th with a quick wrist shot from the circle beating Hammond over his shoulder.
The Devils score their second less than five minutes later as the speedy Mike Sislo splits Pat Mullen and a diving Mark Borowiecki from a lead pass from Pesonen and shoots on Hammond beating him down low to take their only lead of the contest. Senators look to pull Hammond for the extra attacker but Dziurzynski has other plans and takes a dumb interference call on Pesonen with 1:51 left in the third with the game on the line. I’m sure Luke Richardson wasn’t happy with the call but nonetheless not a good move on Dizzy’s part. Senators don’t get a real good look playing five on five as the horn blows in the empty Albany arena to signal game over.
NOTES & OBSERVATIONS
- Senators manage just two shots on goal in the second. Two shots and they scored on one of them. Game had Albany with 28-19 as it took a grand total of 2:06 to complete.
- Puempel scored his rookie league leading 13th power play goal and his team leading 24th.
- Continued to not be impressed with Mullen. He was simply out-skated with Sislo blowing by him and scoring the game winner. I can’t think of anything else to say about tonight’s snoozer as that late call on Dizzy sent me off in a tizzy.
- One side note, Mike Hoffman was added to Binghamton’s playoff roster along with Cody Ceci but got word that Hoff would have to clear waivers in order to play for Binghamton. I like the new rule change that was applied in the lockout settlement as that was made to keep teams from stockpiling their farm once their NHL season was completed. Years past saw several big names just walk off from the NHL to the AHL without any ramifications as we saw in 2011’s championship year.
3 STARS OF THE GAME
- #1 Sislo (1g 1a)
- #2 Boucher (1g)
- #3 Puempel (1g)
HIGHLIGHTS
NEXT GAME
Friday Night vs Norfolk Admirals.
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Cover photo courtesy of Jeff Ulmer.