Hershey Bears Win Big In 5-1 Rout Over Binghamton Senators

There was no jump in this one as the Hershey Bears rout the Binghamton Senators on home ice by a score of 5-1. Casey Wellman had a pair of goals and an assist to lead the Bears as their defensive style of play shut down the Senators’ offense. Goaltender Scott Greenham (20 saves) took the loss as he looked shaky at times and wasn’t sharp.

GAME RECAP

Wellman makes good use of the first shot of the game for the Bears as he takes a short cross ice pass in front from Jim O’Brien and into the open net with Greenham caught out of position with his slow reaction time. Shane Prince shot from up close is hauled in by goaltender Philipp Grubauer as Hershey is playing great defensively.

The Bears strike again as Dustin Gazley carries the puck in and back passes to Chris Brown in the slot as his first shot is kicked back to him and buries it on the second attempt putting Hershey in front 2-0. Brown soon after has a chance to put his team up by three but instead rings it off the crossbar. Bears with a late power play but Buddy Robinson does what he does best in killing it off. Shots are 6-5 Sens.

More from Belleville Senators

Senators buzzing early to begin the second and go on the power play, but failed to score with some good looks on Grubauer. Wellman skates in along the wall on a four on two and elects to shoot and not pass and proves he made the right decision as the puck caroms underneath Greenham’s pad and in giving Hershey a 3-0 lead. That’s Wellman’s 19th and second of the night.

The rout is on as Wellman slap passes the puck across the ice setting up Tomas Kundratek‘s one timer and are successful on a Bears’ power play for a 4-0 affair. After the horn blares ending the period, Darren Kramer gets tangled up with Mike Moore and they drop the gloves with Kramer landing some rights and gets the take-down, finally giving the home fans something to cheer about and hopefully fires up his team for the third period.

With Kramer receiving the extra two for roughing, Hershey begins the third with the man advantage but fail to cash in. Then Binghamton finally gets on the board with Alex Guptill shooting into an empty net after receiving a back door pass from Robinson parked along the boards that fooled Grubauer. A minute and a half later Hershey adds to their lead making it 5-1 after Brown’s pass from the corner hits a skate in front and in by Greenham as Gazley gets credited with the goal. Shots end up in favor of Binghamton 29-25.

NOTES & OBSERVATIONS

Greenham allowed 2 goals on 5 shots in the first and didn’t look sharp all night giving up some juicy rebounds.
Max McCormick pounded away at JOB in a third period fight as O’Brien didn’t get a punch in as he’s not known to be a fighter, but Max is and word is getting out as he leads all rookies with 111 PIMs. O’Brien went to the locker room right after all bloody and didn’t return.
Guptill appeared to have injured his wrist as he fell awkwardly from a hit by defenseman Nate Schmidt in the second period and headed to the locker room, but returned in the third.
Big hole in the offense with both Matt Puempel and Colin Greening on re-call for Ottawa.
Alex Grant spotted in street clothes wearing some sort of air cast on his right leg.
Forward Matt Tassone was signed to a PTO from the Elmira Jackals and centered Guptill and Robinson on the third line. Looked okay, guess he’ll be staying with the team throughout the weekend.

B-SENS LINES

Forwards – Prince-Camper-Schneider, Dzingel-D Grant-Mills, Guptill-Tassone-Robinson, Kramer-McCormick-Thompson

Defense – Johnson-Mullen, Claesson-Lepine, New-Wideman

Out – Mike Sdao, Alex Grant and David Dziurzynski, injured.

UP NEXT

Senators travel by bus once again to Allentown, PA for another meeting with the Lehigh Valley Phantoms on Saturday.

*Cover Pic Courtesy of SenShot’s Photographer Alicia Strauch